Preparing plums for canning, freezing and baking always takes longer than expected! Removing seeds one at a time is usually a tedious task. When working with more than a few pounds, it’s nice to know techniques for pitting plums faster. This one is so efficient, I use it every year!
But before we dive into this tutorial, we should talk about plum types. The variety does matter!
What Type of Plums?
This method will only work with freestone plums! Lucky for you and I, that’s exactly what most of our modern varieties are!
The exception is usually found among old fruit trees and cherry plum varieties. Unfortunately, you’ll have to use a different approach when removing their clingy pits. This method would only result in a mushy, sticky mess!
Preparation and Tools
First, be sure to wash your freestone plums. Discard leaves or stems. Grab a bowl for the pits and another for your pitted plums.
You’ll also need a wooden cooking spoon with a round handle. If you don’t have one in your kitchen, you can get a set of birch spoons here.
How To’s of Pitting Plums Faster
Take a clean plum in hand. Make sure the stem end is facing upward.
Push the end of your wooden spoon into the stem’s indent, forcing it through the length of your plum.
Every time, the seed will burst out the other side, leaving you with whole, pitted fruit! How easy is that?!
At first, this procedure may not seem any faster than halving the plums. It may take you several attempts to find your rhythm. When you do, it’s a sweet and beautiful thing! You’ll fly through pounds of plums in no time!
Once your fruits are pitted, you can freeze them for later use. Or, if you have a special plum recipe in mind, you can process them immediately in the waterbath canner!
I'm Autumn. Join me in the simple cottage life and learn how to keep a traditional kitchen, garden and pantry!
The metal straw technique is a slick way to remove the stones from freestone plums, so much quicker than pitting the plums by cutting in half. This works perfect for me as I was making Italian Prunes fruit leather, where I didn ‘t need to cut the prune in half before putting in to my extractor blender. I didn’t pit my Italian Prunes before I dehydrated them in the past. This method makes it so easy to pit them that it is worth the extra time to have stone free dhydrated Prunes.
I found smaller items that were straw size often missed the pit and were harder to manage. But the wooden spoon handle was the perfect size and hit the pit nearly every time! 🙂
So glad I found this! I’m going on holiday but have plums to cook & freeze! Saved me loads of time!
I used a metal straw, one of those bent ones & found it easier to grip. A word of warning though – be careful it does not stab your hand.
I also found that cutting a small slit in the plum on the opposite end helped to push the stone through.
Thank you Autumn, you now have a new subscriber.
I have a large grove of Wild Canadian Plums. These plums are about 1 inch wide and have a very large pit…not much flesh. My daughter’s father-in-law made larger the hole on a regular cherry pitter (about twice the size) and it works great for pitting these Wild Canadian Plums. I am not sure what he used to make the hole bigger but if you need to know you can email me and I will find out.
Esther
Wow, that sounds like a handy little tool! We do have lots of cherry plums here in our community, but I’ve only ever juiced them or used them to make fruit vinegar. 🙂
I didnt have a wooden spoon but i found that a metal stainsteel straw worked great
Thank you for the tip! I’m sure it will be helpful for others who are looking for ways to pit plums faster!
Thank you for that wonderful tip. I have a lot of metal straws But no wooden spoon small enough.I’m excited to try it now!
This is an amazing tip! Worked like a charm… thank you!!
Good stuff is meant to be shared!