There is hardly anything better than a perfectly ripe, firm, and juicy plum. I know peaches tend to get all the glory, but when it comes to pure flavor, plums cannot be beaten.
And whether you’re harvesting your own, bringing some in from the farmers’ market, or hauling in a carton from your local grocery store, you better enjoy them fast because they just aren’t made to last. Except, that is, if you know how to store them for maximum shelf life…
I’ve got 6 proven and clever ways to do just that below, so you won’t have to rush and eat your plums within days.
Always Store Clean, Firm, Undamaged Fruit
We will get right to the list of storage methods, but before we do, I have to remind you to only try and store clean, ripe plums that are in good shape. These just below won’t do:
Any you plan on storing should be gently washed and then thoroughly dried prior to storage in order to prevent mold. Any dirt or other contaminants can promote spoilage in storage, and even leftover moisture can do the same.
Also, pick perfectly ripe plums, that’s to say, ones that are ripe enough to eat out of hand but still good and firm. These will always store best and last the longest.
You should never store or preserve any damaged fruit that is mushy, discolored, or already going soft. It’s going to end in disaster and disappointment, and you’ll have wasted your time. Worse, it might spoil other, fresh plums in the same package!
Remember that, and all of the following methods will work perfectly. Okay, let’s look at that list.
Refrigerate
- Shelf-Life: 1 to 2 weeks.
The easiest and quickest way to preserve your plums is simply to pop them in the refrigerator. Doing that will extend their edible shelf life up to one, or possibly two, weeks. Note that they will last longer if they’re uncut and the skins are intact.
Considering that most fresh plums will only last for a couple of days once they are ripe, this is a big improvement…
Still, you’re only going to get a longer life of two weeks if you aren’t opening and closing your fridge constantly. If your house is anything like mine, that is an impossibility!
That’s because letting in light and condensation due to temperature changes will accelerate spoilage despite the lower temperature.
If you have a secondary fridge out in your garage or in your storeroom, that’s the perfect place to store your plums until you are ready to eat them.
Freeze
- Shelf-Life: Up to 12 months.
Most fruit freezes wonderfully if you properly prepare it, and plums are no different. Do it right, and they’ll keep up to a year in storage and will be delicious and sweet the entire time. This also makes them a perfect ingredient for smoothies and shakes.
To properly freeze plums, you should pit them and peel them at your preference, then cut them into slices or small segments. You may optionally blanch them to improve color retention and flavor.
Once that’s done, either place them into an airtight container or freezer bag in a single layer, or place them on a baking sheet and then pop them into the freezer.
If you use the baking sheet, once they’re frozen, solid transfer them into another container (see above vid). For any other containers, you can pack them densely in order to save more space once they are completely frozen. That’s it!
If you don’t want to mess around with more sophisticated or labor-intensive methods and enjoy your plums throughout the year, freezing is the only way to go.
Can
- Shelf-Life: 12+ months.
If you know how to can food at home and you have all the equipment you need, plums are absolutely wonderful when preserved as a jam.
They stay sweet, juicy, and tender, and that makes them perfect for eating right out of the jar, as a side dish, or using in recipes for any number of desserts. You can even pickle them if you want to. Hey, don’t knock it ‘til you try them: pickled plums are truly delicious!
The trick with canning is that you have to know what you are doing and you must follow your chosen recipe to the letter. This is no time for improvisation.
Botching the process can lead to spoilage and potentially food poisoning, though this is rare as long as you are careful. The good news is that you can expect your canned plums to last at least 12 months in a cool, dark pantry!
Dehydrate
- Shelf-Life: 6 months.
Dehydrating plums turns them into prunes, and despite the negative connotation, they are super tasty and a great way to get much-needed fiber into your diet. And, compared to many kinds of fruit, plums dehydrate readily and easily.
You have a couple of options for dehydrating your own plums at home: far and away the best, most reliable, and most effective method is to use a food dehydrator.
Pitting the plums and then loading them onto the trays before popping them into the dehydrator for several hours is all that it takes, and requires very little work.
Another way is to dehydrate them in the oven, although this needs regular checking and a little bit of improvisation if your oven cannot be set to a very low temperature.
It’s also possible to dry out plums using nothing but the power of the sun, too, if you have favorably dry conditions. This can’t be done everywhere, or at all times of the year, though.
However you dry them, as long as you protect them in an airtight container, keep them safe from humidity and out of direct sunlight, they should last for about 6 months.
Freeze-Dry
- Shelf-Life: Lasts for years!
The most technologically sophisticated way to preserve plums also guarantees you the ultimate shelf life: years on end!
Freeze-drying is a unique method of preservation because it removes basically all moisture from food by freezing it and then placing it in an airless vacuum chamber. At this point, the ice will undergo sublimation, changing from a solid directly to a gas.
Food that’s processed in this way keeps nearly the entirety of its nutritional value, its original shape, and a ton of flavor. Dehydrated plums are ready for eating as a unique snack, or they can be reconstituted and used in other recipes you’re already familiar with.
The disadvantage with freeze-drying, aside from the major textural change, is the fact that residential freeze-drying equipment remains quite expensive.
Unless you are preparing lots of food for a long-haul survival situation, it might not offer much in the way of practical benefit compared to freezing or canning.
Root Cellar
- Shelf-Life: 1 to 2 weeks.
This old-fashioned method of food preservation is coming back in a big way for homesteaders, and with good reason! In the right environment, a properly designed and situated root cellar can extend the life of fresh produce by weeks or months.
Cellars create a low-temperature and humidity-optimized environment for storing produce and other foods using no electricity by taking advantage of the insulating power of soil.
In the case of our plums here, assuming your root cellar stays cool, you can expect your plums to last about as long as they do in the refrigerator, anywhere from 1 to 2 weeks.
Note that you don’t necessarily need a full-size, walk-in cellar to gain these benefits, either: plenty of folks make use of root cellar principles using a buried trunk or bucket that will maintain a constant temperature.
We’ve talked a lot about root cellar design (such as depth) and maintaining the conditions inside of them (such as temperature), so make sure you check out those articles out.
Tim is a farm boy with vast experience on homesteads, and with survival and prepping. He lives a self-reliant lifestyle along with his aging mother in a quiet and very conservative little town in Ohio. He teaches folks about security, prepping and self-sufficiency not just through his witty writing, but also in person.
Find out more about Tim and the rest of the crew here.