I think our plum harvest is finally done. We got about 14.5kg, which is about three times our previous record for that tree. It is definitely a net contributor to the back garden economy.

On top of the recipes listed on Wednesday, I’ve now also added pickled plums and a plum chutney that took ages to render down but which turned out thick, sweet and dark – more like Dutch stroop than any chutney I’ve made before. Now I just need to leave that in the jars for a month or so to let the flavours mellow and merge.

I’m very pleased although I’ll hesitantly note that I’m rather relieved we’ve just got the one plum tree – if we add a second at some point, it definitely needs to be picked for a different harvest season than early July.