yes it's the Ume plum season

it seems like this year is a great year of fruits here in sado. a friend of my dad's gave us about 15kg of Ume plum picked in her back yard the other day. and today kuzuhara-san let me pick their Ume plum at their yard. the two trees were both full of big plums although his family and a friend already had picked a lot before me. i ended up picking maybe 20kg of ume- thats a LOT :0

each of my parents pickled 4kg of ume to make umeboshi, my mom also made ume wine and syrup and I made jam a few days ago, then today i started making an enzyme drink.

whats in the drink?
8kg of ume plum
a bunch of young red pine leaves
7 or 8 bamboo shoots (peeled and cut into pieces)
dokudami plants
japanese pepper leaves
sugar (this is to extract nutrients and water from the above ingredients)

i put all these ingredients in a big bucket in rayers, put a wooden plate and a 10kg rock on top. im going to let this mixture ferment for a few weeks and strain it and make a condenced wild drink. this is totally experimental and i have no idea whats going to happen but i feel this is gonna be fantastic.

well ill let you know how its doing along the way.

pictures: 1. boxes of ume plums, 2. making of umeboshi/pickeld plum, 3. the jam i made, 4. the enzyme drink ingredients, 5. inside the enzyme drink bucket