Plum treats

Our land has this plum tree on it that produces every year quite a number of plums.  I discovered up on the edge of the bamboo forrest 2 more trees that need to be taken care of so they will produce in the future too.  These plums are now selling in the store for between 600 and 900 yen a kilo.   To the American this means a nice sweet fruit or if sour a great jam.  However, here in Japan it means pickles!  This is where they get the sour red plum(umeboshi) they put into their rice balls.  MIL puts these into a large container with vinegar and lets them set a year.  Most use salt instead, but she is trying to cut the salt intake. 

 For me I pick them green--I mean really green--(for umeboshi they are picked when turning yellow) and then have a recipe that I got from my student that makes the most delicious candied plums.   Last year I did this and my students turned out nice and crunchy but mine are kind of soft.  This year I am trying again to get the crunchy feeling ones. I used the natural salt and let them dry under a fan this year as that was the only difference between mine and hers!   We'll have to let them set in these jars over 3 months before checking.  They can set for  10 years and still be good.  If anyone requests the recipe I'll post it later.