More preservation

On the same day as I was collecting apples (see previous post), the beautiful wife was being visited by a friend who also happens to be a very talented artist (we have two of he paintings). The Artist has a damson tree in her garden so she arrived with two and a half kilos of damsons. I am a huge fan of this humble type of plum. They are not really edible straight from the tree but they have such depth of flavour once they meet heat, alcohol or sugar (or, indeed any combination of the three).
This is where free food is at its best. It is not necessary to have friends with lucky gardens. Damsons grown in our hedgerows they are often planted as part of a hedge for their ability to provide very good shelter from wind. They can be harvested, along with their friends the bullaces for a small investment of time. Also, in a good year, almost everyone who has a damson tree will be only to glad to give them away as they can be fantastically prolific.

Damson Gin in its early stages.

When I had begun to deal with the apples and was starting to diminish the bags I had been given I moved on the damsons.
A cheap bottle of gin was purchased and as many damsons as could fit were squeezed into my largest lever top jar. A healthy 100gms or more of sugar was added and then the whole lot topped up with the "Mother's Ruin". A few shakes over the following days made sure the sugar dissolved and I now have a jar of deep maroon liquid with fruit suspended in it sitting on my work table. It get a turn or two every evening and by the end of November, will be ready to strain off and pop back into its bottle. I plan to use the residue fruit in a late Christmas cake, or maybe I shall just eat them with ice cream.

Finished Damson Jam

This left me with quite a lot of damsons, as of yet unused. Not being one for waste, I got the sugar into action. My damson jam recipe is one of those that is mathematically very easy to work.

Damson Jam
A quantity of damsons
The same quantity of granulated sugar
85ml of water per kilo of fruit.

Put all the fruit, whole into a preserving pan and add the water. Bring to the boil and break up the fruit on the side of the pan. This should release the stones and they should rise to the surface. In truth this is a bit more of a faff than the cookbooks tell you but it can be done reasonably swiftly. i popped the stones in a sieve and forced the last bits of flesh off them with the back of a spoon. when all the stones are out add the sugar and stir in to dissolve. Boil the jam up to setting point and pot.