Damson Delights

We headed to Hertfordshire a few weeks back to visit family. Walking into the local town we found that almost every path way was lined with damson trees, dropping their fruit all over the place. The forager in me could not be contained and I had to pick a few. Then a few more... then about 12lb later we stopped. Most of the fruits were red but below is a mixture of the colours we picked. They were about the size of a massive supermarket "best" cherry. So what to go with our glut?

The first thing I did was to make a cake with the initial pavement pickings. I simply cut some damsons in half and lay them at the bottom of a cake tin. I then made a basic Victoria sponge mix and poured it on top. Turned over the result was delicious. A simple way to take any fruit and make a easy and impressive cake! The final few from the first forage Laura made into jam. We added a couple of unripe damsons and these would contain more pectin and help it set.

The main 12lb horde was bagged and boxed and brought back home to Sheffield. The first thing I did was to make some damson gin. Just by chance I had half a bottle of Gordon's finest sitting in the drinks cabinet. So in went some sugar, say enough to fill half and inch at the bottom of the bottle, and the damsons. Now normally you should prick the damsons and let them infuse the gin, that's what all my books say. I wanted to use the existing bottle so I cut them in half so they could fit and the results look good. Recent checks in the quality of taste has proved positive ;) This is going to be a great tipple in the winter.

Next is Rumtopf. We love rum and we love soft fruits. So it is very important to combine the both and make trifle for Christmas with it. It tastes great and gets you rather drunk if you are not careful. So we cleaned out our one of our good old ceramic Rumtopf jars and poured a whole bottle of rum in. Then damsons - lots - but not too much so any fruit pokes above the liquid. Finally a good sprinkle of sugar.

We of course need to eat some damsons there and then. You can't store them all. So Laura made a sticky-crusty crumble to keep me happy. The way to a man's heart...

Next chutney. Why pay for chutney in my cheese sandwiches over the next year when I can make it. Onions are needed as a base for my recipe and these home-grown organic winter onions are perfect.

The recipe: 1.4kg (3lb) damsons, 675g (1.5lb) apples, 450g (1lb) onions, 450g (1lb) sultanas, 38g (1oz) salt, 225g (0.5lb) white sugar, 1.15l (2 pints) white vinegar, 1 teaspoon all spice, 0.5 teaspoon mustard, 1 teaspoon ginger, 0.25 teaspoon cayenne, 0.25 teaspoon mace. Yield 5lbs.

I found this recipe had an excess of liquid and a pint or so had to be taken out as the chutney was very ready. Not sure why? Maybe some very juicy fruits.

Finally we ended up with many jars of chutney. Here are a few pictured with some of Laura's freshly baked bread. Yum!