A gin update and the final figures!

As the recipe for the damson gin said, shake every day for a week. Day 4 through to day 7 the colour becomes darker and cloudier as the sugar, fruit and alcohol does their thing!

The stash has now been “put to bed” in the cool, dark garage.

Watch this space - later on in the year it will be filtered and then left to settle in time for the Christmas holidays.

Finally the damson harvest figures … I knew it was going to be a good year but this was beyond anything I'd had in previous years. Indeed for the last couple it had been sparse and hardly worth harvesting at all.

I'm glad that I decided to keep a check on how many kilos of fruit I picked. It made sense to bag it in kilos – it made life easier whichever recipe I chose. Thank goodness I have like minded friends who were delighted to receive a small gift – the total came to 28kgs! That total does not include windfalls - I could not keep pace since the weather took over and storms and strong winds won – it would have been more.

I now have a stash of jam, ready to deliver when I can. A freezer full of roasted damsons to use as the mood takes and a supply of Asian plum sauce for stir fries too.

I love it when a plan comes together!

The back catalogue – a diversion

Before I continue with more easy, make ahead al fresco picnic ideas I'm interrupting myself – I've been overtaken by events … the damson harvest.

To recap damsons are tiny sour plums too bitter to eat like you would a plum - but they do make great jam and other stuff too.

You have to be quick – those that fall - “windfalls” are easy prey for the wasps and bruise. The last good harvest was way back in August 2017 the yield has been so poor since there weren't enough to make a batch of jam or anything much else for that matter.

This year the tree is heaving and with the hot weather and intermittent storms I don't want to risk losing them.

Here's the tree :

Now is the time I'm grateful for my back catalogue stash of damson recipes!

The damsons are early this year. As a test run I picked a kilo of fruit the first week in August, left the damsons spread out on kitchen roll to ripen a little more and then begin cooking. If I had a tip at this early stage it would be to choose a recipe/dish that takes a kilo of damsons. You'll get fed up very quickly with looking at heaps of damsons. Bag them in kilos and fridge.

I began with my favourite damson recipe – roasting them. I halved the following recipe which took no time at all.

Roasting damsons

2kg plums – halved and stoned – prepped as suggested

150 caster sugar

Pre heat your oven 200c/180fan/Gas 6.

Toss the plum halves in the sugar and place in a large roasting tray – the one I used measures 42x30cms and 2.5cms deep.

Roast for 25/30 minutes until the fruit is soft.

Cover and leave to cool before using.

Cooking is personal - there are heaps of damson recipes out there but for me roasting suits my purpose since a crumble or a pie base is very popular in my house. They freeze well too so no waste!

Next up a couple of photos and the jam.