damsons

Don’t forget our Fruit Map on WEN’s Website

| WEN Abundance

We have loads of locations plotted now – Apples, Blackberries, Damsons, Elderflowers, Pears and Plums, so go to this location to find them.

Happy hunting!

http://www.westealingneighbours.org.uk/abundanceMap.html

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Damson and plum Jam

| WEN Abundance

I made some damson and plum jam today, using some of the plums from Elizabeth that had failed to set in her plum jam. I was a bit hesitant about it setting so added the juice of 2 lemons to be on the safe side. I followed the recipe for the damson jam and again used around half the water in the recipe as I boiled the damsons/plums from frozen. The biggest amount of time spent is de-stoning the fruit! It is such a pain.

I am happy to report that the jam has successfully set although on tasting the sample it seems alot sweeter then the first batch of damson jam. Maybe it is the addition of the plums, or maybe my taste buds have changed!

Anyway the most important part is it’s 9 jars towards the stock we already have for the craft fair at St James, West Ealing on the 7th November. I have 6kg more of damsons to use so I reckon at this rate I will get around 27 more jars – that’s alot of damson jam!

damson Jam 

| WEN Abundance

4lbs (1.8kg) damsons

Quarter pint (145ml) of water (you do need to add water if fruit is frozen, or partially frozen)

4lbs (1.8kg) sugar

Juice of one lemon (not in this recipe, I added this in myself)

  1. Wash and wipe the damsons.  Pick over to remove stalks
  2. Put into a pan with the water (I actually didn’t put the water in at this stage as I wanted to see how much juice the damsons generated first) and simmer gently until the fruit is soft, occasionally pressing the damsons against the sides of the pan to break open and release the stones. Alternatively de-stone the fruit prior to adding to the pan
  3. Remove the stones (I would suggest you let the damsons cool down first)
  4. It now says on the recipe to test for pectin.  I admit missing this stage out and added the juice of one lemon when I added the sugar
  5. Add the sugar, stirring until dissolved.  DO NOT BOIL. This should take around 5 minutes
  6. Bring to the boil and boil rapidly for about 10 minutes (I timed it and it was 10 minutes) until the jam sets when tested. Be careful as the fruit will bubble furiously.
  7. Remove the remainder of the stones as they rise to the surface
  8. Remove the scum with a spoon, add a knob of butter after taking the pan off the heat
  9. Leave the jam to cool for around 10 minutes, this way you avoid the fruit settling at the bottom of the jar
  10. Pot and seal into sterilised jars while still warm

Makes around 6lbs (2.7kg) of jam