Squished plums.

In my mind there are few jams that are nicer than damson. It's such an old fashioned jam but, talking to my customers, it seems that all but the hardiest of jam makers won't bother with it.
Because of the stones.

Many of my older customers prefer the stones being left in & claim the resulting jam is tastier. Personally I can't tell the difference and I hated it when my mum made it because she left the stones in & I couldn't be bothered picking them out.

I have to confess it was a dilemma when I first started making it a few years ago though. There was no way I wanted to sit de-stoning the kilos of fruit we collected!

I finally came up with the following method which works just as well on small wild plums and cherries.

Damson Jam
You will need:
Damsons (or wild plums)
Sugar
water
2 large pans
colander

Add your fruit (fresh or frozen*) to a large pan and add sufficient water to just touch the bottom of the fruit on the top layer.

Bring to the boil and simmer gently for a few minutes until the fruit is soft.

Leave to cool to a temperature comfortable enough to handle with your hands.

Tip the fruit & water into another pan through a colander then, using your hands, begin to squeeze the fruit through the colander (I use a kneading motion, like making bread). 

Wild yellow plums

This will ensure you get some skins in with your pulp but very few stones. If you prefer no skins use a sieve instead of the colander.

Continue until just the stones and some skins are left. Make sure all the fruit pulp is scraped off the colander and pick out more skins if you have a preference (I love them, they add 'fizz' to the jam).

Now measure the amount of pulp in the pan.

Damson pulp

You will need equal quantities of sugar to pulp. Here I had 2 litres of pulp so added 2kg of sugar.

Bring the contents of the pan to a boil, stirring from time to time until a roiling boil is reached.

Damson Jam coming to a rolling boil.

There is usually quite a lot of foam with damsons. This can either be skimmed off if you find it unsightly or adding a knob of butter will help disperse it. Sometimes it can be stirred evenly through the jam once it's off the heat. This particular batch was very foamy so I skimmed it but the yellow plum only had a small amount which I stirred in once it was off the heat.

Continue to boil until setting point has been reached then pour into sterilised jars and cover with lids.

2kg of damsons, with the sugar, will make approximately 7llb of jam.

*damsons, plums & cherries are excellent to freeze