Damson recipe ideas please.

I was told by my parents that they came from Damascus and were brought by St Paul. (which is somewhat suspect as I doubt if St Paul ever got as far as Britain!!!).
The Lyth Valley damson fair is worth a visit if you're holidaying in Cumbria.

Damsons were introduced to Britain by the Romans and they did come from Damascus .
The Rimans brought many things to Britain and were pleased by the way that they grew in our climate .
These early damsons were smaller and remains of them were found at archaeological digs around the UK .

Damson ketchup is fabulous.

Esmay

Damsons were introduced to Britain by the Romans and they did come from Damascus .
The Rimans brought many things to Britain and were pleased by the way that they grew in our climate .
These early damsons were smaller and remains of them were found at archaeological digs around the UK .

Oh that is interesting. I shall drop that into my conversation 😄😄

Just had a thought - are you sure this tree you found on Public land ---- was actually on public land and not growing in someone's hedge?
My family were farmers and we had damson trees growing in our hedges dotted around all over the place. It was a huge part of the farmers income many many (perhaps 80) years ago though not these days so I don't suppose the farmer would mind you picking them.
We used to sell them direct to Hartley's jam makers who came round in lorries and collected them, in boxes holding a score.
A score weighed 20lbs, we also sold them direct to the public at the farm gate by the lb or what ever weight was required.
Doesn't bear thinking about, but we children actually sat, on our own at the farm lane end, with a set of scales and a box of money and a trailer of damsons and sold them to passing motorists during the school holidays.
You wouldn't let your children do that now would you?

The tree was definitely on public land, within a small car parking area. The fallen fruit was rotting on the ground so I couldn't let the intact fruit go to waste. It was too high up to have been peed on by dogs too! The only negative was that I happened to be wearing white trainers so the soles became encrusted. Thank goodness they were Skechers which survived the washing machine as always.

ExDancer and Whitewavenark -
It's an interesting bit of our history .
The Romans brought many of our fruits here including apples and pears .
They might have brought cats to control
rodents and rabbits to eat .
Until Roman times chicken wasn't always considered a meat .

I did plant another damson tree but it finally fruited this year and they seem to be normal plums so I'm very disappointed. May try again though as I don't think you can ever buy the now, fresh or tinned.

We have a couple of prolific damson trees in our garden. Jam and apple and damson crumble are the most adventurous dishes I have made. I think DD would like damson vodka. I have never made anything like that. Is it easy?

I always freeze fresh fruit that I am making into jam especially with stones . Once defrosted the stones are easy to squeeze out cleanly . I blitz the pulp with stick blender . Then I only use jam sugar as there is enough liquid to make the jam without diluting the taste . Been doing it this way for over 10 years .

Made 6lbs of plum jam on Wednesday.

I have a tree in my garden. I eat them as they ripen, but at this time of year there is a glut, so my recipe is to share with friends and neighbours.

A further arrival of damsons in my local greengrocer has prompted me to find abrecipenfor damson ketchup as mentioned above. I have just bottled it and can confirm it is irresistable!
Thanks for the tip!