We had a wonderful sunny weekend in the Lakes with Mike and Nicky and brought home a large bag of very tasty damsons. I have never made damson jam so after a search I decided on a recipe and started first thing in the morning.

Mike picked the damsons very carefully so I didn’t have much to sort out, just a few stalks. The problem was – what to do with the stones. It wasn’t possible to take them out one by one, that would’ve taken ages so I put the fruit and water in the large jam-making pan and boiled it.

The stones didn’t rise to the surface so I had to sift them out, bit by bit. The only way to  manage that is to stop thinking about it and just get on. It worked. I was glad I decided to double the recipe, but even by doing that I’ve only used about two thirds of the whole bag of fruit. That was my morning job finished.

In the afternoon I started on the rest of the fruit, using a different recipe, spiced damson jam and that one is just as tasty as  the first one. I have used this recipe as a guide only because I didn’t sieve the fruit, I just removed the stones.

All was finished by six in the evening and I was worn out. But we have a lovely supply of jam.