Damson jam

I don’t know whether it’s because of or in spite of, the wet summer we had but my parent’s damson tree has gone into overdrive this year producing kilo after kilo of wonderful fruit. There’s something criminal about letting fruit go to waste so I rolled up my sleeves and got stuck into one of my least favourite kitchen tasks – jam making.

Let me clarify: I love jam. I just don’t like making it – I always get nervous as to whether it will set. The scene is usually as follows: once I put the jam in the jars I have to keep coming back to it, picking up a jar and inspecting it much like a wine taster looks at a glass of vino, and then tip it gently side to side to see if the elusive “set” has happened yet. Play that scene out about 100 times and that’s me making jam.

Autumn in a pan:

Here’s the jam cauldron bubbling away:

Damson jam is particularly beautiful in both taste and colour and keeps me coming back to try my jam making one more time!

The recipe can be found here in one of my earlier posts.

I did actually get a set (honest!) but was so cheesed off by my preserving insecurities that I forgot to photograph it. The jam looks pretty much the same as it did last year and the CCM and CCD (Caked Crusader’s Ma and Da) have taken all nine jars of it!