I've been fortunate this season to have been invited to pick damsons from two different heritage damson trees in our wider area. It's been a good season, and people who have trees seem to have more than enough for their own use plus then some.
One of the trees is in an original settler orchard (now a farm paddock) in nearby Mapiu, the other is behind a farm homestead in Piopio. Fruit from this second tree was used by an Italian immigrant to New Zealand to make his grappa! It seems he also had a "still" back in the day.
I smile thinking about the history of these special fruit trees.
Not everyone knows what to do with damsons. They make incredibly delicious jam and fruit paste. Many people use them to flavour gin, but that wouldn't be me. I have put a stash in the freezer for winter Syrian Seven Spice Damson jam making sessions, but am also experimenting making a red wine damson vinegar. This inspiration came after sampling a friend's first batch. She'd made both red and white wine based versions following a recipe in Lynda Hallinan's wonderful book "Damsons From Hedgerow to Harvest." (We both preferred the red one, it was both sweet and tart if that can possibly be.)
The fruit is washed and chopped, then put into red wine vinegar for several days to macerate (one pint/two cups per pound of fruit). I didn't remove the stones, too time consuming. This is then strained through muslin/cheesecloth and boiled for ten minutes after adding sugar (with one pound of sugar per pint/two cups of juice). After cooling it is strained again and decanted into bottles.
I am at the second stage in this process right now:
The other wee experiment I've got going on at the moment involves making prunes from damsons, after reading recently from my friends at Country Trading that damsons are indeed a prune plum. Yes, this falls into the category of learning something new every day, doesn't it? I'd purchased a food dehydrator a few weeks ago in anticipation of this year's fig harvest. There are only so many figs one can bottle in spices and brandy, and I figured drying them with a dehydrator expands my options. If the test prunes taste good I may be making a larger batch of home-dried prunes as well.
I'm also saving stones from both trees to grow seedling trees to share with the community. This year I'm giving the one seedling tree I grew from "Grandpa's Grappa Tree" last season back to that family, while I managed to grow about six seedling trees from the Mapiu fruit. I'll plant one of those in our orchard and give the others away. Hopefully this year I'll manage to grow more of "Grandpa's Tree," for us and others. The stones are put into a plastic ziplock in the fridge with a few handfuls of compost to chill for 6-10 weeks, really until they start to split open and sprout. Then they're potted up to grow further.
It's special for me to have trees with an historical connection to the area growing here at Struan Farm and around the wider district, sharing them with people who appreciate that too.
You've now got a finger on the pulse! It's all happening here at Struan Farm.
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