65. Damsons and Gin
There is a lovely community orchard in Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park, the green space surrounding the Imperial War Museum in London, SE1. The GMHP was originally opened in 1934 after the land was gifted by Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere to the 'splendid struggling mothers of Southwark' in memory of his mother, and is a very popular community space in that part of London.
The Orchard was planted towards the back of the park in 2003, on the site of an old Lido. It has an interesting selection of fruit trees including apples, crab apples, pears, plums, quinces, loquats, olives, cherries, persimmons and mulberries. There is a hazelnut hedge to one side and a bed with herbs and a variety of soft fruit (strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, blueberries) along the boundary on the other side. The local community help themselves to the trees and fruit.
We have walked our dogs in the park for many years, and have been regular foragers in the orchard, filling spare dog poo bags with fruit on our daily rounds. My favourites are the damsons, greengages and medlars. Walking in the park this week we found the greengage trees filled with green parakeets and not much fruit left, but the damsons are prolific this year and perfect for picking.
In our early foraging years we would make a lot of jams, jellies, spiced fruit and chutneys, but found that our friends and family were reducing their consumption of those. So instead we switched to various types of fruit in hooch instead: raspberries in vodka, blackberries in whiskey, blueberries and bay leaves in gin, cherries in brandy …… all delicious and far more popular than the preserves. So the destination for the damsons this year is damson gin.
The best Fruit in Hooch recipe books are the River Cottage Preserves (No 2) by Pam Corbin and the River Cottage Booze (no 12) by John Wright, with their dedicated sections on alcoholic drinks. Their sloe gin recipes can be adapted for damsons with simple ingredients : damsons, sugar and gin, and the same principles can be applied to many other fruit / spirit combinations.
The steps towards damson gin are relatively straightforward:
1) Sterilize the container you are going to use - in my case a Demi-John bottle with a tight-fitting rubber cork. The easiest way to clean the inside of the glass is with dry rice (enough to cover the bottom) and some cold / lukewarm water, swishing it round and round until the glass is clear. Rinse it out and then sterilize it using Milton, Dr Johnsons or a similar sterilizing liquid / tablets, rinsing thoroughly again in hot water once that is done.
2) Prepare the damsons by removing all leaves and stalks, and pricking them all over. I use an embroidery needle to do this - it is a labour of love!
3) Add the damsons to the Demi-John. Each one needs to be added individually because of the size of the neck.
4) Use a funnel to add the sugar to the Demi-John (there is a lot of sugar !)
5) Use the funnel to pour the gin into the Demi-John.
6) Seal /cork the bottle and shake / turn it thoroughly to dissolve the sugar in the gin. It will take a few days of regular turning to dissolve it completely.
For the first 10 days you will need to turn the bottle daily. It is important that all the sugar is dissolved in the mixture.
For the next 8-10 weeks you will need to do weekly turning / tasting until the gin has reached the required damson fruit intensity. At this point you can strain the mixture, separating the gin from the damsons and decant the gin into separate (sterilized) bottles. I save my old gin bottles specifically for this.
Note that the gin soaked damsons can be eaten, and are delicious with ice cream or used in a baked fruit tart. Just remember to watch for the stones.
For the next 12-18 months: you should store the bottled gin in a cool, dark place until the gin has matured. This batch of damson gin should be ready for Christmas 2022.
There is something very satisfying about foraging fruit from unexpected places and using it to make something delicious to share with family and friends. The orchard in GMHP has provided many happy additions to our meals over the years: chutneys, crab apple and medlar jellies, quince and damson cheese, mulberry jam, bottled plums, greengages and damsons. And of course all that fruit in hooch. I’ll add more images showing how the damson gin is progressing over the next few weeks.