After a little while I stopped alongside an ancient hawthorn hedgerow, broken up with damson trees, probably the remnants of an old cottage or smallholding now long gone.
Some say that the Damson was brought back to England from Damascus in Syria By the Knights Templar after the Crusades in the Holy Land. Others argue that they arrived with the Romans.
Whichever is correct is inconsequential, but the humble damson has been put to use in the English countryside for countless years.
Jams, liqueurs and even dye have come from the damson. I don’t really have much of a sweet tooth, more of a leaning towards alcoholic beverages, so the first thing that came to mind when I saw these trees was ‘damson gin’.
A good old English country comfort for the cold nights of winter. My Grandparents used to make the stuff, and I still had the recipe.
So the following night, I went back to the spot and spent roughly twenty minutes collecting the dark blue fruits and popping them into an old plastic bag. I bagged 7 pounds of fruit, enough for almost a gallon of the dark liqueur.
Damson Gin and Sloe gin were both good old staples of Country Folk for hundreds of years. Sloes are the fruit (berries) of the Blackthorn bush, which seems to be in decline in recent years, probably due to a lot of the bushes being torn up and ploughed into the land in the name of modern intensive farming.
Here is a recipe for Damson Gin, sloe gin is made in a similar way, but sloes are bitter, so don’t use so much of this type of fruit. This isn’t an exacting science but the weights and measures I have given will produce great results. Leave the gin to mature once made. If you can keep your hands off it until Christmas you are on to a winner. Laying a bottle or two down for the following festive season is much much better.
1lb of damsons freshly picked from the tree (and excluding any livestock)
1 pint of gin
6oz of cane sugar.
Prick the damsons with the tines of a fork. Throw them into a kilner jar with a sealable lid. Add the sugar. Add the gin. Give it a good shake, and continue doing this once a day for about four days until the sugar has dissolved completely. Hide the jar somewhere dark for three months (or until Christmas). Decant, bottle and enjoy.
