Removing stones

[FamilyWiggs]

Sorry but depsite the title, this is wildly off-topic. However, I'm sure that within PPUK's collective "traditional" wisdom, someone will know the answer.

I'm about to turn some of this year's surfeit of damsons in to wine. This is a new undertaking for us (except for a very dubious attempt at homebrew as a student ). The recipes I have looked at suggest removing the stones first. Do I really need to de-stone twenty tons of damsons? What happens if I don't?

Also, we're making jam and chutney. Any other good ideas for our damson mountain?

If anyone would like some stones to grow, I have plenty from delicious and very productive trees. Just PM me your address and I'll post some to you.

 

[skier-hughes]

I have 5 gallons of damson wine fermenting at the moment.
All skins and stones in.
The recipe I'm following tells me to strain it all shortly and then leave to finish fermenting.
As I have a large muslin net for my cider making I'll be using that.

My search for how to remove stones from damsons led me to this item, a cherry/olive pitter
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MasterClass-Deluxe-Cast-Cherry-Pitter-Olive-Stoner_W0QQitemZ360125874621QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Kitchen_Accessories?hash=item53d92cc1bd&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Which does a great job, but it does take a while.

I've used it on the damsons I've sued for making jam, as removing the stones from the bubbling jam is a long drawn out process and sitting for 1/2 hour watching a bit of tv while I did 4lbs wasn't too bad.

 

[MdB]

1) Soak in water for 24 hours to get the maggots out.

2) Prick damsons with a fork.

3) Place damsons (with stone) inside bottle.

4) Cover with lots of sugar.

5) Fill bottle with gin.

6) Leave....

7) Strain result into new bottle.

8 ) Drink...

You don't end up with wine but it is very very nice...

 

[JoceAndChris]

Any other good ideas for our damson mountain?

This is what my favourite book -my granny's- has to say about damsons. (Cookery Illustrated and Household Management Elizabeth Craig, 1936.) I think it would be nice to have these preserved damsons with cream and cake for afternoon tea, or with muesli for breakfast. You could also use these preserved damsons as a base for a duck sauce, (so that you'd have a damson sauce instaed or a cherry or orange), or just use a jar of damsons in port from my last recipe, with duck or game.

" Preserved Damsons

Let the damsons be well picked, and quite free from bruise or blemish. Allow 1/4 lb. of castor sugar to each lb. of fruit. Put the fruit in large jars or bottles, sprinkle the sugar in, then stand the jars in a boiler with water reaching well up them. Bring the water gradually to the boil, and simmer until the fruit is soft, but not broken, then take the jars out and strain the juice straight away. Put the juice in a pan to boil for 15 minutes, then strain it through flannel and pour it over the fruit, either in the bottles it was cooked in or small jars- the latter is best. When cold, cover as described for jam on page 473.

page 473 -on sterilising jars and covering jam or preserved fruit

It is very important that the jars into which the jam is poured for keeping be perfectly dry. It should be made a rule not to pour the jam in on the day that they are washed. Let them be washed the previous day, well wiped, and then dried in front of the fire or on the rack, then covered with cloths to keep the dust out until they are wanted. If the least trace of moisture, or even dampness, is in the pots, the jam will turn mouldy.
When the jam is cooked, remove it from the fire or gas ring and let it stand a few minutes before potting. Pour it into the dry, warm pots and label them with the name and the date. Use scew-on tops, or parchment covers dipped in water and tied securely down. A special tissue paper top, usually sold with the parchment covers, should be laid on top of the jam before covering. It is important not to fill the pots too full. Store in a dry, airy cupboard.


Damson Cheese

The pulp must be obtained from the fruit without the skins. One method is to bake the damsons until the skin just cracks, then take each one separately and peel it. The peel comes off quite easily. Another way is to put them into a preserving pan, and stir them until they are soft enough to rub or beat through a coarse sieve.
Put the pulp into a preserving pan with 3/4lb. of loaf sugar to each lb. of pulp ; or 1lb. of sugar if preferred quite sweet. Stir the sugar well in, simmer for one hour, then boil quickly for about 20 minutes. Pour into jars, and when cold, cover as described for jam on page 473. The flavour can be improved by cracking half the stones, blanching the kernels and adding these when the cooking is half completed. "

Much as I hate to jump into the 21st century, here's a modern recipe I've tried with plums, I can't report what it's like yet as it's got to settle and mature for a minimum of 2 months. I certainly didn't mess about removing stones.

Amy Willcock's Fruits steeped in liqueurs

Make these wonderful preserved fruits when they are in season -most will be ready for Christmas. For each 500g of fruit you will need 220ml water and 220g unrefined sugar.

Peaches in Brandy
Strawberries in White Rum
Oranges in Cointreau
Plums in Brandy
Nectarines in Amaretto
Cherries in Kirsch
Damsons in Port
Raspberries in port

1. First choose perfect ripe fruit. Wash it and wipe. in the case of fuzzy fruit, rub the fuzz with a clen tea towel.
2. Weight the fruit and measure out the sugar and water. Put the sugar and water into a saucepan and bring to the boil for 2-3 minutes. Add the fruit to the stock syrup and return to the boil and cook for 4-5 minutes. (Berries do not have to be boiled, just pack them into jars and pour in the syrup and alcohol)
3. Pack the fruit into sterilised wide-mouthed jars using a slotted spoon and pour in the hot stock syrup so the jar is half-full. Top up with chosen liqueur to fill the jars within 3cm of the top. Seal and store in a dark place for a minimum of two months.


Sorry, Robin, that I can't answer your stones question more specifically. But I'd love to have a Wiggs damson tree here, I'll PM you the address. Can't think what I could give you in return, unless you'd like some chicks in the Springtime!

 

[Flyfisher]

It seems to have been a good year for damsons but not victoria plums (on our trees anyway) so we've been gorging on the damsons instead.

I may use any leftover for MdB's damson gin idea (have only made sloe gin before).

 

[JoceAndChris]

Mmmm, MdB's recipe sounds lovely.

Our plums have been fantastic this year - but not last year. Fruiting is heavily dependent, of course, on the amount of effort you put into your orchard. The trees need to be pruned and fed at the correct time, and netted to prevent the birds swooping and taking the lot just as it ripens. Mine didn't get that kind of care, but I did make sure to remove all the bindweed from the area so the trees weren't as choked this year.

Aaaargh, 7 trees laden with apples right now, and I just haven't time...

 

[skier-hughes]

Last year we had a late heavy frost, killed the damson, plum and greengage blossom, so we had virtually nil in the way of fruit.
This year a lovely spring has meant lots of all 3.

Whereas last year I was picking 40lb of apples per day, the very high widns while blosson was on, or blown off has meant not 40lbs in total this year.

Damson gin and damson wine both take a good year to mature, so the above recipe, blah di blah drink is a bit simplified

 

[Feltwell]

Last year we had a late heavy frost, killed the damson, plum and greengage blossom, so we had virtually nil in the way of fruit.
This year a lovely spring has meant lots of all 3.

Whereas last year I was picking 40lb of apples per day, the very high widns while blosson was on, or blown off has meant not 40lbs in total this year.

Damson gin and damson wine both take a good year to mature, so the above recipe, blah di blah drink is a bit simplified

Yep, we're exactly the same as you Graham - but seeing as how I'm only a few miles down the road from you, that's not too surprising. We've had loads of damsons this year, and the poor plum and greengage trees (which were being throttled by Russian Vine when we moved in) have produced fruit for the first time. But the bramley apple tree has had next to nothing on it, whereas last year we had a huge excess of fruit.

 

[Flyfisher]

Fruiting is heavily dependent, of course, on the amount of effort you put into your orchard. The trees need to be pruned and fed at the correct time, and netted to prevent the birds swooping and taking the lot just as it ripens. Mine didn't get that kind of care, but I did make sure to remove all the bindweed from the area so the trees weren't as choked this year.

There's not much care going into our fruit trees I'm afraid. although I did cut down a tree last winter that was over shadowing the plum trees and thought this might benefit the yield. Perhaps all the new light went into new growth? Oh well, there's always next year.

 

[GeoffP]

I gave up making wine about 30 years ago after drinking all kinds of lethal and disgusting brews and realized that I couldn’t match the commercial brands in the new (then) supermarkets which were reasonably cheap at the time. I could also drink this right away instead of waiting about 2 years for mine to become drinkable (or usually not?). Although, I remember that a cocktail of damson wine, vodka and lemonade was quite refreshing.

While clearing out an old barn recently, I found a bottle of what I think was damson wine which must have been over 30 years old. It had become a honey colour and looked a little syrupy. Needless to say that, after a bit of sniffing and deliberation, I risked poisoning myself by having a glass and found it to be quite palatable, tasted a bit like a full bodied sweet sherry. I don’t think I have the patience to wait for another batch though.

Geoff

 

[skier-hughes]

I have a 1969 potato wine and a 1974 wheat wine, made by the previous owners of the house.

Not sure whether to keep them for posterity and add a botle each year, or celebrate the opening of the kitchen with a taste of one of them!!!!!!

 

[Cloudscape]

Not exactly gourmet-style, but I slit the damsons, chuck 'em in a pan with some sugar, stew them and then seive them. The result is great with apples and custard, or ice cream. It looks like I'm storing blood packs for a vampire in my freezer, because I keep this stuff in bags. If you put it through muslin to get a clear liquor, you can mix that directly with gin (so I'm told :roll: ). Locally, people make damson jam with the stones left in. All of which has not a lot to do with making wine. The skins and the stones are where most of the bitterness is... is that true?

 

[biffvernon]

The fun thing about fermenting damson wine in a demijohn without removing all the stones is that one stone will get itself lodged in the bubble valve on top causing a blockage. Pressure builds until it is released by bplowing top off follwed by a shower of teh beautiful red stuff distributing itself over the ceiling.

 

[Moo]

You will, of course, save that one up for when the A-Z reaches D, won't you?

 

[Flyfisher]

Sounds more like an entry for "Graham's Top Tips".

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Fantastic guys - what a wealth of experience on here!

I'm certainly going to give Moo's recipe a go, and maybe some of Joce's 1936 ones.

Think I will leave the stones in. Just waiting for t'internet sprytes to deliver my new winemaking paraphernalia - hopefully tomorrow. Exciting.

Meantime, I think I'll have another slice of damson cobler and ice cream!

We only have damsons and gooseberries here. Have planted some pears (and Graham's oaks he sent to me). Think I need to start planning the apple orchard and plums too. And possibly some greengages as I loved them as a kid. Hopefully in a couple of decades we'll be getting good crops and 50 years plus form now they'll all be thanking me for my fruit trees. Something quite warming about that thought.

If Biff is right, perhaps I should also be planting olive trees?

 

[JoceAndChris]

Happy to oblige, and yes, this forum is full of people with curious and wonderful stashes of knowledge (not from me usually. )

You're onto a winner with planning plums and apples, but my thinking about the orchard is that it should contain fruit trees that give you fruit you can't readily buy. So I'd really be looking towards old-fashioned non-commercial varieties, and trying to get hold of medlars, mulberries (mulberries are so fragile no supermarket has them), maybe even saskatoons or seaberries. http://www.pickyourown.org/unusualfruits.htm

 

[worms]

Pretty sure I have seen both medlars and mulberries on the Dobies website (at what is probably the appropriate season).

Any idea what the climatic requirements are for mulberries? Can they cope with a decent frost?

 

[Flyfisher]

I've got no real idea about the best conditions for Mulberry trees but our old and very rambling tree seems to thrive here.
It's quite difficult to pick the higher mulberries so this year I tried a different approach - don't tell the 'elf & safety police though!

 

[worms]

I thought you were meant to wait for the mulberries to come to you? ie laying a sheet under the tree and collecting them as they fell.

Another useful thread might "101 uses for a fore-end loader"...