Damson Plums

The other day I arrived a little early for a visit with a parishioner.  I was in the Seward neighborhood so I moseyed over to Seward Co-op to have a look-see.  To my surprise, I discovered an entire bin of Damson Plums.

Several years ago, when I lived in RI, I used to buy Damson Plum jam jars by the case.  I love damson plum jam.  But I have not seen it anywhere in Minnesota.  When I saw the bin of damson plums, I granted myself a 100 mile leniency (more on this later) and envisioned homemade damson plum jam; I bought several pounds worth.  I was so caught up in making my own damson plum jam that I forgot that I would have to not only carry my bag of plums with me on my pastoral visit, but I would also have to lull them around on the bus ride back to church and haul them on my bike from the church to the house.

Oh well.

Yesterday I carved out a couple hours to make jam.  I thought it was going to be super easy, especially with our cherry pitter.

Not so, cherry pits are smaller than plum pits.  Alas, hand pitted plums.   

I looked online for several recipes but they were either too complicated or had too much sugar.  So I improvised.  A pot of cut up plums (with skins), a little less than two cup of sugar, about a half cup of water, and began cooking.  When I thought it looked like jam I stopped cooking, jarred the jam, then placed the jars in boiling water for 10 minutes.

 

reaction from my youngest.  This isn't good, it's delicious!!!