Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Damson jam

A couple of weeks ago I spotted Damsons for sale at our local organic shop. (Yes it has taken me all this time to write about it sorry!). We do have a Damson plum tree but it is very small and a long way off fruiting, so I was thrilled to see Damsons for sale and promptly bought the lot!


These little tart plums are excellent for jams and sauces. They are definitely on the small side - almost the size of very large grapes, and as such it would have been a bit fiddly to try to remove the stones (I don't have an olive pitter, probably would be a good investment for next time!). Instead I just cut into the fruit before putting it in the pot, and spent a bit of time once the jam was set removing the stones prior to bottling. I used this recipe and made up several batches. I'm really pleased with the quality of the jam, it set really well and has a lovely dark colour and taste.




Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Busy bumble bees



Just sharing a couple of photos of a bumble bee. It is feeding on the flower of our native Hibiscus, which grows like a weed and forms a ground cover out the front here - it seems to love the stone we had put down when our driveway was formed. As you can see the bee is totally covered in dark orange pollen!


Here is the flower without the bee on it: