Awesome Vikki, lovely when things just come together like they were meant to be:-)

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Great Sylvia, so happy that my jam recipe has reached your shores:-)

Hi from New Zealand. The birds got our first crop but I was onto it last year and made some lovely jam. I have beaten them again this year too. The pits were a hassle last year but I will try the microwave and whisk this year.

Hi Judith, great to hear from the other side of the world! I have the same problem with my cherry tree but am left with zero fruit:-)

Hi Lee, as your stones didn’t yield much flesh I’m assuming they were a different variety of damson to what I used, perhaps a Merryweather which is the sweetest of the Damson family and might then account for you thinking the jam was too sweet. This is one of my oldest and most popular recipes and no-one else has ever said its too sweet. Another possibility is that we all have varying taste palates (I used to work at Birds Eye Wall’s and was tested for this when I became a voluntary taste tester), so you’re tasting this sweeter than others. So, by all means try it again with the 1:1 ratio:-)

First time making jam and a little disappointed. Great instructions although for me the seed process yielded little extra. Before I added the sugar the jam tasted lovely and tart but with the addition of sugar I felt there was far too much sweetness and it lost any character. Will try again though and will use 1:1 ratio of fruit:sugar which seems to be fairly standard from what I’ve read.

Yes that sounds fab Beate, a little adventure first always adds to the enjoyment:-) The advantage of pitting first is that you can catch any bad damsons before they join the pot:-)

Hi Paulette, the skins are in there, they just break down quite a bit.

Yay, so glad you like the recipe and my pitting hack:-)

I made this jam this afternoon and it was so easy using the cherry pitter. I’ll definitely make some more.

Yes and same with apricot pits, even though they taste great in the jam

Might taste nutty but contains a chemical amalgdalin which coverts to cyanide in our bodies! Not recommended especially with children.

Aah, but it’s so relaxing Steve, while you’re pitting all those Damsons you’re using your hands and brain/eye co-ordination and nothing else matters in the world at the moment. But if speed is an issue I’d prefer to do like in my Mirabelle Plum Jam recipe which I remade yesterday where I just cooked the 2 kg of fruit and used a metal whisk to loosen the stones, spooned them out and then popped the stones in a sieve to get every last bit of juice out of them (will be adding that bit to the instructions). Happy that you have a method that you’re happy with:-)

What a lovely story, hope you get hold of those Damsons for a trip down memory lane:-)

Thank you Yvonne, so glad you like the recipe and my tip:-)

Great recipe and great stone tip

Thank you Susi, necessity is the mother of all invention as they say:-)

Thank you Lou:-)

So glad you like it Catherine:-)

Thankyou, jam is good.

If you’re confident that the fruit is ok inside (or don’t care!), I cook my damsons then leave them to cool. Once they’ve cool enough to handle I pop on a pair of rubber gloves (or even go in bare handed) and rummage through for the stones. Once removed, if I want keep the skins, I use a stick blender to blitz the fruit to a purée. Then I carry on as normal for a jam. A stick of cinnamon or star anise is nice added to the fruit as it cooks if you want something a little festive. Just remember to remove with the stones

Excellent Emma. My parents’ Damson tree is very old and full of blighted damsons which is why I don’t take any chances. Hence by removing stones I can throw out all the bad ones. If you don’t have that issue then that’s great, I’m just here sharing what I do and everyone can do what they prefer in their kitchens:-)

Hi Cherryl, making jam in a bread maker is not something I have any experience of but after Googling it seems possible in theory.

Excellent Margaret, so glad to hear that and lucky you finding them opposite your cottage:-)

I just know that as my parent’s Damson tree is so very old not all the fruit is “good” so by pitting first I can eliminate the bad damsons.

This is exactly why I pit damsons before making jam with them. If fruit isn’t good enough to eat raw then it’s not good enough for anything else

Awesome Diana, I like to be as helpful as possible with my recipes. The timings are what worked for me on the day with the fruit that I had so sometimes they differ with readers but they’re a great place to start.

Hi Jen, I’ve never taken issue with the skins in this jam but then there are many different varieties of Damson so perhaps mine are different to yours. Yes halving the damsons would be a good idea if the skins are not to your liking.

Well I learned something too Rob as had no idea about these sweeter damsons! Thank you for the stars:-)

In reply to Camilla.

Many thanks for the reply. I think you are correct, the pictures online for the Merryweather damson match exactly to what we have in the garden. I would recommend to anyone thinking of buying a damson tree to consider the Merryweather, they really are delicious.

By comparison, I had bought a jar of damson jam by a well-known luxury brand to compare and that had a strange flavour that I assume may be more typical of other varieties of damson. The Merryweather has no such taint but is fruity and sweet. Our good fortune they self-seeded in our garden, apparently they self propagate quite easily.

Have remembered to add the 5 star rating this time 🙂

Yay, so glad you like the jam! Having done a bit of research it sounds like you may have the Merryweather variety of damson which is sweet enough to eat straight from the tree – have a look at Wikipeadia.

Hi Amy, I’d say if they are good enough to eat (like a very ripe plum) then they’re good enough to make jam. But if you wouldn’t eat them then they won’t make good jam. At least they’ll be easier to pit, you can just squeeze the stone out of the top of each damson. If you struggle to get a set because the pectin levels have dropped due to being so ripe as a back up you could add some lemon juice (about 2 tbsp) at the end if necessary and boil until setting point reached, but hopefully it will be fine without.