I've been innocently making jam from our garden plums lately but I had something altogether more interesting for our Damsons. My neighbour mentioned that they make a wickedly good damson gin and I've had it in my thoughts since the spring blossom!
They finally ripened a couple of weeks ago (yes I have been lax in my food blogging ;)) and I rushed almost immediately out and bought a nice bottle of vodka for them. We aren't big gin drinkers so we went for the more neutral option of vodka, hoping for more of a fruity taste than a gin taste.
This is a very very easy recipe, the work of moments, really. I used the recipe on Cottage Smallholder (one of my favourite small holding type blogs).
All you do is prick the fruit, add it to a kilner jar, pour on some sugar and then the spirit. Seal up the jar and shake well. Keep the jar in a dark cool place, shake the jar every day until the sugar dissolves (usually about 3-4days). Taste a nip after a week to see if the sugar is right, add a little more if its too sharp and redo the shaking thing.
We are going to drain out the fruit and bottle it to have at Christmas time, although the recipe does recommend you strain the fruit after 3 months and mature for upto a year. Not sure we can wait that long!
I can't wait to try this, its going to be perfect on a cold Christmassy evening.
UPDATE : We bottled the Vodka just before Christmas and took it down to test it out on our relatives! The resultant vodka was just as a expected, fruity and far too easy to drink. I'll definitely be making this next year!
xx
3 comments:
Yum! That will be perfect for the holidays. You are quite the domestic diva!
fab idea. I'm preparing for sloe picking soon, sloe vodka is to die for. Might try out some raspberry vodka too but now i want to try damson vodka as well, i guess you can never have enough vodka can you.
That a great idea, I also have fruits that I need something to do with them.
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