Hedgerow jam

The post of 1st November 2013 notwithstanding, I fell off the wagon yesterday while minding my own business down Mill Road and picked maybe a pound of damsons, definitely low hanging fruit in the memorable phrase of the marketing men. I did not have a plastic with me, and was concerned not to stain the bag I did have with me, so I opened up the Metro from the station in the bottom of the bag and put the damsons in that. Perhaps just as well as that stopped me picking a lot.

Back home, brought maybe half a pint of water to boil with three ounces of sugar, then added the fruit, waited for them to come to the boil and then turned the heat down. Not fast enough, as the whole lot frothed up a few minutes later, at which point I took the pan off the ring. Cooled down, they did not look that appetising all mushed up (having imagined that I would get dark red entire damsons floating around in a clear red syrup. See 17th June), although they tasted OK, and this morning, after our regular breakfast meeting, I sieved them with the result illustrated. Much better in appearance, and we shall see if this improved appearance improves the taste in due course. Maybe we will be back to Mill Road after all.

PS: we also got an Evening Standard yesterday, this from Sainsbury's Kiln Lane, which caused us to wonder how it got there. Do Sainsbury's send a man and a van down to the station to pick up a couple of bundles? Do the Evening Standard people make a round of big suburban shops with one of the early editions? Maybe I need to hang out around the entrance one afternoon to see if I can work it out.