If I say damsons, what comes to mind?

Not much? Nothing at all?

Yep, the damson is a bit of an unknown quantity. Until recently, I'd never seen one - in the wild, in a supermarket, wherever - let alone tasted one.


Luckily, a friend of mine who lives in Kent told me she knew where a stash of them could be found in a nearby wood (on common land - no damsons were stolen in the making of this post), and would I like to come for a bit of foraging with her? Yes, yes I would.

It turns out damsons look like small plums, with a more beautifully bright blue tinge. (My friend had never seen a damson either - she was introduced to the fruit and their location by a friendly, damson-savvy neighbour).

We collected about two and a half pounds in all, along with a couple of golf ball sized apples (the foraging had gone to our head by then, I think - who needs five golf ball sized apples?)

Having congratulated ourselves on our gathering skills, we decided we had to address a more pressing problem - just what do you do with a damson?

A brief interlude to consult Google gave us two doable options - damson vodka and damson cobbler.

We followed the BBC recipe to the letter, substituting the milk for soy milk and butter for Pure vegan marge obviously.