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Urgent -re Damsons

PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,098
in Fruit & veg

Half of one of our Damson trees has snapped. The fruit is a good dark purple colour, but not yet fully ripe.

Question is, will they ripen off the tree or is this crop a goner?

TIA

Posts

  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 10,243

    I picked a few unripe damsons from a tree in a field a few weeks ago, they were barely turning red at the time. I left them on a sunny windowsill and they ripened in about 10/12 days. A couple went manky but most were OK
    Hope yours will be OK too - damsons are very special

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,391

    Any chance you could put the base of the severed section into a bucket of water?  That would keep it alive at least long enough to ripen the fruit.

    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 83,732

    I would pick them and bring them indoors and cross my fingers  

    or make Pickled Damsons http://norfolkkitchen.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/pickled-damsons-for-suzanne.html

    Yum!!!


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,098

    We are talking hundred weights here and a 12 inch wide snapped off piece with dozens of branches coming from it.

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 29,092

    I think they will ripen but would agree with Dove about making damson pickle or damson chutney.   What would you have done with so many that were ripe?  Damson jam?  Damson crumble?   Same principle but savoury and yummy.

    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 83,732
    Berghill says:

    We are talking hundred weights here and a 12 inch wide snapped off piece with dozens of branches coming from it.

    See original post

     then ...................... a lot of pickle and a lot of chutney image

     and I'm sure any that you leave behind will be welcomed by the birds and small mammals around the garden as they ripen or rot. image


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,098

    We take them to our local gardening group  and watch them fight over them. BUT that is not for another three weeks yet. Not to worry, the other half of the tree is still there and loaded as are the other dozen or so ones in the Damson Wood at the bottom of the garden and the half a dozen or so which make up part of our hedge.

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 29,092

    Sounds wonderful.    I rather doubt that a damson would be happy here but I got very excited on walkies today when I found some lovely sloes in a hedgerow, despite the drought.   Maybe, in a normal year, damsons would be happy enough.   So much better than the Mirabelles we have a-plenty but sweet and lacking character.

    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
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