Category Archives: Damson Videos

Damson Trees are Brittle: Here’s a Video Demonstration

Damson trees are brittle; it's an unfortunate distinguishing characteristic of this fruit tree.

You could have a bough that’s loaded with damsons and then, in an instant, and for no obvious reason, the bough shears away from the ‘mother trunk’.

A load of your crop is lost and your tree is denuded.

The wound caused may open the tree to disease.

This short video shows the aftermath of such damson tree brittleness. It captures a large bough that had a good crop of damsons on it that now lies on the ground after splitting from the tree.

Lots of fruit lost, for sure.

Tempremental trees? Probably.

What can you do to preempt their brittle nature? One suggestion is to prune judiciously so boughs don’t get so heavy with fruit that they break.

 

 

Damson Chat: Grower Stanley Yapp and Wholesaler Stuart Ward

This short video features the inimitable Stanley Yapp, grower of damsons for many decades, and damson wholesaler,  Stuart Ward.

It is a feast for the eyes and the ears.

And it features the Shropshire Prune variety of damson.

The video was shot in Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire, a renowned damson growing area.

Video: Picking Damsons, October 2013

Although it’s nearly the end of the first week of October, there are still plenty of damsons on the trees.

In this short video I pick a few damsons from one of the internal hedges on my patch of garden on the Herefordshire-Shropshire border.

There’s a myth that damsons are nothing but bitter/sharp/sour. Which feeds into another myth that you can’t eat damsons straight off the tree. It’s not true! I wonder if people who think this are confusing damsons with their relatives, the bullaces.

While damsons do add a dimension of tartness, which is an essential counterpoint to dishes based on rich ingredients like game birds, lamb and cheeses, damsons also have a very pleasing sweetness.

Trust me (and watch the video).