Is it a damson or a sloe?

morganb

how do I tell the difference? I picked 3lbs of what I thought were damsons the other day ... but on speaking to a few people, they thought that damsons weren't so purple and that I had picked sloes; however, the two ladies I bumped into whilst picking assured me they were damsons and that I had to do a different walk to pick sloes.

Does anyone have a photo of both? Have tried to look for a photo of a damson .. advice gratefully received!

Penelope_Penguin

Take a bite into them. Damsons will be fleshy, like a plum, sloes will be so sour they draw the enamel off your teeth Make great gin, though :beer: Sloes have very little flesh, and you'll be into the stone very quickly.

HTH, Penny. x

Pink.

Hi morganb,

I'm not sure because I've never seen sloes before but I had a look on google and looking at the pics there, there doesn't seem to be a great deal of difference between the two.

Sloes

Damsons

If you picked them yourself.......was the bush thorny? I know that sloes come from the blackthorn bush which has lots of thorns whereas in the pics the damsons look to be on a more leafy tree. Also aren't sloes meant to be very bitter to taste?

Hope this helps.

Pink

morganb

Thanks. The bush wasn't thorny ... I will take a bite and report back ...

thriftlady_2

Pink-winged wrote: »

If you picked them yourself.......was the bush thorny? I know that sloes come from the blackthorn bush which has lots of thorns whereas in the pics the damsons look to be on a more leafy tree.

Yes, look at the plant they came from. Damsons are from a tree -often quite small, but a tree nontheless. Sloes are the fruit of the blackthorn as Pink says. It is a bush that can get quite big and has long thorns and beautiful white flowers in April. The flowers come out before the leaves so it is easy to identify when in flower.

Damsons should also be about the size of large grapes whereas sloes are smaller and rounder-a bit like blueberries.

morganlefay

Damsons tend to hang off the branches in huge numbers and have lots of flesh on them (as said above) but you certainly couldn't eat a raw sloe, whereas a really ripe damson is just a small plum really and very jucy and delicious.

moanymoany

Damsons are more like plums and are generally larger than sloes. Sloes are the size of an elongated M&M, as said, if you bite into one it dries all the saliva in your mouth - beyond sour! Also, as Pink says, the bush has thorns and small leaves.

Damsons are fleshy, like a small oval plum. They are often sourish.

It is a bit early for sloes, but high season for damsons. I bought some damsons last week. I will pick sloes later, in late September, early October, to make sloe gin.

My guess is that you have damsons.

DawnW

the fruit can actually look quite similar, though as people have mentioned, damsons are usually bigger. The trees themseves are different. I have a damson tree in my garden and it has much bigger leaves than blackthorn (sloe) trees, and it is not thorny. To complicate things though, there are loads of different wild plum type things (also a kind called bullaces) which seem to cross breed - so you can get what look like 'big' sloes, or small plums, damsons or whatever. The advice to taste one is good, as you can use them for different things. Sloes are really sour and make your mouth feel dry. Sloes make a lovely jelly to serve with cold meats or game, and of course sloe gin. When I was a little girl, an aunt of mine used to cook lunches for a big shooting party thing. She used to use the sloes she had previously used to make sloe gin, to make a posh pud (with thin cream) which seemed to go down well with the clients. I have since tried it myself though, not having been allowed to do so as a child, and I actually think it is really horrid. I don't know if others have heard of this, or tried it?
The other types (of wild plums that is) are often fleshier, much less sour, and many can be used in pies, jams etc. They are all useful though!

hardupand_happy

My nan used to take the sloes from the sloe gin and put them in melted dark chocolate, boozy and fattening ready fro xmas

thriftlady_2

Don't forget you can make damson gin in exactly the same way as sloe gin

morganb

We have now bit into one and they are definitely damsons. Off to make the Delia apple and damson recipe tonight, having made a ton of blackberry jam the other day ... and it looks like damson gin could soon follow ...