In which I resign myself to not being able to make jam!

This is Dewi and the girls harvesting the remainder of our plum crop for this year. Sadly two large branches snapped under the weight of the fruit leaving the tree not nearly as handsome as it used to look. I had already tried to make jam two weeks ago and despite following to the letter the instructions in the book, I ended up with a large quantity of plum syrup.... like the blackberry syrup I ended up with last year and the strawberry syrup the year before..... you get the picture! So last week Dewi decided to make the jam using the damsons from the little tree in our trellis hedge. Cue twelve jars of rich, densely purple damson jam two hours later!! It's like Yorkshire puddings all over again - mine flat and eggy, Dewi's light, crisp and mountainous!! I can live with that - one less thing for me to do!!! I'm taking the first jar to my friend's house tomorrow, we will make scones with the children and then test the jam together!! So if we made jam with the damsons, what of the plums you ask? Well they are fermenting away in my under stairs cupboard as part of Dewi's plum cider experiment!!!!