Does anyone know what this is and is it safe to eat?

[toothfairy73]

This really. This tree seems to have seeded itself and this year has produced something that looks like plums or damsons or something but I don't want to pick them just in case it's not! Anyone know what this is?

They are sloes. They are best put into a bottle (About half full), an inch or so of sugar on the top, fill up with gin and leave until Christmas, turning bottle occasionally. I wouldn’t eat them unless pickled in the gin - once you’ve drunk the gin - then roll them in chocolate.But remember they have a stone.

Don’t pick them until they’ve had a frost on them though!

I’m assuming they are about the size of olives?

Sloes?

FredaFrogspawn beat me to it

Sloes. You are lucky. Get the gin in!

How big are they? Sloes are quite small and have sharp needles on the bush. Can you photo the fruit next to your hand? In the pic of the whole bush the fruits look quite big.

I think they are damsons

Damsons?

I'd say Damsons en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damson

They are damsons

I would say damson but they look a bit bigger and bluer.

Taste them! If they are sweet and delicious, they’re damsons. If they’re sour and hard and the size of olives - slows.

Sloes! Not slows.

They are damsons.
Damson jam is nice.

damsons aren't very sweet though.

You need to cook them with quite a lot of sugar to make them palatable.

You could make damson membrillo with them.

Damsons work well on gin too
So if in doubt bung in a kilner jar with sugar & gin and leave for a few months and it'll be great.

Damson gin - every bit as good as sloe gin, give it a go.

Look more like damsons
try to eat one
you'll soon know
if they are yummy, pick the lot

They are definitely bigger than olives and don't seem to have any prickles on the tree. Ooh damson gin sounds lovely

Wish I had some damson gin.

If they are damsons, pick all of them. Even if you don't need them, someone will.

I wish I had a damson tree.

I have a fig tree and it has one fig on it. It's first fruit.

Damon ham is delicious. Damson purée for pouring over ice cream. You can use a sort of Damson sauce for venison.

Definitely damsons. Sloes aren't normally ripe until October-ish. Neither are good eaten without cooking, although some cultivated damsons are slightly sweeter.

And damson port...