When Life Gives You Lemons...

...make lemonade. On the other hand, when it is damsons

Quick Damson Loaf

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup oats
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1lb damsons, stoned removed

1. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, oil, eggs, milk, lemon juice, oats and chopped plums in a bowl; stir until blended. Pour into a greased loaf pan.
2. Bake in a 170*C oven for 50 minutes, or until the centre is set. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then turn out on the wire rack and cool completely.

[turned out quite dense- best served warm with custard!]

Getting ready for Christmas, here's some damson gin. [Oh dear, my teetotal Grandmother would be spinning in her grave] and there is still another bag of fruit in the freezer ready to go into a crumble next week.

What a kind friend Lesley is, to share the bounty of her orchard!

Reminds me of an old joke - the local Methodist Minister was leaving, and his other clergy colleagues wanted to mark this with a present. They knew he loved peaches in brandy - but that his congregation would be shocked if they knew he drank alcohol. So the ministers gave him the present, but said he could only keep it if he thanked them publicly for it. After a little thought, the Reverend Gentleman put an announcement in the local paper "I wish to thank the other ministers for their generous gift of fruit, and the spirit in which it was sent"