Bottling damsons and windfall apples and destoning Damsons with an olive stoner.

The damson crop this year is very good and the fruit is splitting on the tree.

When the fruit is so ripe the stones can be removed with an olive stoner. 

The stones shoot out like a bullet from a gun, which is very satisfying.

They can then be boiled with a little water, no sugar and bottled to keep until needed.

This week BBC Gardeners' World TV programme suggested juicing windfall apples.  Fruit juice removes all of the useful fibre and minerals in the skins leaving lots of natural sugar, which you don't need unless running a marathon.  Better is to slice the apples with the skins on, (Katia variety above) and boil with water and no added sugar and then bottle.