There are plums, and then there are Blaisdon Reds.
This is an old-fashioned variety you’re unlikely to find sitting on a supermarket shelf. It’s a heritage plum from Gloucestershire, named after the village of Blaisdon, and it has a serious reputation among people who know their plums.
We first came across Blaisdon Red through the same farmer, Ben, who supplied us with our tiny batch of Greengages earlier this year. He grows a handful of these old Gloucestershire varieties at his family farm, including Blaisdon Red, and when we learned he had some available this year, we bought as much as we could get our hands on.
And now we're turning the lot into a very limited batch of Blaisdon Red Preserve.
So, what exactly is a Blaisdon Red?
Blaisdon Red is a traditional Gloucestershire plum variety, first recorded in the village of Blaisdon in 1892. It was once widely grown across the Severn Vale and was particularly prized for making jam and preserves.
It’s a proper old-school British plum. The skin is a deep red-purple, while underneath you'll find golden-yellow flesh. It’s not the biggest or prettiest plum around, and it certainly hasn't been bred for supermarkets. But that’s rather the point we think... Blaisdon Reds are really very delicious, and when you cook them, they get even tastier!
Why are Blaisdon Reds so delicious?
Blaisdon Reds have a lovely balance of sweetness and acidity, which is exactly what you want for a preserve.
Fresh from the tree, they have a deep, fruity plum flavour with a lovely sharpness. Once cooked, that flavour becomes richer and more concentrated, while the fruit develops a gorgeous deep red colour. It’s one of the reasons Blaisdon Red became so highly regarded as a preserving plum.
And because we only ever use one variety of fruit in our preserves, you get the full Blaisdon Red experience. No other plum varieties blended in.
The result is an intensely plummy, very tart jam with a nice firm set that's perfect for spreading.
Why is there so little of it?
This is the slightly frustrating bit.
Blaisdon Red is a rare heritage variety, and there simply aren't huge quantities of it being grown commercially these days. It was once much more widespread in Gloucestershire, but modern plum varieties have taken its place in many orchards.
Luckily, there are still growers keeping these old varieties going.
Ben is one of them! He's the same farmer who grew the Greengages we bought earlier this year, and alongside his more familiar plums, he keeps several old Gloucestershire varieties growing in his orchard, including Blaisdon Red.
This year, there wasn't much to go around. So once this batch is gone, that's it. There won't be another Blaisdon Red Preserve until we can get our hands on more fruit next year.
How can I get a jar?
Because we've got such a small amount of fruit, we're opening a registration form before the preserve goes on sale.
Register your interest here >
If you want a chance of getting your hands on a jar, you'll need to register your interest and we'll send you a link when the Blaisdon Red Preserve goes live.
Important bit: registering doesn't guarantee you'll get a jar.
We're expecting this one to be very limited, so once the preserve goes online, it's going to be first come, first served.
One small change to our usual bundles
We listened to you!
After the Greengage sold out so quickly, quite a few of you got in touch about the 10% bundle discount and whether there was a way to give more people a chance of getting a jar.
So, for the Blaisdon Red, we're not offering the 10% bundle discount, and we'll be limiting sales to three jars per person.
Hopefully, that means we can spread the jam a little further and give more of you the chance to try this gorgeous plummy nectar.
We can't wait for you to try it!
