Bullace

Size is everything when identifying the plum family, they all start off green and go a near purple black colour. It’s the first to develop a derrière, ie the v groove cup associated with a British plum. The bullace is a little larger than the sloes and smaller than a damson. It’s still round like a sloe whereas a damson is more oval. For size it’s between the top section of your middle finger and thumb, 1.5-2.5cm. Grows on bushy often thorny stems and makes a pleasant slightly sweeter alternative to sloe gin. It can also be made into jams and added to other fruit in a jam. You want pretty much equal quantities of sugar and fruit to make a jam.

I like to freeze mine for a few days minimum to improve the sweetness, this also softens the fruit giving you more juice. You can freeze for longer with little deterioration. The fruit contains a stone so will make a better seived jelly, and a really tasty leather.

I’ve never heard of those before. Do they go by any other names?
The leaf looks very similar to green gade.
I think the chances of me finding one are quite slim   .

Our friends have them as a hedge. My teen son earned some pocket money harvesting them for them to make a wine

To my knowledge they are not known by any other name. Though are often mistaken for big sloes or damsons, only the size and shape really distinguish these sour fruits. Sloes and bullaces are more round while damsons and plums are more oval. The bullace looks like a super sized sloe, I’ll photograph them side by side in September for better clarity.

I think we had something very similar if not the same on the farm where I grew up. Somehow memories of sour plums are somewhere at the back of my head

They are not far off now