Plum jerkum is an alcoholic drink produced fromplums. It has been variously described as made in the same way ascider[1] and as afruit wine,[2] although the terminology implies slightly different methods. The origin of the name "jerkum" is unclear, although one maker stated he used it because the barrels were shaken once a day during fermentation.[3]
The drink is native to the northCotswolds[4] and particularly to the county ofWorcestershire. English plum cultivation was once centred onPershore and theVale of Evesham, where plum jerkum was often made by farmers and market gardeners to make use of surplus fruit; it was known as a traditional product ofWorcester along with pottedlamperns and curd cheesecakes.[5] It was also recorded from theHerefordshire borders[3] and aroundChipping Campden inGloucestershire.[6][7] The jerkum produced around Chipping Campden was made, for preference, from a darkbullace-like plum found in the area's villages: however it ranged in colour from "a deep purple to aclaret red", and in flavour "from a sticky sweetness to a sparkling tartness" depending on the type of plum used.[8] In the 1930s plum jerkum was also recorded as a "homely drink [of]Yorkshire" usually consumed aroundNew Year, though noting that it had been introduced into the county from Worcestershire "over 150 years ago".[9]
In the hands of a skilled maker it could be described as a "wonderful sherry-type wine",[3] but was also humorously characterised as a home-made drink of "doubtful reputation".[10] A 19th-century reference, again from Worcester, suggests that it was often drunk mixed with cider: "plum jerkum is [...] the fermented juice of plums, and is a very heady liquor. In the country they often mix it with cider, and thus moderate its effect [...] A man who was brought before the Pershore magistrates on a charge of drunkenness confessed he had a drop too much of it. Perhaps he took it neat".[11] Wartimesugar rationing meant that the tradition of making plum jerkum and other fruit wines declined in the 1940s and 50s;[12] in 1950 aWestern Daily Press columnist lamented that due to the sugar shortage plum jerkum, as well as drinks known as "Black Tom" and "Purple Tea" (sloe gin), had become extinct in the area aroundBristol.[13]
The Worcestershire author and farmerFred Archer mentions jerkum several times in his stories of rural life,[14] as doesJohn Moore in his books set around a fictionalisedBredon Hill.
Some aficionados in American craft beverages have started to use "jerkum" as a broader term encompassing the alcoholic drink produced from any unadulterated fermentedstone fruit (e.g.,nectarine,peach,apricot,pluot).[15]
