Plum jerkum

Plum jerkum is a type of fruit wine or cider produced from plums, in a similar manner to the way in which cider and perry are made from apples and pears respectively. The drink is native to the north Cotswolds^[1] and particularly to the county of Worcestershire, where plum cultivation was once centred on Pershore and the Vale of Evesham; it was also found around Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire.^[2][3] Jerkum was known as a traditional product of Worcester along with potted lamperns and curd cheesecakes.^[4]

A 19th century reference, again from Worcester, suggests that it was often taken mixed with cider to reduce its strength: "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".^[5]

The jerkum made around Chipping Campden was made, for preference, from a dark bullace-like plum found in the area's villages: however it ranged in colour from "a deep purple to a claret red", and in flavour "from a sticky sweetness to a sparkling tartness" depending on the type of plum used.^[6]

The Worcestershire author and farmer Fred Archer mentions jerkum several times in his stories of rural life,^[7] as does John Moore in his books set around a fictionalised Bredon Hill.

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