Sloe Gin

Author
Discussion

gazapc

1,319 posts

159 months

Tuesday 18th September 2012
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After making my first last year (picked 2nd week in december and still relatively plentiful! thank you Cornwall) started a bit earlier upcountry. Not looking too great a harvest, quite a few were looking very shrivelled but been on 2 picks and got enough to add to 500ml of gin from Northamptonshire and 750ml from East Sussex. Of to Somerset, Devon, Warwickshire (and of course Cornwall) in the next month so hoping to have a few litres in a grand sloe gin tour of England.


z4chris99

11,221 posts

178 months

Tuesday 18th September 2012
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a good place to pick sloes in somerset is Ash Priors Common.. loads of the fkers.

damson's grow there too... also very good in gin

Bill

52,485 posts

254 months

Wednesday 19th September 2012
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z4chris99 said:
a good place to pick sloes in somerset is Ash Priors Common.. loads of the fkers.

damson's grow there too... also very good in gin
Have you had a look this year?


Got 1.5 kg of damsons today off two bushes by our house that I didn't even notice last year redface The main trees weren't doing well and then got stripped of what little there was at some point this week cry

Puggit

48,355 posts

247 months

Friday 21st September 2012
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It's not all doom and gloom! Sadly this is in a very public location and the blackberries below these bushes have all been removed!


1kg duly picked this morning. There may have been a frost, but I'll freeze tonight anyway.

Edited by Puggit on Saturday 22 September 11:10

jamiebae

6,245 posts

210 months

Sunday 7th October 2012
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Went out to survey our normal picking area yesterday afternoon, and the farmer has recently trimmed the hedge with a tractor. Not a single sloe to be seen, just some severely trimmed bushes. frown

Will have to find somewhere else nearby instead, but it's so foggy here at the moment I don't think I'd be able to see my hand in front of my face, let alone some sloes in a bush!

y2blade

56,029 posts

214 months

Sunday 7th October 2012
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Tonnes of them out at my place.

Btw i "found" two bottles left over from last years batch in the back of the Christmas cupboard last week woohoo

FurtiveFreddy

8,577 posts

236 months

Sunday 7th October 2012
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Just been out and picked about 2Kg of sloes looking in better condition than I expected.

A lot of the easy ones next to the footpath were gone but plenty to be had once I went a bit further into the undergrowth where the casual pickers fear to tread...

Podie

46,630 posts

274 months

Sunday 7th October 2012
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Struggling here in Northants... one good hedge has been ripped out frown

toastybase

2,220 posts

207 months

Sunday 7th October 2012
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oxford spots?

jamiebae

6,245 posts

210 months

Sunday 7th October 2012
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Managed to pick about 1kg today, had to walk about a mile from home to find them but also got a good haul of blackberries so now have a bottle of blackberry vodka maturing in the cupboard. Last year's sloe gin is now bottled and today's sloes are rinsed and in the freezer to go in the preserving jar next weekend.

What do I do with a kilo of sloes which have spent the last year swimming in gin? It seems such a waste to just bin them!

randlemarcus

13,507 posts

230 months

Sunday 7th October 2012
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jamiebae said:
What do I do with a kilo of sloes which have spent the last year swimming in gin? It seems such a waste to just bin them!
Stone them, and use a good dark chocolate (85% works for me, your mileage may vary) to cover. I have hands like a pound of sausages, so I end up with small chunks of drunken sloe. Mmmm.

oldbanger

4,316 posts

237 months

Sunday 7th October 2012
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either I'm too late and someone else got them, or we just didn't have anything this year frown Luckily I've been saving last year's gin as it wasn't ready last Christmas.

We do have a good crop of haws through so perhaps I ought to dust off the hawthorn brandy recipe. It tastes just like Pimms ...

kiteless

11,683 posts

203 months

Sunday 7th October 2012
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Our usual sloe larders are very reduced, and we think it's down to the high winds earlier this year coinciding with the sloe blossoms. The plum trees nearby have also been bereft of any fruit whatsoever for the same reason, I suspect. So much so that this is the first year we'll not have some Victoria Plum wine on the go, and resorted to using supermarket fruit. Bottled this afternoon, it's a soave colour rather than a deep rose colour that results when we use wild plums.

We've got just enough sloes for one batch of gin, though smile


Mobile Chicane

20,740 posts

211 months

Monday 8th October 2012
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oldbanger said:
either I'm too late and someone else got them, or we just didn't have anything this year frown Luckily I've been saving last year's gin as it wasn't ready last Christmas.

We do have a good crop of haws through so perhaps I ought to dust off the hawthorn brandy recipe. It tastes just like Pimms ...
What is this hawthorn brandy recipe? ears

Bill

52,485 posts

254 months

Monday 8th October 2012
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jamiebae said:
What do I do with a kilo of sloes which have spent the last year swimming in gin? It seems such a waste to just bin them!
Make Slerry - add them to sherry to steep.

BoRED S2upid

19,644 posts

239 months

Monday 8th October 2012
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Weve just put 2 litres to soak might be a New Year tipple rather than Christmas but we shall see.

Japveesix

4,477 posts

167 months

Monday 8th October 2012
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Bill said:
jamiebae said:
What do I do with a kilo of sloes which have spent the last year swimming in gin? It seems such a waste to just bin them!
Make Slerry - add them to sherry to steep.
No! Make Slider, just buy a big bottle of thatchers gold (or another similar decent but cheap cider) and chuck the sloes in with it. Leave it 2 weeks minimum, lovely stuff smile

oldbanger

4,316 posts

237 months

Monday 8th October 2012
quotequote all
Mobile Chicane said:
oldbanger said:
either I'm too late and someone else got them, or we just didn't have anything this year frown Luckily I've been saving last year's gin as it wasn't ready last Christmas.

We do have a good crop of haws through so perhaps I ought to dust off the hawthorn brandy recipe. It tastes just like Pimms ...
What is this hawthorn brandy recipe? ears
Get your Haws, wash them and dry. I don't bother pricking - the skin seems to fall off them anyway after a couple of weeks.
Weigh the haws and put them into a large jar with half as much sugar by weight. Fill with brandy to top.
Leave for at least 4 weeks somewhere cool and dark (the longer the better), shaking now and then.
Strain off haws, bits etc and bottle up the liquid.

There's a proper recipe in one of the River Cottage handbooks apparently.

I've also now just discovered this Hawthorn Schnapps(vodka) recipe.
http://www.danish-schnapps-recipes.com/hawthorn.ht...

Mobile Chicane

20,740 posts

211 months

Monday 8th October 2012
quotequote all
oldbanger said:
Mobile Chicane said:
oldbanger said:
either I'm too late and someone else got them, or we just didn't have anything this year frown Luckily I've been saving last year's gin as it wasn't ready last Christmas.

We do have a good crop of haws through so perhaps I ought to dust off the hawthorn brandy recipe. It tastes just like Pimms ...
What is this hawthorn brandy recipe? ears
Get your Haws, wash them and dry. I don't bother pricking - the skin seems to fall off them anyway after a couple of weeks.
Weigh the haws and put them into a large jar with half as much sugar by weight. Fill with brandy to top.
Leave for at least 4 weeks somewhere cool and dark (the longer the better), shaking now and then.
Strain off haws, bits etc and bottle up the liquid.

There's a proper recipe in one of the River Cottage handbooks apparently.

I've also now just discovered this Hawthorn Schnapps(vodka) recipe.
http://www.danish-schnapps-recipes.com/hawthorn.ht...
Wow - thanks!

gazapc

1,319 posts

159 months

Friday 12th October 2012
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Went out picking to make a 4th bottle this afternoon, looking rather bleak, plenty of bushes with nothing on, many looking like this

then a few yards down the hedge you would find a good few handful of sloes on a single bush.

An absolute shed load of blackberries though, down in Devon last weekend and every lane had bushes overloaded with them, same up here.