Life in the Sloe Lane
- lucy574
- Oct 6, 2014
- 2 min read
Sloe picking is an autumnal tradition in our family. We head to the in-laws farm in Dorset and spend several hours foraging to fill baskets and bags with the purple berries. Due to the rather wet end to the summer, 2014 is set to be a vintage year for sloes as bushes are beering fruit four weeks earlier than usual.
Sloes are the fruit of the Blackthorn bush and look very like a blueberry with a white bloom covering them. There are bIackthorn bushes dotted around Esher so keep an eye out and bag handy for when you spot one. I don't recommend eating them raw as they have a very bitter taste. BUT I DO recommend you make one of my favourite winter tipples - sloe gin!
It is beyond easy to make and you'll be rewarded with a ruby-red liquer to sip through the cold, dark, winter months.
Margot's Sloe Gin Recipe
gin
caster sugar
sloes (If you picked the sloes after first frost you can dive straight in to the recipe but if you didn't you'll need to put them into the freezer for a night a or two.)
Quantities depend on how many sloes you've picked but just remember 3:3:3. So fill a gin bottle one third full of caster sugar. Add the sloes until you have filled the second third. Pour the gin back into the bottle for the final third. Screw the top back on tightly and leave for a couple of months. You'll need to invert them and give them a gentle shake to help dissolve the sugar.
Once the sugar has disolved it's almost ready. Place a muslin cloth over a jug and strain the sloes slowly through it. You can pour the sloe gin back into the bottle but obviously now you've strained the sloes out it won't fill the bottle so i like to use a pretty bottle to decant it into.
By Christmas you'll have a warming, smooth, jewel-rich liquer to indulge yourself or give away as a very special gift.
You can use the gin-laced sloes to make chocolate liquers. Heat some dark chocolate till melted and half fill small moulds, place a gin-filled sloe into each then fill up with melted choclate. Allow to set then eat.
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