Sloe Gin

I would love to make some sloe gin, I had a taste of it at a garden show and it is delicious. Any tips from anyone as I have never made it before. I have not even collected sloes only blackberries.

OMG Sloe Gin ummmmmm
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
mmmmmmmmmm

coolect as much ripe plump fruit as you can. I'm telling you now make as much as you can. 1 bottle isnt enough. A friend of mine makes about 8 glass sweet jars of the stuff. remember glass sweet jars!?

anyway dont gather shrivelled fruit. now for the labour of love. slice very sloe around it's middle down to the stone.

half fill your bottle with sloes pour in castor sugar till it covers the sloes. skae the bottle so the sugar goes all the way through the sloes. keep topping up until all the gaps are filled with sugar. then add more to make a little heap on top. add your gin and gently tip the bottle so all the sugar gets wet and air bubbles are released. if you need to add more gin add it now. screw on the lid and set it aside. every 24 hours gently shake the contents until all the suger is disolved. the colour of the gin gets pinker by the daywhen this done set the bottle aside in the dark to ferment.

when Christmas comes it's time to open the first bottle. strain the contents through and cloth to remove the sloes but dont throw them away. get totally sloshed on the stuff!!
best to drink it neat on the rocks or with a little lemonade.

so why make as much as possible? you want some bottles to stay fermenting until Christmas 2003. I have a bottle sitting from this time last year.

sloes in the south are already ripe but us in the north have to wait another few weeks.

back to the fruits you kept from inside the bottle. remove the seeds and roll the fruit in melted plain or milk chocolate. get the best you can buy. NOT cooking chocolate

the perfect alcoholic sweets

enjoy

Going to pick my sloes tomorrow ;)

Well, i have and they're all in a bottle with the sugar and vodka - thanks for the recipe mark - I'm looking forward to Christmas now, LOL

good for you! how many bottles have you made? did I say dont wash the fruit?

can you buy cultivated sloes?

I would be most grateful for some seeds to grow, anyone ??

Dimitri

dp Philomels fruit is a better quality then mine maybe she can sort the seeds for you. or you can try both.

does Blackthorn - Prunus spinosa - not grow so far south?

Mark

I could buy you a small tree from here http://www.buckingham-nurseries.co.uk/acatalog/product_10146.html

A hardy and thorny shrub, the blackthorn supplies the fruit known as the sloe, which is a component of the alcoholic beverage sloe gin, considered by many to have medicinal and magical properties.

Blackthorn grows to produce impenetrable thickets, so it creates a physical barrier which operates also on a psychic level. The blackthorn is a source of staves, sticks and slivers, having powers of magical protection against all forms of psychic harm.

Take it that last paragraph was very TIC Mark - Knowing your views on magic LOL.
Made 2 litres and didn't wash the fruit. Need that bloom for the yeast :)

No, don't think you can get 'cultivated' blackthorn - just the plain old native psilo. So any hedging firm should have them, as mark's link.

dp, i'll try and get some stones out of the ones i had left over. Don't know how they'll do in the Cretan climate though. I think they like it colder. You could always experiment with fruit you do grow, though can't think of anything you have that's as sour apart from lemons or limes.

Thank you all. There used to be in the old days such a tree and I remember its prunes as a child. They were replaced by more "civilised" prunus specimens. If I get some seeds I will give it a try, and also try some in more protected area like a ravine that a friend has nearby, in case our climate proves to be too warm.

We have several old and maybe wild prunus species, but not what you describe that may be used as a hedge.

thanks in advance

Dimitri

OK dp, i'll send you some stones.

Does anyone know the best way of cleaning the flesh from the stones?
I'm being lazy - just to save me looking it up, but i'm doing my trip to monitor dormice the far side of surrey today, early out, late back.

Philomel, never heard of fairy thorns?

the best way to strip the flesh is to feed them to birds. I have a Touraco from Africa which is frugiverous. the stones will pass through unharmed. when ours are ripe I'll feed it some and have a hoke for the seeds.

Mark many thanks for the web site address. It is a brilliant site. I have been looking for other soft fruits as we have taken on a second allotment just for soft fruit and veg so will be buying quite a bit I suspect.

Thanks, I'll leave you to send stones to dp then Mark :)

Please do tell us more about fairy thorns.........

just 3 months until you can drink the stuff. I'm giving you ample warning 2 litres is no way enough.

Damsons can be added to Gin too! to make Damson Gin

I'm not sacrificing my remaining litre of vodka til i know how much i like the sloe version!! You're the one with the sweet tooth LOL. I know i like neat vodka, so i'm keeping some ;)
Not sure i can fit damsons in the neck of the bottle anyway :P

...............and the fairy thorns???????????

but by the time you taste it there wont be any sloes left on the bushes.

A risk i am prepared to take, unless i can find a source of veeeeeeerrry cheap vodka.
:~ hic

I dont want to have to tell you "I told you so"!! cos it will happen and you'll have to wait a whole year to get them again.

It's me, the PDB fairy. I've been flitting around the Garden, (Dave hasn't netted me yet) and once in awhile I see something that I think would be a great addition to the Plant Database. There's some interesting information about blackthorn on this thread, as well as pictures... I looked up blackthorn on our PDB and couldn't find it. Could someone add it? I found this site with some basic info: http://www.bluestackmountains.com/Flora.htm

ok peeps here is some info

the crown of thorns was made of blackthorn

some people say a it brings bad luck and if a flowering twig is brought indoors someone will die

however scorched branches will bring good luck when used as crimbo decorations

if these branches are burned to a powder and sprinkled in a grain field there will be a good harvest

the blackthorn starts to bloom after midnight of the old Christmas Eve January 5th!!

Are those not old Druid beliefs Mark?

I know about the flowering twig not coming into the house,
I didn't know though that the Jaggy Bunnet was made of Blackthorn.

All the best

Wintermoor

twas young sir

"the blackthorn starts to bloom after midnight of the old Christmas Eve January 5th!!"

In one of my books they say that the flowering of the blackthorn can be used as a guide to the last frost and that it's safe to sow after it starts flowering!!
Think they got that one wrong - certainly round here. it's the first to flower and always such a welcome sight.

Thanks for the link Weez, that's an interesting site.
So much out there i've never seen and spend too much time at the puter as it is.

Yippee I have collected the sloes and now I am off to find a suitable receptacle to store the magic ingredients. Many Thanks for the recipe Mark.

I've just tried a little taste and i think you may have a point Mark. So prhaps i'll be out there picking sloes again tomorrow LOL
Thanks for starting the thread Southmede. That looks a good bowlful!

Southmede sorry to say your sloes aren't ripe. They have to be as dark as possible with a powdery bloom. if mine arent ripe I dont really think yours can be ... but ya never know

This is what my second picking looks like. They're even better than the ones from Dels! I went up a tiny lane i know - smaller than any of the ones we went along even, Mark - and there they were, hanging so thick i could literally pick handfuls off the branches at a time!

No wonder Kent is called the garden of england. Wish i could magic some to the rest of you, but they're a bit heavy and squashy to post LOL

Meant to point out that lovely blue bloom that holds the yeast.
I'll be trying the chocolate covering too, when the liquor is strained off the fruit. Mr Macintosh won't be doing so well out of our family with his Quality Street this crimble i have a feeling ;)

PS it looks as if i may have enough fruit to try sloe brandy - any ideas what that's like? - i have some cheap stuff from last christmas.

Oh No I can't believe that they were not ripe, ah well as I am a novice at this milarky I'll have to go and find some more. The ones I picked were from Cumbria where we have just had a short break at Oasis. The red squirrels there were great.

PS I.m also collecting some elderberries for wine I have only 1lb up to now. 1lb more to go.

This message was edited Saturday, Sep 28th 2:04 PM

southmede just been out picking elderberries. Managed to collect 4lbs. HIC!

Elderberry's really good with some ripe banana in for body - if you know what i mean LOL

Exactly Philomel I like a good rich body LOL (in my wine)

Anybody else hear of the Blackthorn Winter? Here the flowers seem to bloom through the last really cold snaps in April.

An old saying is 'When the Blackthorn shows it's white, Sow the Barley day and night.' Some people still go by that as the blooms are induced by the optimum soil temperature for Barley sowing and germination.

sounds like one of the rituals dating back to ye olde pagan days

What does Mark?