Sloes

[dandelion]

Yesterday, on a walk through green belt land to my local Wyevale garden centre (yes I bought LOADS of packets of seeds in the sale!), I discovered a bountiful supply of sloes.  I haven't picked any yet, but plan to return in a week or 2. I've already frozen elderberries and blackberry juice and I can get hold of crab apples next month, so I was thinking of making hedgerow jelly with the lot. Has anyone made jam just with sloes? Any other ideas to use sloes (apart from sloe gin)?

[dandelion]

[tim]

Thanks for the reminder. What else is there but Sloe Gin!!

[dandelion]

Thanks for the reminder. What else is there but Sloe Gin!!

I'll have to make some then ;D. Do I need to wait until November to pick the berries as some recipes suggest? The berries I saw looked ripe-ish.

[greyhound]

Ripe- ish isn't good enough.  Picking the sloes before they are really plump and juicy results in inferior sloe gin, believe me.  It's better than nothing, but patience pays off.  Last year was an early ripening season, but we still waited till October and November.  The sloes were just bursting with juice by then.

[Mrs Ava]

My neighbour has told me I can have her sloes this year and they are whoppers!  I shall wait until October before stripping the trees clean and bunging them in the freezer before making my gin.

Last year after decanting the fruit from the gin, I put the sloes with a little water into my preserving pan and made sloe gin jelly.  I had to cook the sloes gently for ages to get the max flavour, then I went at them with a potato masher before litting the goo drip through a jelly bag.  Once through, measured the liquid and for every pint I used a pound of sugar and boiled until setting point was reached.  Before bottling I put about a teaspoon of sloe gin in the bottom of each jam jar to enhance the sloe gin flavour, then added the jelly liquid.  It certainly got the thumbs up from the family!  ;D

[dandelion]

Sounds yummy EJ  ;D! I'll just have to be patient and hope no one else has their eyes on my sloes  ;). Plenty of berries around for the birds this year.

[keef]

Deffinatley much much better if you leave picking as late as you can. I made some last year with sloes picked in late september - the results were'nt that good when compared to what Greyhound made with sloes picked much later - mind you the xmas spices in one of the batches helped too  :P

Perhaps sloes are the opposite of blackberries, in that you must wait until after the devil has pissed on them before picking them..

[Barnowl]

The rule round us is not until after the first frost - don't recollect satanic urination being mentioned ;D

[Trixiebelle]

Harvested ours today  ;D Enough for an extensive p**s up at Christmas!

I was thinking of putting some angelica leaves/stems in it as well. Does anyone know if this is a good/bad idea?

[Trixiebelle]

YAY! Today I have made sloe gin, sloe rum, sloe vinegar & quince, sage and sloe sauce (for meat)

And there's STILL another half a hundred-weight left on the trees at the allotment!

And I've added the angelica leaves anyway ... so if I'm poisoned at Christmas I'll hold you all entirely responsible  ;D