This afternoon, with wellies and walking sticks, we went on our annual sloe picking expedition (fruit illustrated above in situ). We visited our usual three sloe trees a day or two ago, and were disappointed with them. So today went to a very secluded hedgerow we hadn't cropped for about five years, and it was full of sloes. These are small, wild, blue plums. They are sour and quite inedible. Useless except that with the proper treatment they yield sloe gin, which is a superb (and very potent) liqueur. Quite the best winter warmer I know. Traditionally given as the stirrup cup at a winter meet of hounds. Sorry, guilty of tautology there, as there's no such thing as a summer meet of hounds. A good many of us make the stuff in our area, and we're all very secretive about our sources of supply and recipes. I was given our recipe some years ago by a dear old friend of ours from Lavenham, and it's always given great satisfaction. After we'd picked our usual five pounds of sloes, we locked them in the car, and went for a walk around the area. More photies to follow (we hope).
2 comments:
Glad to hear you've been sloeing (sorry, that looks wrong). There are a couple of fine looking trees near us, but being townie-types we weren't sure if they're ready for picking yet. I shall follow your lead and go and have a rummage in the foilage in the next couple of days. Lots of love, Amy x
Hi Ami and Liam. I always used to try and leave the sloes until they'd had a frost on them. Nowadays rather than pricking each one with a silver fork, I simply bung them in the freezer for a few days, it does the same thing and it's quicker (what you might call fast sloe gin -Sorry!!!), and it also means they've had a frost (which does improve the taste). And anyway, if I leave them much longer (in this area), someone else picks them before I can. As long as they're blue, they'll do.
Much love Mike and Ann.
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