Will Sloe Berries be on the Blackthorn bushes now? I thought I would try and go and find some now (for picking later in the year) in preperation for the Sloe Gin sessions!

Blackthorn = sloe.

Great year for the hedge fruit this season with the good weather we've had. The sloes will even get slightly sweet. Might still be a little early though, try some to see – wince:)

Yes, spotted yesterday while out riding. Looked a good crop too.

Loads there now and many are ready some a couple of weeks more, suppose depends on the area. Some bushes have none on but scout about as the ones that do are covered in them this year. Going to pick some this weekend and freeze them.

there seem to be plenty about – have some in my garden for picking this year. Have some excelent blackberries too (sometimes having a communal garden with a crap garden is good!)- although I did have one of the old dears moaning that I couldnt pick the blackberries the other day…silly old bid

Supposed to wait for the first frost to pick sloe berries – although I usually pick late sept and then stick them in the freezer. Get cracking sloe gin (lidl gin (dont need expensive stuff), 1/3 bottle of sugar, berries and shake regularily for 6 months to a year – the best bit of the making is drinking the excess gin, and then once the sloe gin is finished you can coat the sloes in chocolate and eat them!)

Phhbbt!

Once you've tried Sloe Poitin there's no going back, shame i only get one bottle a year, its difficult to make it last!

get them now! my FIL made 2 litres of sloe gin last weekend, get there quick before they all get picked

Loads around my parts, but they don't seem to be ripe yet around here, can you pick them early and let them ripen?

What are they like for making jam?

Hurray for sloe gin! It is a good crop this year, and for damsons too. Extra nice, cos a frost at the wrong time last year killed them all off. Trad wisdom is to pick after the first frost, but I don't usually wait. Also noticed last night that some are feeling ripe already, which seems a bit early. Ski, I have made sloe gin with rock hard sloes, but I will wait another few weeks to get mine.

Intrigued by sloe poitin, got a recipe 13thfloormonk?

"1/3 bottle of sugar" ! Yuk, – I use none at all, (personal taste I guess).

Damsons a-plenty right now.

We found three damson trees down a quiet country lane whilst walking last Saturday. Nipped back in the car on Sunday morning and from one tree we got over 10kgs 😀

We now have enough damson jam to last till 2012!

I'm going to get some cheap whisky to make blackberry whisky this year, I think.

http://self-sufficientinsuburbia.blogspot.com/search?q=whisky

Annabananna, its pretty simple:

1)Find a nice Irish girlfriend
2)Charm her father with several parts fine single malt
3)Express a taste for her father's uncle's friend's homebrewed poitin (potatoes and barley is all i've been told)
4)Try not to show too much concern when he presents you with a litre bottle of bright pink sticky liquid with a pile of berries in the bottom of it.
5)Horde it, and resist the urge to let all and sundry try it, it doesn't last! 🙁

having acquired the actual poitin i think the method is much the same as doc_blues'

@mountaincarrot – just using the family recipie – got pissed on sloe gin when I was about eight after having the 'responsibility' of doing the shaking and have always liked it sweet

13thfloormonk – that's me out of the running at the 1st hurdle! Making drinks out of potatoes reminds me of McDonalds though, so shall stick to gin based….

Blackberry brandy on my list for this year as well. I love the fact that my slight sadness at the approaching end of summer is countered by hedgerows full of stuff to eat/cook/make into potent drinks for night rides.

sloes and damsens arent quite ready around us (cheshire), another few weeks til prime ripeness. Picked about 20lbs of plums yesterday from a small orchard we found and the blackberries have just comeout a goodun too!

gf has done my plums …..
Had compote (?? – well stewed with nectarines and cinammon sticks) at a BBQ, jam in cupboard and last 3kg is being turned into chutney.
Also planning to leave left overs in demi-jon with vodka (other recipies/ideas welcome).

Tip – sloe gin with Ben + Jerrys cherry garcia works well.

Currently quite up on bramble patches so looking at plans for that, ditto sloes…

does anyone know why a tree with shedloads of sloes one year has none the next?

Well I have been on a Jam making marathon at the weekend, as our allotment has 3 different types of plum trees.

I now have a kitchen full of 40-60 odd jam jars of plum jam, glad the Mrs and kids love it though.

Going to barter most of it away, with others down the allotment.

Making some sloe jam would be neat as no one here seems to want to make use of them here.

miketually – Member

I'm going to get some cheap whisky to make blackberry whisky this year, I think.

http://self-sufficientinsuburbia.blogspot.com/search?q=whisky

Great Link Mike, thanks for that, what's you whisky of choice?

Great Link Mike, thanks for that, what's you whisky of choice?

I've never made it before. IIRC, the site says to just use very cheap whisky – supermarket saver stuff, I'd guess. Depending upon what that costs, Aldi do Glen Moray for less than a tenner a bottle, so I might go for that.

We're in the middle of buying a house with a garden that includes an orchard with fruit trees. Looking forward to making jam next year.

Just remember to delegate the job of counting all the stones in the jam from damsons and the like!

Haven't found a crop of Damsons for a few years around here none of the places I know have had them, think I may have to head down the road to my town of birth and check out old hunting grounds.

Sloe Gin is a liquor so should have sugar in but 1/3 seems a tad too much personally but it is down to taste.

Sloe berries and aniseed and a bit of fermentation = Patxaran a lovel basque drink, evil hangovers though.

Plums everywhere, damsons, sloe's etc.

Apples soon….. 🙂

Apple Fritters .. MMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm….Slober.

Dont forget Yew Berries are edible and they taste like Strawberries 🙂

Apples soon, loads ready up here have been for weeks.

hmm…. I was in the process of starting a business making chutney and preserves (inc the impossible-to-get Sloe Jelly). Maybe I could make my fortune selling Sloe Poteen to STW alcos?

I'm not a spirit fan, but a good, old poteen is the smoothest and most delicious drink known to man. We had a few sips of a 5 yr old bottle the other weekend and ended up giving it to our English visitors because they were so amazed by it.

Dont forget Yew Berries are edible and they taste like Strawberries

Yes, but the seeds are very poisonous, and are very slimy, so the seeds must be removed before eating the pulp. Otherwise the results = very ill or dead human. 😥