Out riding today and checking my favourite foraging spots. It looks another bumper year for the sloes and blackberries – so another massive own-brand gin buying spree for the sloe gin again. Probably some more bramble jelly as well, but the crab apples don't look so good for some reason.

Do the fellow sloe gin makers get funny looks for buying 3 or 4 bottles of own-brand gin at a time? 😳

Loaded, noticed that myself.

Thought this might be a bit of a 'Monty Pythons cycling tour of North Devon' type post for a mo.

We've loads of blackberries in the garden and loads locally too. Seemed to be a good year for raspberries, so wonder if that's also been good for blackberries?

The wife and kids made apple and blackberry jam last week, using the windfalls in our orchard. Lovely.

I'm going to make some blackberry whisky, I think, rather than sloe gin.

Our two crab apple trees are loaded, too.

I did bramble whisky last year as an experiment. It is pretty good, but it isn't sloe gin!

BTW – looks like Asda and Sainsburys have the cheapest gin atm.

I usually buy the gin in my lunch hour. Four bottles and a bag of crisps, and a big smile for the checkout person!

Whaddya do with the crab apples guys?

Our raspberries were awesome this year and the hedgerows gave great for bilberries, the blackberries started a couple of weeks ago and loads more to come 🙂

It's odd – a prolific sloe bush last year is empty now but luckily one round the corner is heaving 🙂

Good blackberry harvest to date also !

My mind was immediatly drawn to the likes of c_g and foxychick. I am descending into dirty old man territory wherever possible nowadays. Keeping good company round here too!

Whaddya do with the crab apples guys?

Have crabapple fights! No – crabapple jelly is lovely – quite delicate and a lovely home made Christmas gift for the friends. I did hedgerow jelly too – sloes, damsons, crabapples and blackberries together – that was nice.

Got 3 tubs of Blackberries from Ashton court last weekend with loads left to rippen

Tootall…fancy making some sloe gin this year. Usually go for damson brandy but fancy a change.
Please enlighten me to the process! Ta.

So…a load of sloes, some cheap gin…anything else?

1.5kg of rosehips for rosehip wine this weekend. Woop woop.

F_C – bottle of cheap gin, empty out about half of it, half-fill bottle with sloes (you need to break the skin – see below) then about 150g of sugar, top up with gin, put the top on and shake. Put it in a dark cupboard and give it a good shake about once a week. Start tasting at about the 3 month mark once sugar is all dissolved. Leave no longer than 6 months. Decant, let it settle and syphon off and leave the sediment. Enjoy.

Take the gin-soaked sloes and bung in some scrumpy cider, leave for a week. Enjoy slider!

Breaking the skin – some use pins, some a fork. Too much effort. I freeze the sloes until I need them, then run a batch under the hot tap – that defrosts them and breaks the skin.

If you want to make a lot, use demijohns or something bigger – same proportions. I made 4 gal last year in a home brew barrel! Damson gin is very similar if you have them local too.

Cheers TT…will give it a go!
Made damson gin last year but don't think I left it long enough…started tasting it too early, and by the time it was ready for drinking it was all gone!! 8)