Preserving exploits: The October edition

Today, a bright, crisp and chilly Sunday saw me thus attired - naturally for sloe picking. M and I marched off in the sunshine, to our local spot for foraging, only to find a complete absence of sloes. When we had last been there for the blackberries there were definitely some sloes there, not a great deal, but a few. Today however, none. At all. Clearly lacking in tenacity I suggested giving up, but remembered where our Brown Owl gets her damsons from and wondered if there might be sloes there. So we hopped in the car and pottered over, fortunately finding plenty of fruit to forage. 

The Blackthorn bushes had already been well stripped with many of the sloes being out of our reach, so we developed new rules - if you couldn't reach the berries with your feet flat on the floor and your arm outstretched, they belonged to the blackbirds. Seeing as the 'harvest' was fairly sparse in our area I felt that was fairer, so no walking sticks, branches or any adaptations to make our work easier were used. We're both slightly scratched, but nothing a hot bath couldn't cure, and the sloes are ready to go into the freezer overnight. 

I was absolutely stunned to discover we had picked 1.5kg of sloes, as I thought we had far less. By my reckoning, that's plenty for 3 litres of gin. If I normally get you a Christmas present and it's you don't drink - tell me now! I'll pick up sugar and gin tomorrow and will strain the last lot of blackberry vodka tonight so that I can put my large kilners back in rotation. 

I should probably update you - as this weekend has been a bit of a bottling spree as it were - all the Blackberry vodka has been bottled, the Blackberry and blackcurrant rum has been sweetened and strained, and the Blackberry gin is just waiting for the new bottles to be sterilised so that that can go in. I'm like a one woman distillery! 

So, sloes are ready to go - and this round up of my preserving exploits for the last couple of months is also my entry to A Little bit of heaven on a plate's Home Made and Well Preserved linky

Blackberry vodka and also here 

Also... Rhubarb and ginger jam (which I'm saving for Christmas presents but desperately want to eat myself!)

I declare it Gin o'clock: Sloe gin

It is with much interest that Mark and I follow @Queen_UK on twitter, she never ceases to amuse us with her acerbic wit and sardonic asides. And my promise does say that I will "serve my Queen and my country" so naturally the possibility of making sloe gin was not to be turned down.

Like the recent Elderberry cordial sloe gin was something where there was no one definitive recipe for - although at least I didn't need to check which bits were poisonous with the sloes! Last year I held out to wait for frosted sloes, only to find that the blackbirds had thoroughly filled their tummies. This  year Mark's parents helped me out when they came across some on a walk, which was a relief as I couldn't fimd any locally. (Damn living in town)

So without a definitive recipe, here is my general
Penelope's Pantry Sloe Gin Guidelines...

Wash and prick the sloes (you could miss this step by freezing them overnight to split the skins) and then put them at the bottom of large kilner (or any) jars. 
I had 2 pints (1 litre) of gin and so split the sloes in half between 2 kilner type containers
Add 12oz sugar (I just used granulated)
Top with the gin, screw the lids on tightly and leave in a dark cool place

For the first 2 weeks (or until the sugar dissolves) shake your containers every day. Then just give them a turn over or shake as you remember.

At some point you will need to strain the berries out of the gin, from all the guidance I've had (both internettty and real life) it seems that whenyou do that is entirely up to you. the lovely man I spoke to at the Newbury show drains his after six weeks, other people wait up to a year. I think I'm going to strain mine relatively soon so that I can bottle it before Christmas.

Again when you drink it is up to you - all my research indicates that older sloe gin matures into a soft madeira like flavour, whereas when it's newer, it retains the tartness of the fresh fruit. Personally I prefer younger gin in a champagne cocktail at Christmas, and the older is an amazing after dinner drink - or one to secrete about your personage in a hip flask for a winter walk!