Prunus spinosa

Today's the day ..................... to pick sloes

Picked sloes today to make some sloe gin which hopefully will be just about ready for drinking by Christmas time.

The way we have always made it is to use equal volumes of sloes, gin and sugar, the restricting factor usually being how much gin you can afford! Find a suitable glass jar or bottle with a lid to make it in - something like the ones that you get sweets in is perfect. Prick the sloes with a large pin a few times and make alternate layers in the jar of sloes, sugar and gin. Put the lid on and give it all a good shake. Leave it somewhere to mature, shaking it now and then.

Eventually the juices will come out of the sloes, leaving them all wrinkled like raisins, the sugar will have dissolved in the gin and the whole thing will have turned a lovely dark red. Decant into the bottle you want to keep it in and drink whenever the occasion presents itself ..............