Walk to Firehills, Sloes, and a Recipe for Sloe Gin - plus!

View from Firehills Earlier

I own up, I've been walking over to Firehills, and usually beyond to Pett Level/Pett Village/Winchelsea/Icklesham/Rye (whichever), for years, but since the Covid-10 lockdown began, I walked across Hastings Country Park Nature Reserve for my daily exercise (eg see blog from March), and still do more days than I don't, and taken more notice. So, lovely, and not too hot this morning, with a decent breeze, and, okay, I've noticed them lots before, and I've already picked berries and placed a couple of bags of them in my freezer. Anyway, SLOE BERRIES! There are so many about, and so early in the year to be ready to pick, indeed, they've even been dropping free already.

Sloe Berries at Firehills Earlier

So what do I suggest? For a start, if you like sloe gin (and other sloe-based recipes, eg sloe port and sloe brandy), hurry up and pick your sloes before it's too late. Then wash the berries, leave to dry, and place into freezer bag/s to be frozen; this helps them to develop better, and to crack them when they are later placed into gin whilst frozen, helping the flavour and colour to come out. Otherwise, if using the berries straight away, then comes the laborious task of pricking every berry with a sharp knife! I strongly recommend freezing them before using them. 😉

SLOE GIN EASY RECIPE: There are many sloe gin recipes about on the internet and in books, this is my basic recipe, I tend to add a little less sugar (personal preference) and, depending on how many berries I've picked, usually a few more berries, especially as I use the berries again a few months later.

Place 500 grams of frozen/pricked berries into a litre of gin in a larger sealable container, stir in 250 grams of caster sugar. Then shake every day for at least a week (I tend to shake every now and then after the first week, you gradually see the colour going red), and leave for 2-3 months. Again, I'm impatient and tend to not last the 3 months, and I've never been disappointed. Then pour off the berries into sterile bottle/s. I wash the bottle/s (unless it still contains a wee bit of gin, which I make sure a 75ml bottle does), and use 2 or 3 of those smaller glass-sized wine bottles which have been washed, then had gin swirled around inside them to sterilize.

Here's one I made earlier!

Drink when you like, but better to leave for a little while to mature, if you can remain patient enough! Then, what do I do with the berries? Use them again, that's what! Years ago I had a book with recipes in it (no idea where that went, I think I may have sold it with other books when I was short of money) which had a recipe for sloe brandy, which is very good (a bit like brandy with ameretto, so I discovered - if you don't like almonds, give them a miss!), and I found recently a recipe for sloe port on the internet.

SLOE BRANDY: To the sloe berries, following the gin being poured off, add up to 200 grams of caster sugar (amount can be personal choice), a bottle of brandy and some crushed almonds (I may try almond essence next time, just to see if it works, and I don't see why not). Shake for 2 months, leave for another month, then drain off into sterile bottle/s. Leave for a month or so, your choice, and drink!

SLOE PORT: Similar to sloe brandy, only add to the used gin-soaked sloe berries 100 grams of caster sugar, 200mls of brandy, and a bottle of red wine (I used a reasonably cheap 14% full-bodied red from the New World). Shake daily, if you remember, for 6-8 weeks, leave for a month or so, and drain the sloe port off the berries, 'tis good!

Or you can look up other recipes on the internet, enjoy!