Oct 08 07 |
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Sloes berries (the fruit of the blackthorn) seem to be very sparse this year. The mixed-up (wet) summer weather conditions must have resulted in a poor setting of the fruit.
We have found some though, but as this picture shows, picking them has required some extreme tree climbing!
Extreme sloe berry picking!
Pete, 6 feet up, a blackthorn tree that we hoped would support his weight...
Thanks to these determined tactics to harvest every berry we’ve seen we now have just enough to make a small quantity of sloe gin. It’ll be a special reserve bottling this year, we may only get 1 litre! A link to the recipe (from last year when we had a great harvest) can be found below…
The used sloes usually get thrown away, although we have tried making flapjack with some of the infused sloe berry flesh. This flapjack tastes great but tends to set poorly and disintegrates before you can get it in your mouth! 
So this year’s alternative plan is to stir the flesh into some melted dark chocolate. Then pour this onto a sheet of baking parchment and break into chunks when set! 
Article Series - Sloe Berries
- Sloe Gin!
- Making Sloe Gin (inc. Ingredients)
- Poor Sloe Berry Harvest
- More sloes than a very sloe thing
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Laetitia,
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6 Responses to “Poor Sloe Berry Harvest”
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I saw loads of sloe berries on the trees in Burrells near Appleby but wasn’t in a position to pick any.
Perhaps it’s just a Staveley thing?
What????
Send me the directions – but don’t tell anyone else.
Apparently they had large fat sloes down south in early September, but they’re all gone now.
I made the sloe gin last night – only had 300g of berries so less than 1 litre of gin
Have you tried the chocolate idea yet? Let us know!
looking forward to trying the chocolate idea – if you don’t eat it all first!
Yum. Perhaps it’s time I learned to recognise a Blackthorn tree.
Glad it is not just me desperate to make sloe gin but looks like all bushes in Essex have been stripped, but just bad year. DON’T throw sloes away make into sloe brandy by using cheap brandy good quantity of sugar and the left over sloes, it only takes a month til you can sample!!!