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suzidfloosey wrote:

This is what we did yesterday - we had spotted an old blackthorn shrub nearby that had huge sloe's on it so we went out and picked about 4lbs of them, washed them, pricked the skins with the thorn of the blackberry (some superstitious nonsense but thought better not to risk it - the thorns are huge and v.sharp) added a few oz's of sugar and then using 3.5 litres of cheap vodka (gin can be used for sloe gin but we're not gin people altho' i do like a G&T now and again) made up 8 x large bottles of the liqueur. Already today it's a beautiful red colour. They will sit (agitated every few days) for 2-3 months and then it gets strained off into smaller bottles & labeled as gifts or I suppose we could drink some! It can be kept for a year or so - some people keep it for years and say the flavour improves. Our cupboards are now filled with about 50 lbs of crabapple jelly (from what was our Dad's family farm), 20 lbs of blackberry & apple jam and these 8 bottles of sloe liqueur! The hedgerows are our larder this year! What will we do with it all tho'.......all round to my place in Feb for some sloe drinkin'??? It's supposed to be v.good with ice as a digestive after meals, good for colds as a 'hot toddy' and for the more sophisticated we could use it as a 'creme' ie a shot into a wine glass and topped up with a good chilled dry white wine....any takers??

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