In these last days of colourful Autumn, I’m feeling Winter’s chill advancing, with the frost bringing brilliance to early mornings as sunshine dances off frozen landscape when I’m baking in the early morning. I wrap up warm against that cold, biting North wind on my afternoon walks, seeing my breath rise in a misty haze in the brilliant rays of cold sunshine, as darkness wins the battle of light. But in the midst of this chill, I feel warm in my heart and under my woolly bobble hat as thoughts turn to warm crackling Christmas fires and cosy nips of sloe gin. Sloe gin is the perfect glass of Christmas, having been gathering its thoughts in a large Kilner jar, since it was made this time last year, ready for decanting into pretty bottles to give out as Christmas gifts to my favourite people.
Sloe gin, often known as a poor man’s port is a warming liqueur made using the berries from the thorny blackthorn bush, which are macerated in a mixture of gin and sugar over a year. Of recent years I have developed an appreciation for this delicious drink using the foraged ripe, dark blue sloe berries known as Prunus spinosa, which is delicious drank neat over ice or made into a Royale by adding a drizzle to champagne. I watch out for the pretty, blackthorn bush blossoms which are among the first to appear in the hedgerows, marking the retirement of winter and the spot of a future Autumn bounty with an abundance of gleaming sloe berries.
To make this recipe we pick the sloes after the first frost of winter which help soften the flesh and reduce the acidity of the berry. Ideally the berries should be ripe and easily squash between your fingers before picking but be careful of the thorns. When we take them home the sloes are washed and dried before being pricked using a darning needle to help release the juices. This darning needle, which is kept for such a task has never been lost yet and is as important a tool in the kitchen cupboard as the favourite rolling pin or wooden spoon. On less frosty late Autumns, we can mimic the frost by freezing the sloes before using them, causing them to become more mushy and removing the need for them to be pricked. The sloes are then added to a sterilised kilner jar, before adding sugar and gin. The turning of the jar is important in these first few weeks and I have a list of friends who are willing to do the daily turning of the jar if I’m away, with the promise of a wee bottle for their Christmas cheer.