The sun was shining; the contractor was lifting sugar beet; the haulier was taking them straight to the factory; the plough was almost keeping up with the beet harvester and the rotary cultivator/drill combination was planting wheat into the freshly turned land. It was all very satisfying and I decided there was not much I could do to improve things.
So, an hour ago I picked up a bucket from the garage and headed for one of our conservation hedges. For many years it's been one of my favorite places for sloes and this year there were more than ever. I was able to strip them off the twigs by the handful. Yes, I punctured my fingers with a few thorns but thats par for the course. In less than three quarters of an hour I had half filled the bucket. I left plenty for the birds but thought I should stop picking as I already had more sloes than I could afford to buy gin for.
This evening I shall sort the leaves from the fruit, wash the sloes and put them in the deep freeze. After a few days they'll be ready to shed their juice into the gin in which I shall place them along with lots of sugar.
My recipe is incredibly simple. Fill each bottle one third full with frozen sloes, tip in a slightly smaller volume of sugar, fill the bottle with gin, scew in the top and shake up the mixture. Place the bottles on a handy shelf and every day for a month as you walk past, pause and shake the bottles. When the sugar is all absorbed and the liquid has taken on a beautiful red colour, decant, filtering out the sloes.
When we have guests to shoot a little of the hedgerow cocktail will be taken out to entertain them. The only other use I have for sloe gin, of course, is for medicinal purposes. I just can't wait to be ill.