Sloe gin - self made

Many people like it - but only a handful of them actually dare doing it: to make your own sloe schnapps. If you collect some sloes from the side of the road, make sure they are mature enough when picking. September/October would be about the right time, but later doesn't matter so much, since frost can only improve their taste.

Photo by Wikipedia Image credit

After picking and collecting (hopefully without too many scratch marks left on your skin), you wash the sloes thoroughly and dry them afterwards. Were they matured relatively early, so that there was no chance for them to get a little frost impact, then put the bag with the sloes in the freezer for 2-3 weeks altogether.

Now, you'll be ready for processing the sloes. Some people prefer a mix of sloes and vodka, but in most cases gin is used as a basis, probably because these two tastes go well together.

This is what you need:
-A number of jars with tight closing lids (according to how many sloes you've collected)
-Coarse sugar
-Gin (or vodka in the other case)
-The sloes (washed and dried or defrosted and dried)

That's what you have to do:

Sterilise the jars and lids. Prepare the sloes by pinching several holes in each individual fruit by using a strong pin or needle and put them in the jars one by one. Don't put too many in each jar - you'll have to be able to shake the contents well once verything is filled. Between half and 2/3 would be good. Now add the other ingredients:

Per 1 kg of sloes you'll need:

-450g of sugar
-1.5l of gin

Put the sugar over the fruits and add the gin with the right measure in each jar, depeneding how much (in weight) is in the jar. Then close it tighly and put it on an indoor window sill.

















Photo taken by the author - all rights reserved.

Leave to sit for 2 - 3 months (the longer the better) and shake well - at the start about 2-3 times every day, after two to three weeks once or twice per week will do. This is to mix the contents properly through.

After the maturing period, opene the jars, pour the contents trough a fine filter several times until properly clear and fill in sterilised schnapps bottles. After closing the bottles, sit back and enjoy or wait for some friends to call around and surprise them with your self-made sloe gin.

Treasures the roadside offers you

About two weeks ago we went for a short drive with the intention to look out for some black berries for jam making. Well, we found some - and not only black berries, but also rose hips and completely unexpectedly also some sloes. As a result of that we got a good amount of everything and this made us really excited about the finding out what to do with it. We are quite familiar with blackberries and Gráinne has been making jam a few times. So nothing new there, but what to do with the rose hips and sloes?

Here are suggestions:

Rose hips: They can give a really tasty and nutritious tea. You can keep portion them in freezer bags and keep them in the freezer. Once defrosted, you just pour boiling water over them in a jug and enjoy the tea once it had a rest of a few minutes. Since not all of the nutrients are released the first time, you can even make two or three brews with the same hips, provided you keep them.

For the blackberries we suggest to use a half and half mix of blackberries and apple when making your jam. That will give it a milder taste and the amount of berries stretches further. Other than that, proceed as usual.

Finally for the sloes: Sloes develop a better taste once they've got some frost. Since that is hardly possible in Ireland, you can use the trick of putting them into the freezer for about three weeks - the effect will be the same. That's the starting point. then, after three weeks, follow one of many recipes you'll find on the Internet. It doesn't have to be gin, but a good and clear vodka will do if you use plenty of the sloes. Enjoy your sloe gin responsibly!

Bursts of green...

... emerge from the seed and plant beds. Taking the risk of autumn sowings this year definitely paid off as most of the crops have already germinated within a few days. This is due to the unusually high amount of sunshine we got so far in this early autumn which is probably the best start to autumn I ever experienced here. It's more like a late burst of summer, and as the locals say, much better than the so-called summer was.

There are carrots, rocket, winter spinach and winter lettuces coming up. The cabbages and chicories are going strong. Fingers crossed, there will be a lot to be harvested in late autumn or winter. So far there are also not too many slugs, which is, once again, thanks to the dry weather conditions I'm sure not every farmer will like...

Pickling beetroots

This is a tricky business - not that it would be difficult, but the dye of beetroots is just so bloody red and so hard to get rid of. That's why you'll see me here wearing these rubber gloves, which I usually hate. But there is something I'd hate more: red fingers and finger nails. So I had to give in. The beetroots need to be left fully intact, so that they don't bleed. Cut the leaves and the root off about half an inch to the bulb, and then clean them carefully with a brush, making sure not to damage the skin.

Wrap them into a piece of foil and put them into the oven you preheated to 180 degrees C for about 2 hours. In the meantime, you prepare the pickle. Mix some white or red wine vinegar with a few cloves, pepper corns, coriander seeds and a bay leaf and bring to the boil. Then leave it sit and infuse until the beetroots are ready. Reheated to the boil, it is at the end poured over the thinly sliced beetroots in the sterilised jars, and finally sealed with non-metal lids and left to seal properly through evacuation while cooling.

Cold frame and growhouse

The cold frame was already in the garden, but at a different place. Now there was some space cleared in the potato bed, and it seemed like an obvious place to put it there, where it also gets more light. In some pots, I sowed some winter greens and - just as an experiment - some peas and beans as well.

For the plants that will hopefully germinate in the cold frame, some more space might be required later on, which is why we also got a small growhouse (let's better say a small tent with clear plastic lining including four shelves (from B&Q). This will furthermore take some extra seedlings and some experimental plants during the winter. With four shelves, it gives you quite a number of options what you can put inside. You'll see more once some pots and plants will go into it.

Sowing and planting

While the third bed is still in the making, I started right away with some planting and sowing. I planted some green winter cabbages (Glory of Enkhuizen), which I got in a ten-pack from the garden centre. In the same packaging came a set of ten chicory plants. I also set some onions for autumn growing, red onions sets (Electric) and some golden onions sets (Jermor).

Something rather safe should also be the radish Scarlet Globe, since it is a vigorous grower and will do fine until it becomes really cold. More on the experimental side are these two sowings: early carrots Nantes 5 and some wild rocket. We'll see what happens.

If the phantastic weather we currently have will go on for another week or two, they might still germinate alright. A must is of course some winter lettuce. I used the winter variety Arctic King, which is promising when sown until November.

New layout and beds (2)

Here we go - the first results of restructuring the garden. Our lawn was sacrificed in favour of some decent size vegetable beds. I double-dug the beds, worked manure in and improved the top soil as well. All it needs now, is some TLC and soubtle weather. The latter is not in our responsibility, which is why I keep fingers crossed.