Used Omlet outdoor rabbit run Width 2.2m Height 2.05m Length 3.1m vgc.

[Charlottechicken]

I've been picking sloes for the past fortnight. There are so many round here this year, I have picked around 6lbs and made no discernable dent in the supply.

 

As well as sloe gin, I'm going to try and make some sloe jelly. It is supposed to be quite tart so more suitable to have with meat than spread on your toast. Hopefully, I'm going to have a go at sloe gin truffles with the sloes from the gin too.

 

Anyone else got a sloe glut?

[Couperwife]

ive not picked any yet

 

but ive found a load of bushes - so im going to start picking them soon

 

do you freeze them as soon as you have picked them?

 

cathy

x

[Charlottechicken]

I do, and that's only because I usually pick them before we've had any frost. I don't think you have to, and am sure I've read that it doesn't make any difference

 

Round here, some of the sloes are actually over ripe now, really wrinkled and squishy. I've not seen them like that before.

[Lavenders_Blue]

I haven't even looked to see how the sloes are doing this year round our way. DH is keen to make more sloe vodka (better than sloe gin IMHO) but we still have gallons left from last year. Clearly we're not drinking it fast enough Must rectify that.

[The Dogmother]

We have loads of sloes here too Claire and I was checking them this weekend - they have ripened early.

 

The normal advice is to pick them after the first frost as that 'blets' (softens) them. I just pick them and bung them in the freezer before use. Only pick them if they give slightly when squeezed.

[Christian]

I picked a bag full this week and there seems to be lots around this year Popped them in the freezer for now, until I get a chance to make some sloe gin.

[LJ's Chooks]

can the chooks eat them??? I've got some left over from my gin .... er making not drinking, can they have them???

[Old Speckled Hen]

They have quite a hard stone in the middle and I don't know if a chicken gizzard could cope with it. Mine won't touch them. My DH made a song and dance over how nice they taste so that his five year old grandson would eat one. You should have seen the poor mites face.

[The Dogmother]

My chooks don't like them one bit - I wouldn't bother. I just throw the post-gin sloes out when I strain it before Chrsitmas

[Old Speckled Hen]

According to River Cottage

 

Drink gin, then chop the fruit and discard the stones. Melt some good dark chocolate and mix in the ginny sloes, pour into a shallow tray and leave to set = sloe gin chocolate. Plant the stones in a pot of good compost and leave in a cold frame over winter, and by next autumn you should have your very own blackthorn (sloe) bushes germinating.

[The Dogmother]

they are very bitter... I can't think of anything more disgusting