can anyone please tell me if there is an easy way to remove the stones from sloes,we are going to try makeing chutney?

Burst is perfect! Ideally sloes should be picked after the first frost (when they burst), so when picking them earlier people often freeze them first so that they burst when thawing out. Get going!!!

Noticed some sloe berries whilst out a walk this morning. However they are very dark purple/black and in some cases burst. Can you still use them or am I simply too late for this year? I am not a gin fan at all but tried homemade sloe gin last weekend & loved it so fancy making some. I’m in the Scottish Borders.

Hi,
I have lived in my home for the past 16 years and was amazed to see for the first time this year a bush full of bluey purpley berries. They looked magnificent from the window, I originally thought it was a blue plastic sack that had blown onto the bushes but on closer inspection I discovered a huge crop of sloes. They were like bunches of grapes. I picked about 3lbs yesterday and have hardly knocked a dent in the crop. Looking for a recipe online I discovered your web page. Thanks for all the ideas. I think it will be sloe gin, sloe vodka and sloe rum this year. Like the idea of the liquers of sloes in chocolate too. Well done, keep up with the foraging!

My very kind work colleague has collected 4 lbs from her fields for me and brought them in this morning, I’m going to try making sloe gin for the first time! :)
Hopefully I can use as Christmas pressies but I may be too late for this year, we’ll see.

Laura – scroll up and you will find various suggestions! The recipe I use is from an old Marguerite Patton 500 Recipes for Wine and Drinks. It comes out like a liqueur, which is how it used to be drunk. However, it’s also great with a mixer such as lemonade. But be careful, it doesn’t taste alcoholic, though it’s potent! My sons and their partners say ‘my’ recipe is better for a cocktail than the weak stuff you get in pubs (at £7.50 a glass!). See also the comment on whether you are using ‘dry’ gin or not. Sloes are also great in whisky and rum. I put them in Captain Morgan’s last year, and made an amazing drink.

I find many Sloe Gins too sweet, my recipe is 1 pint gin (cheapest around), 8 oz pricked sloes and 6 oz sugar. This make a wonderful smooth drink which is incredibly potent so drink with care. Wear a pair disposable gloves when you prick the sloes or your hands and cuticles will look terrible with the fruit stains.

We are about to pick sloes for the first time ever, as there seems so many on our walks around Rugby and I am desperate to try it out. However, I cannot find a recipe that gives a good guide as to exactly the volume of gin to use per weight of sloes picked. I am going to try to use half sugar (e.g. 500g sloes, 250g sugar) but how much gin? Hopefully someone can help.

I also cannot abide the smell or taste of gin but I can assure you Sloe Gin is completely different. The addition of sugar and sloes transforms the original drink, it is wonderful and very potent. It is warm and mellow and slides down far too easily!

I’d like to know what to do with previously soaked berries too…they were in sherry. Can they be resoaked or is it time to go picking again?

My children went for a bike ride with their grandad and saw some people picking berries, on asking someone what they were he told him sloe berries. As we’d never heared of them before so I got the job of finding out what they were used for. No-one likes gin so I don’t think we’ll be trying it. but it was good to find out

Last year I saw on one of the older comments that the spent berries were tasty on ice-cream. I tried this, and it tasted awful! However, each to his own….

Traditionally they’re meant to be ripe in October, like other Autumn fruits, and best picked after the first frost. However, nature seems to be in chaos, and last year they were ready by 20 September and this year even earlier. I went to check their progress having seen the blackberries past their best and shrivelling on the bush. Maybe after last night’s cold weather I’ll check out some that are still on the tree!

I love sloe gin, and reckon it’s best, here in sussex, to leave them on the bush until October, when they are more juicy.
Does anyone have a use for the spent berries, it always seems a waste to me to throw away those gin soaked carcases!

Hi Len

Yes – they were small this year during September. I went early to pick them, even though we hadn’t had a frost, as the blackberries and elderberries were already ripe, and I only knew of one tree and didn’t want to find it stripped when I got there! The sloes were small and a tad firm, but worth picking anyway. In the way of apple picking, I left half of the sloes on each branch so they would have the chance to get bigger. Went back last week and got a bumper crop – perfect ripeness, much bigger and nice and plump! They filled the jar much quicker!

Carol – what an absolutely brilliant idea! I came up with my own device this year – a corn-on-the-cob holder with two substantial holes per ‘prick’! However, your idea beats mine by a long way!

Alison – they are vaguely green inside, but the juice runs pink when you prick them. Be warned – it stains!

Tom – thanks. Will check it out!

My 1st time picking Sloes for Sloe Gin this year. I devised an easy `Pricker`about 1.5cm sliced from cork, push 6-10 pins through. Sloe Pricker supreme.

At 70 years of age I picked Sloes today for the very first time, have read all your very welcome advice and just cannot wait to get started ….Wish me luck.

I tried Sloe Gin for the first time last weekend and then won a bottle of Gordon’s the following day in a “nearest the pin” – no-one else got on the green – it’s fate! Only problem is I no idea where to look for Sloes – can anyone help? Please! I live near Pontefract. Much obliged to you all. Thanks.

I thought I’d have a go myself this year and last Sunday picked a 1lb of small sloes in Wiltshire. Waited until Thursday to prick them, found they were quite soft already, bottled them with 1/2 litre gin and 150ml sugar. Hope it works out! May even go pick some more!

have just been out to pick some sloe berries,you mention slight pink, but all the ones i have picked are green inside . is it that they are not ripe ? some have started to shrivel on the tree so when is the the best time to pick and what do i look for?

Lindy: try googling “Old Tom Gin”…

Sue: Yes, freeze away, I read that it has the same effect as pricking them, but with much less manual intervention…!