Sloe Gin

We finally found some sloes yesterday and have been busy today turning them into booze.

Picking sloes with an audience


3.5kg picked from one small area.



Washed, destalked and frozen overnight to split the skins. (I don't have the time to prick each one so I cheat)

Place 500g in the bottom of a clean 2 litre bottle. Add 200g sugar, white is normally used but we're trying soft brown in one) and approx 500ml of gin (some of ours have a little more in. We're also trying a 1/2 tsp of almond essence in some of the bottles.
























Same as the blueberry vodka, shake every day for a week, every other day for a fortnight then once a week till December. Then strain off, bottle up and drink :)

Blueberry Vodka

Quick recipe for blueberry infused vodka.

Send minion to collect blueberries




Wash and place in a kilner (or any other airtight) jar.



Cover with sugar




Add cheap vodka








Close the lid and give it a really good shake up.







This makes me want a snowglobe :) I must try and get one for Abi this year.


Tada





Not quite...I'm making this at the same time as sloe gin so will treat this the same. Shake it every day for a week, every other day for a fortnight, then once a week till beginning of December. Then I'll have a taste and see if it's ready to drain off.

The leftover blueberry mush will be used as the base for a dessert syrup.

- Mobile post

Foraging

After a lot of walking and wandering and googling to try and find some sloes to make into gin, it became apparent that there really is no substitute for local knowledge.

Whilst picking away at the sloe trees that a friend had told us the location of, I was thinking over ideas to help other would be foragers.

I've started playing with the idea of a google map based system, where we can log areas that have forageable food, along with tips of how to access them.

It's only in the beginning stages of an idea, but this is the bit of harvesting we did this morning.


View Foraging in a larger map

What do we think? Any ideas