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1lb sloes, trimmed and washed
2 pints of vodka
8oz sugar
1/8 teaspoon almond essence
Intro and Method

The Sloe, or Blackthorn, is classified as a wild ancestor of the plum. The bushes grow in hedgerows all over the country, bearing blue-black, marble-sized fruits. 

The original recommendation was to pick your sloes in late October or November when they are at their ripest.

However, with the ever changing climate it seems that the fruit is to be found in abundant supply from late August.

Prick sloes all over using a large needle and place in a demijohn.
Pour over vodka, add sugar and almond essence. 
Seal. Place in a cool dark cupboard and shake daily.
The sugar will dissolve and the liquid will eventually become dark in colour.
After two months, pour the mixture into bottles through a funnel lined with fine cheesecloth.

Seal and store in a cool place.

Ready in time for Christmas!

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Superb sloe vodka recipe

Ingredients:

    * 1lb/454gm of washed sloes
    * 4 ozs/112gm of white granulated sugar
    * 2 empty 75cl vodka bottles
    * I litre of medium quality vodka

Method

   1. Wash sloes well and discard any bruised or rotten fruit. Prick fruit several times with a fork and place sloes half the sloes in each bottle. I put several sloes in my palm to prick them rather than picking them up one by one.
   2. Using a funnel, add the sugar and top up with gin to the rim. Always open sugar bags over the sink as sugar tends to get caught in the folds at the top of the bag.
   3. Shake every day until the sugar is dissolved and then store in a cool, dark place until you can resist it no longer (try to leave for at least three months, we usually let it mature for a year. As you can see from above it was overwhelmingly moreish at three weeks).
   4. Some people strain the grog (through muslin/jelly bag) after 3 months and bottle it, leaving it mature for six months. We will strain and bottle any that’s left after six moths as I want to try making sloe sherry and slider (farmhouse cider and gin/vodka soaked sloes as recommended into the comments section of our sloe gin posts). Don’t leave the straining process longer than a year; leaving the fruit in too long can spoil the liqueur.