sloes

[jacquie]

might be worth checking your local sloe picking spots - went foraging for sloes and blackberries this weekend found sloes so ripe they were falling off the bush/tree - managed to grab 4kg of the fattest sloes I've ever found - seems really early to me - seems to have been a good year for hedgerow foraging

[myles]

My sloes are not ready yet but there are plenty of blackberries.

[jacquie]

got loads of blackberries to - gonna try sloe and blackberry together

[Easydrinker]

I assume that you know that hearing tales of others fortunes sometimes makes others cuss and lament?
I have not yet seen a berry on our Blackthorn this year.
I keep eating the blackberries.
Swings and round-abouts.

Robert.

[Mash]

The blackberry bushes are finished around here.
I have noticed plump and really early sloes.

[phantom]

Think it's varying from area to area. Seen some that are very good sized sloes that are ripe already, equally seen just as many that are still "bluing" up but are solid as stone still.

One thing I did learn a good while back, is that the "old wives tales" of waiting until the first frost, is about the fact that they're very dry/acidic so waiting until the first frosts is when there can be no more sugars added to the fruit from ripening as the sap in the bush will have dropped after the frost so the fruit will be as "sweet" as nature can manage (sloe spirits, wines, meads, etc still need some sweetening so that the drink isn't mouth puckeringly acidic to the taste)........

another bit of seasonal weirdness is that we seem to be having relatively ripe blackberries, elderberries and sloes, all at the same time - my experience is of elderberries first, then blackberries followed by sloes - hence I'm presuming the warmth (relative) of the summer has affected different plants in slightly different ways, but that's also dependant on the area...........

Curious.........

[gaza the instructor]

Just filtered and bottled last years batch.
Ended up with 8x700ml bottles.
It is a very moorish concoction. I drink it
like a port after a nice meal.

[Easydrinker]

If I had yer address gaza, I would come and burglarise you.

Robert.

[Mash]

I believe the word is 'Burgle' darling - none of these Americanisms please.

[gaza the instructor]

Oh my word!! Glad to see you two are still at
"hanbags at dawn" could be fun .
Yes ED its a lot but I like it.

[Easydrinker]

Someone kindly gifted me some sloes last year, because they were the "biggest and earliest" they had ever seen, and they "couldn't leave them on the tree".
It was only when I pulled them from the freezer that I realised that they were in fact Bullace, not sloe.
Mixed in with Sloes they did the do.

Robert.

[jacquie]

what are bullaces and howd'ya tell the difference?

[Easydrinker]

A bullace is a very small type of plum, about twice the size of the average sloe, I believe they can come in different colours.
They are old school and found randomly in the countryside, the trees don't have the spikes of Blackthorn.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullace

Robert.

[Mash]

Beat me to it.
No pain no gain. Sloes have thorns.

[jacquie]

oh in that case definately sloes the scabby scratches on arms and legs verify - cheers again peeps