I've been looking around for some inspiration for sloe gin labels, as some of ours will probably be and parceled up for Christmas presents. This example from the 1920's is a beauty, the original can be found at the International Poster Gallery.
I rather like the idea of putting superior quality on my own sloe gin labels.

I still had a bowlful of sloes standing in the kitchen, and since there is only so much sloe gin you can make (or drink), have looked around for another recipe using the hard little fruits.
Pamela Michael's Edible Wild Plants & Herbs, is the ideal book for this sort of thing as it goes into great detail about the many uses of various wild plants.

One concern with using sloes to make preserves is how to deal with the stones, having had several messy experiences picking plum stones out of stewed plums I wasn't keen to repeat this with the smaller sloe stones. The basis of this jam is a pulp of apples and sloes, which means you conveniently sieve out the troublesome stones.

A word of warning, this is one time that apron hanging behind the kitchen door really should be worn as  sloe juice makes a good indelible ink if you ever need to write your name inside your clothes.

See here for the sloe and apple jam recipe.

Recipe Costs

£2.75 500g sloes (equivalent cost on ebay, mine were free)
£1.34 1kg cooking apples (equivalent cost, mine were free)
£ 1.40 1.5kg granulated sugar
£5.49 Total (£1.40 without buying the sloes and apples )
£2.74 per kg of jam(£0.70 per kg without buying the sloes and apples- 10% of the cost of equivalent at qualitypreserves.com)

The fruit is very quick to prepare as the apples are chopped roughly leaving the skin and core to add to the flavour. After 20 minutes of simmering the pulp is ready to be sieved.

This is the messy bit, I ended up forcing the remainder of the fruit through a colander with my hands in an attempt to extract as much pulp as possible. This took a surprising amount of time, partly as care needs to be taken when dealing with quantities of hot fruit pulp.

The resulting pulp was returned to the preserving pan..

..and sugar added..

..resulting in a rich dark jam a few minutes later.

Recipe Timings
15 mins preparation
30 mins simmering
30 mins pulping
15 mins boiling
15 mins potting

Taste Test

This jam still has a slight bitterness from the sloes, but has a nice smooth texture.

image source wikimedia commons

1. The latin name for the Sloe is Prunus Spinosa and it is also known as the Blackthorn.

2. The fruit are an ancestor of many varieties of cultivated plum.

3. Sloe stones used to be used to give colour to inferior wines.

4. Sloe stones have been found in prehistoric dwellings, it is thought they may have been used for dying fabric.

5. Straight blackthorn stems have traditionally been used to make walking sticks.

6. Blackthorn blossom is edible and can be crystallised as a cake decoration.

7. Sloe juice can be used as an indelible ink.

8. Sloes are traditionally used to flavour gin, but can also be used for wine, jam, syrup and fruit cheese.

9. Blackthorn bushes are common in hedgerows throughout Britain, except in the north of Scotland.

10. There is great discussion over how to best make sloe gin on the sloebiz forums.

I have discovered sloes in our garden hedge, which I am very excited about as I had forgotten I'd planted blackthorn as part of the native hedge mix put in 5 years ago. I shall have to make some sloe gin.

Until a few weeks ago the stretch of hedge was inaccessible, but as part of landscaping the garden to create a lawn I reached it and gave it a well needed trim. Amongst the hawthorn and hazel I found six bushes of the small purple berries, which were confirmed as sloes by a experienced gin maker who happened to be visiting at the time.

I am conscious I maybe picked the sloes a bit early, but I've now sown a lawn in front of the bushes and shouldn't walk on it for several months.

I've done a bit of research into the best way to make sloe gin and it seems to be one of those recipes that varies from region to region and person to person. Is it best to pick after the first frost or has this now changed due to global warming? Do you prick the berries with  a thorn from the bush, a silver fork, or just hit them with a rolling pin? Do you add freeze the berries first, add almond essence,whole almonds or cinnamon?

There are many excellent sites discussing these issues, the most helpful were at:

The Cottage Smallholder

The sloe.biz forums

The recipe I used was adapted from the sloe.biz forums.

See here for the sloe gin recipe in more detail.

Recipe Costs

£1.90 340g sloes (equivalent cost from ebay, mine were free)
£ 7.99 70cl gin (from aldi)
£0.12 130g granulated sugar
£10.01 Total (or £8.11 if you pick the sloes yourself)
£14.03 per litre of sloe gin - 63% the equivalent cost at tesco (£11.58 with picking your own sloes - half the equivalent cost at tesco )

Here are the sloes after I'd frozen them overnight, defrosted them and pricked them all with a needle, they were quite squishy at this stage so some got squashed.

I used a wide necked 2 litre kilner jar, the same as used for rhubarb schnapps, this makes it very easy to get the ingredients in and mixed up. Advice on how much sugar varies, but several sources recommend tasting the gin after a few months and adding more sugar if necessary.

I used 70cl of Aldi's best quality gin, which I'm sure won't be enough when it come to Christmas, but I'd picked all the berries from my young bushes. I shall have to go out and see if I can find any larger bushes nearby.

Here's the colour of the mixture after 12 hours, already showing the characteristic deep purple starting to develop. I've put the jar on the kitchen windowsill and will shake it every time I do the washing up, once the sugar is dissolved it will go under the stairs until Christmas.

Recipe Timings

20 mins preparation
5 mins mixing
2 - 3 months waiting

Taste Test

Marvellous, just right for sipping in front of the fire after a winter walk. The colour after 3 months is incredibly deep which adds a festive feel. I wouldn't change the amount of sugar used, although of course this may vary with how tart the berries were to begin with.