CF Eats: Blackberry and sloe picking

This weekend has been one of outdoor pursuits. You may remember my elderflower picking post from last summer with my brilliant countryside guru, Mrs B, well I decided it was high-time we put her local foraging knowledge to good use again. Namely blackberry and sloe picking, all in the name of GIN.

First, you need to find a good ‘patch’. This is ours:

A hill-top, wonderfully wild, local natural reserve. Country Bebe was as happy as Larry getting lost in the long grass, stomping about chasing butterflies and crickets.

Which left us free to get down to business.

You want a sunny spot. The berries are all the plumper, juicier and sweeter for a bit of Vitamin D. Also on our ‘foraging wish list’ were sloes.

Bingo.

So we picked, ambled, ate, gossiped, picked some more, compared hauls and then wandered home happy, with stained fingers.

I was pretty impressed with my hour’s worth of picking:

I have kept some of the blackberries back to make a crumble with some windfall apples from my parents’ garden but the rest will be going into my gin recipes:

The recipe is really rough, but the general rule is 2:1 fruit to sugar. For blackberry gin (which is a bit more like a liqueur):

900g blackberries

450g golden caster sugar

300ml gin

I blitz the blackberries with 1/4 of the sugar, then push through a sieve.

Then add to a pan over a medium heat with the rest of the sugar until it’s all dissolved and glossy. Simmer for 15 mins. Cool.

Gradually add in the gin until all combined.

Using a funnel, pour into a sterilised bottle*

For sloe gin:

450g sloes

225g golden caster sugar

1lt gin

I prick the tough skins of the sloes with a clean needle. It’s a faff yes, but it helps the juices ooze out into the gin. I add them to the bottom of a sterilised* large kilner jar, then the sugar, then the gin. Give it a good shake then put it somewhere cool and dark. I keep mine under the sink. Give them a good shake regularly for the first week, then whenever you remember between now and Christmas. I then strain the gin through a muslin into pretty bottles, label, and give them as presents.

The blackberry version is great straight away, diluted with soda and decorated with mint leaves and a few frozen berries instead of ice cubes.

* There are many ways to sterilise your bottles. You can put them in a hot oven for 15 mins, or I just put them on the top shelf in the dishwasher on a very hot wash and I’ve never had any issues with any of the cordials, liqueurs, marmalades, chutneys etc I’ve made.