The Fruits of Autumn - Old Mamma Thomas' Sloe Gin Recipe.

  The end of the summer is nigh, long autumn and winter nights beckon and
  what's more there are no more bank holidays until Christmas. Despite this
  Autumn is my favourite season of them all, it is not the beautiful autumnal
  colours but the delights offered up by mother nature's larder. This time of
  year the countryside is awash with delicious fruits, nuts, mushrooms and
  berries, and you don't have to pay a penny.

The cooking apples on the tree in my garden seemingly supply
unlimited apple pies, my 2 years old son feasts on
blackberries from the wild brambles on Chorleywood Common.
The local woods offer up ingredients for a wild mushroom
risotto and soon there will be chestnuts to eat roasted on
their own or in a delicious roast chestnut stuffing. For
home-made beverages juicy elderberries hang from the
trees, but what I look forward to the most is the Sloe
Berries ripening on their bushes.

I shall now disclose the the secret Thomas family Sloe Gin recipe so you must be sure not to tell anyone else. This is a recipe handed down from generation to generation (well at least from my Grandmother to my Mother). My mother's Sloe Gin is even more famed than her legendary Elderberry wine and her fabled pickled onions (which will blow your socks clean off!) and as an added bonus it is incredibly simple to make.

Firstly pick the sloes, these are very common sight in the English countryside, usually growing in hedgerows (see picture). For a 75cl bottle of gin you need about 1½ lbs of Sloe Berries. I like to use up the whole bottle of gin, as I find the cheaper the gin the better the Sloe Gin, so you don't really want any left over (maybe the harshness marinates the sloe more effectively).

Here are the ingredients based on a 75cl bottle of gin:

• 75cl Gin (try Sainsburys' basic range)

• 12oz of caster sugar

• 1½lb of Sloe berries.

Method:

1. Wash the sloes and remove any stems
2. Freeze the sloes, this simulates the first frost and help the sloes marinate.
3. Slice each sloe as close to the stone as possible.
   
4. Add the sloes, sugar and gin to an airtight jar.
   
5. Seal the jar and for the first 8 weeks shake when ever you can - if you leave it somewhere you'll see it regularly such as in the bathroom your less likely to forget.
6. Leave for at least 3 months (would be even better left for Christmas 2011).
7. Sieve repeatedly using a muslin clothe until the Sloe Gin is clear of all sediment
   
   

 Sloe Gin needs to be left for at least 3 months so it may be a little tight to get it ready for
 Christmas 2010, but what could be a better pick me up on cold January evening?