So back we came with our haul of sloe berries. I’d saved four wine bottles to make the sloe gin in (never short of those in our house!), and they were clean and de-labelled.
Step one: remove all stalks, leaves, earwigs and spiders and wash the berries through a colander.
Step two: prick the berries a good few times with a clean needle, and fill each bottle to about half way.
Step three: put about half a cup (about 4oz) of sugar into each bottle, on top of the berries.
Step four: put half a 75cl bottle of gin into each bottle, and top the bottles up with berries.
Step five: keep in a cool, dark place and turn the bottles regularly from now until Christmas. (A vigorous shake to start them off, then a twice weekly turn upside down and back should do it).
You’ll need to separate the gin (yum!) from the berries (bleugh!) before Christmas, but I’ll write more about that nearer the time
Enough berries leftover to experiement with sloe vodka
