food for free...

we went out on sunday and got a load more blackberries and a load of sloe berries - we made a couple of blackberry pies and I bought a bouple litres of Gin and started with the sloe gin last night...

I had placed the sloe berries in the freezer over night (sunday night) to emulate the first frost and this has indeed made them softer! so come Xmas it should taste fine!

 

another update!
we went doen to Middleton in teedales and i recall that when I went camping there as a kid that a mate said there were some kind of nuts growing...! it turns out they are cob nuts!
and my lady and I grabbed a fair few...
found this pic on the web too -
http://www.sector39.co.uk/roofgarden/pages/cob nut.html

my girlfriend alweays through you could only get them in kent too...!

and yesterday we went out got a sh*tload of blackberries - in fact we were able to fill a basin when we got home!!
we're gonna make some sorbet and cordial / juice with that...

 

Sloes are in the freezer at the moment. Got some Gin so will be making mine this week sometime. Drink of the gods.

 

yeah, my sloe gin's doing well - I had initially thought that the sloes were a bit small - but the drink is a nice ruby red colour...
I'm giving it a good shake daily for the first 2 weeks, then once a week thereafter...

 

Someone depostied around 4kg of Sloes in my pigeon hole at work so its off to the gin shop for me. A word of caution though. I was giving them a check over before freezing to pick out the bugs and leaves and noticed quite a few that were small and a little wrinkled. It seems that there is a pink worm like parasite eating them and depositing a load of brown frass inside the sloe. I'm sure this would do you no harm but I guess it would taint the flavour.

Anyhow I picked em all out so it's litres of Gin for me today woohoo!

 

since I've never had the drink before - I'm not sure that I'd be able to tell if it was tainted...

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5339440.stm

 

great, cheers!

 

We have 3 Tomato plants that are producing those tiny little red / yellow tomato, lovely and sweet

Got free food from a chip shop before, does that count?

 

on saturday night I decided to have a taste of my sloe gin...
wow, it was lovely...in fact we drunk a 350ml bottle very quickly...

we went out yesterday and got a load more sloes and 4 bottles of gin! that'll be just in time for Xmas...

 

here's some pics of the second batch (as mentioned in my last post above!)

http://flickr.com/photos/weardaleone/sets/72157594415208359/

 

hi been out again today and got some sloe berries, blackberries and a few rosehips...There aren't as many ripe stuff compared to last year due to the lousy weather we've had...but we'll be going back soon...

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1405/1304514545_0821c62807.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1034/1305387974_6b85def05d.jpg

 

i like 1405 esp.

 

I've been trying blackberries for a couple of weeks now, most of which have seemed to be quite tasteless....but today I found some really tasty ones whilst out for a bike ride, so I'll be back with a container next weekend

Sloes (for sloe gin) are supposed to be best picked after the first frost allegedly, is that what you collected yours for?

 

yeah, I normally stick em' in the freezer for a few days to help replicate this...

some of last years -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/weardaleone/sets/72157594415208359/

 

Protein

Are you all Vegge's ? How about Wood Pigeon, Grey Squirrel,
Rabbit and Muntjac ? All very tasty, low in fat and chemical free.

 

anybody know what to do with Sloe's?

I have sloe's in my back garden (along with a victoria plum tree and eating apples)... but I know what to do with them!

 

just found it!

How to make sloe gin

To make sloe gin, the sloe berries must be ripe. They were traditionally picked in late October or early November after the first frost of winter, although with spring now arriving earlier followed by warmer summers, the berries are now ripe by mid-September. A wide necked jar that can be sealed is needed. Prick each berry and half fill the wide necked jar with the pricked berries. Folklore has it that when making sloe gin, you shouldn't prick the berries with a metal fork, unless it is made of silver, thus conventional wisdom is to use a wooden tooth pick or something similar.

For each pint (0.5 litre) of sloes, add 4oz (100g) of caster (superfine) sugar and fill the jar with gin, adding a few cloves and a small stick of cinnamon, as well as the almond essence. Seal the jar and turn it several times to mix, then store the jar in a cool, dark place. Repeat the turning every day for the first two weeks, then each week, until at least three months have passed.

The gin should now be a deep ruby red. Pour off the liqueur and discard the berries and spices. Alternatively, the left-over berries can be infused in cider, made into jam or used as a basis for a chutney. The liqueur can be filtered, but it is best decanted back into clean containers and left to stand for another week. Careful decanting can then ensure that almost all sediment is eliminated, leaving a clear liqueur.

Made in this way, the alcohol extracts an almond-like essence from the sloes, avoiding the need to add almond essence. Home made sloe gin is a much more complex and subtle drink than that produced commercially. The sweetness can be adjusted to taste at the end, but sufficient sugar is required at the start of the process to ensure full extraction of flavour from the sloes.

 

One tip courtesy of my sister, who enters into an annual 'best sloe gin' competition at her work: buy GOOD gin, as the quality of the gin itself has a big impact on the quality of the end product. I only tried making sloe gin myself once, and it was horrible, but I used a £7 bottle of gin from Lidl .

I tried some of hers last Chrimbo, absolutely delicious, I'm gonna have another go this year.....but I'm going to use the good stuff this time

 

How much SHOULD you pay for gin?