The Joy Stick Affect Cotswold Forager: Let’s be Sloe

Rob Gould is a forager with 20 years experience. In this series he will introduce readers to nature’s bounty that can be found and foraged easily. His passion is helping people to think about and develop a love for the wild food all around them and helping them grow a greater appreciation and understanding of the natural world as a whole

Rob with his giant puffball find, which unfortunately was no longer edible

Let’s be Sloe!

Autumnal foraging for the family

So by the time you’re reading this, we’ll be in early October, and will have just recently experienced this year’s Harvest Moon –traditionally deemed to be the closest full moon to the celebration of the Autumn Equinox.

It’s rightly regarded as a time of bounty in plenty of habitats as far as many people are concerned, with the majority of hedgerow and woodland berries, nuts and seeds finally coming to fruition. As I sit here writing this in late September however, where I am in the Cotswolds we have gone almost three weeks without any significant rain and everything seems to be quite delayed within the fields and pastures. I know further north the seasons are progressing more as normal, and I’ve seen pictures from fellow foragers in Scotland who have already harvested multitudes of chanterelles and the earliest flushes of ceps. but here in the more southern areas of the UK we desperately need some rain for the harvest to truly begin in earnest.

Just the other day, I came across a beautiful circle of giant puffballs in some mature, untreated pasture, all around the perfect size to harvest for a delicious dinner. However, upon further inspection the yellowing insides were already starting

Mushrooms need a bit of rain to pop up aplenty

to turn to spores, meaning that they were no longer going to be much good as an edible. The problem seems to be that many of the environmental factors promoting seasonal growth are there, but without that all important rain there is no ability for anything to grow quickly, which is particularly problematic for the mushrooms that we foragers would be expecting to look for at this time. But fingers crossed, by the time you’re reading this there will be mushroomsa-plenty popping up.

The same thing goes for ripening fruits. Too much water and they’ll take forever to ripen anyway – fruits are literally a survival mechanism to try to ensure that a species survives the harsh winter period. If there’s too much water – and the weather is too ‘nice’ – the plants will not be stressed by the advancing seasons, and can even start aborting fruit. Conversely, too little water and what fruit there are can start to dry out and may even drop before they are fully ripe.

Slow, Slow, Quick, Quick Sloe... ... or how not to end up with cough syrup when making Sloe Gin

Sloes on the branch

Last month I told you all how to get your own batch of Bramble Whisky/Brandy/ Vodka/Gin going. I hope that, remembering or referring back to it, you’ll recall that you can swap in virtually any readily available base alcohol, pretty much to suit your taste.

So what do you do if you fancy trying something with sloes, but don’t like gin? Just substitute it out. Sloe whisky is particularly tasty in my humble opinion, and sloe brandy also works well too, especially so if you throw a few crab apples into the mix. But both need to age well, for a minimum of six months. If you want quicker results, go with vodka – it gives a more vibrant, clear flavour that may just be ready for Christmas. Although it would absolutely be better aged until next year too.

The Recipe

Absolutely paramount to the creation of the best homemade sloe gin (or whatever) are the ingredients.

The Sloes

To start with, and of utmost importance, your sloes need to actually be ripe. At some point in history, it became deemed important that sloes had gone through a hard frost before harvesting. But that was never the important thing. The key point was that historically they Wait until sloes are fully ripe and soft when squeezed between finger and thumb before picking Rob is a highly experienced forager with over twenty years of acquired knowledge. He can be booked for private foraging walks, wild edible surveys and corporate sessions, and also runs public ticketed walks, talks and workshops. ripened around the same time as the first frosts. And those frosts helped soften the skins, so the flavours leeched out better.

But, with the weird weather we have nowadays, that is no longer the case. However, some people still think you can harvest sloes whenever and simply stick them in the freezer for a week or so.

It doesn’t work. It’s akin to harvesting green strawberries and expecting them to end up tasting the same as the fully ripe, most luscious red ones. It’s never going to happen.

Only pick your sloes when they have a bit of give when pinched gently between thumb and forefinger. Before that, they’ll just be woody and sour, full of tannins and with barely any natural sweetness. You’ll end up with cough syrup. And absolutely don’t pick your sloes in July and freeze them, like some people I saw this year...

The Gin

Don’t go cheap. Please. So no supermarket own brands unless you absolutely know what you’re doing. Just buy the cheapest of the commercially available brands* - I normally pick up whatever is on offer. *apologies to any quality spirit producers out there. But if you’re going to buy their good gin, you may as well throw a few extra pounds their way and buy their own branded sloe gin. You won’t regret it.

The Sugar

Basic white sugar is fine. But I put it in at the end, not the start... my reasoning behind this is that when you put it in at the start, the natural sugars in the sloes can’t escape – do you remember the osmotic process from school? And those natural sugars are tied to a lot of the flavour components, so if you sweeten at the start, you end up with less flavour.

The Process At its most basic, my normal recipe is as follows:

1. Put your sloes in a jar, filling it to about half way. 2. Pour over your gin so that it covers the fruit and reaches the top of the jar. 3. Leave it alone to infuse, somewhere dark. 4. Strain off the fruit. 5. Add simple syrup to taste.

Rob also works with restaurants and food companies to bring a taste of the wild to their menus and products.

Please contact him via cotswoldforager@ gmail.com or search for Cotswold Forager across social media:

That’s it. If you have the patience, leave your sloe gin to settle for a few months extra, so that the flavours round out and any harshness will mellow, before enjoying with friends... if you like them enough...

The longer version

1. To speed up infusion, the sloes can be pricked all over, like in days of old, when a silver darning needle was used. Or frozen, to make the skins split. Personally, I just mash them up a bit in the jar with the end of a rolling pin. 2. Cover with your gin, or whatever other spirit you want to use. Some people add a few cracked almonds to add a bit of depth of flavour, but the same result can be achieved by cracking a few of the sloe stones. 3. Many people will leave the gin over the sloes for just three months. I prefer a minimum of six months if I’m honest, for a greater complexity of flavour. In fact, I have some at home where the sloes have been infusing for over two years, just to see the results. It’s being cracked open this winter. 4. The strained fruit can be sieved to remove the stones, and then used over ice cream as a simple dessert. Or mixed into jams for extra depth of flavour. In the past I’ve even frozen it in small cubes and then dipped them in melted chocolate to make a delicious Christmas treat. Although you may want to sweeten your sieved pulp before doing this. 5. A simple syrup is just equal parts (by weight) of water and sugar. Heat the mixture gently until the sugar has dissolved, and then leave to cool. Add slowly to your strained spirit, until it reaches the desired level of sweetness.

For me, the best bit about passing my knowledge and ideas to others is when I get to see it put into practice. So if you do make your own sloe infusions, or follow through on any of the other ideas you’ve seen in my columns, please share them with me on social

media, tagging Polo Times and I.

Deliciously fruity sloe gin makes the most of the

Autumn bounty Website: www.cotswoldforager.co.uk Facebook: @cotswoldforager Instagram: @cotswoldforager Twitter: w@ForagerCotswold