How to make Sloe Gin

A tasty winter tipple to liven the soul and set the throat on fire; sipping a wee sloe gin is becoming a little yearly ritual in our lives. We have a secret place where sloes are found but I shall say nothing more; one must guard one's source with one's life! It's every exciting collecting them and this year (after a woeful crop last autumn) they were big, juicy and hard to reach with many a big thorn on the gnarled branches = battle scars, giggles and feeling like eejits :)

Now before I go any further I must say that sloe gin is to drunk in small quantities, lingered over whilst preparing a roast for the oven, watching a christmas-y film. It is strong and I even bought the correct tiny antique glasses for the very occasion 2 years ago. Drink this responsibly, please! 

It's become fashionable again I fear as some of the big names in gin manufacturing have ready made bottles for sale now. But, this is how you are meant to do it - seasonally, with fun and patience - don't go for that premade muck, please. There's another point to be made; it has a very medicinal, earthy taste quite like a cough mixture so be forewarned, you may go through all this and end up hating it :)

So this is the perfect time for sloes - you usually get them September and October and they look like this...

Amounts needed:

• 450g sloes
• 750ml gin
• 275g sugar

1 - You need to pick as many as you can, really get stuck in there and possibly have a friend to help.
2 - Take them home and put them in the freezer overnight - this makes the skins burst a bit = more favour.
3 - Simply put the sloes into a sterilised litre sized glass air tight container

4 - Add sugar

5 - Pour lashings of gin in (see amounts) and close lid!

I should play with exposures between photos *blush*

6 - Mix it all up by gently tiping and swirling the bottle.

You really ought to leave it to mix for as long as possible and every day, for the weeks at least, you need to jiggle that bottle to release all the flavour. It will be drinkable in time for Christmas and could even be a lovely gift.

N.B. The longer you can leave it, the more syrupy it tastes. Plus, even when the gin is gone the alcoholic sloes ought out to go to waste. With their strong earthy syrupy taste they are fabulous cooked with lamb etc

Hugs and Love
Carrie

Enjoy your weekend xx

(pt3) Three Day Weekend - Thanks St. Patrick :)

And so we come to the last day of the long weekend - the big day itself -

 

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY

I started the day off as the ultimate Northern Irish domestic goddess and baked fresh fruit soda farls for myself and my lovely hubby. I had never done it before (I know, shame on me) but I felt I really ought to something vaguely traditional. Nana used to make these and plain ones and wheaten bread etc just automatically; in fact it was hard for her to put anything into ounces for anyone, she did it all by eye :) So I took her 'recipe', plus a couple off the Internet and melded them together to make my own. I'll share it with you tomorrow xx

P.S. Unlike most St Patrick's day food stuffs you find on the net - this isn't green, it hasn't any booze in it and is actually pretty yummy.

Then with full bellies and joy in our hearts we ventured forth, plotwise, not wanting to waste any of this precious bank holiday. We we sure there would be people there today and naturally you never get as much done with all the chat, but, lo and behold, only 2 people at the far side of the field and only a few in the other fields altogether :(

St. Patrick's is the traditional day to plant your potatoes here, so.... Andrew did it the lazy way this year and good on him too, none of this double digging lark etc. Ridges and furrows are the way to go, quick as you can say 'spud' and they are planted.
We have 3 types, left to right ~
* Saxon
* Kestrel
* Pentland Javelin

This is when it really starts to feel like a new year at the plot, this is when we genuinely get excited :) Talk turns to painting the shed again and doing runs to the dump, we get giddy about crop rotations and where our permanent new plants will go. Daydream about that first ice lolly and picnics in the blazing sun...This year we have no ready access to water! Only that which falls on the roof of the community centre (between 4 fields!) and what we can get in our own water butts - I can foresee trouble ahead, but we try not to talk about that.

I was at it again with the old de-shaming of 14b...I may be slightly obsessed by now. I got rid of that damned Carex ornamental grass which had produced over 35 good babies which also needed discarded (there were more than 35 but I gave up counting and just started to go feral and rip them up, kind of like an demented lottie ninja...) aaarrrghhhh

Oh and I found a rose bush :)

Andrew planted our brand new Blackthorn hedge-lings and more Raspberry canes (Glen Ample) where I had ripped out all the dead ones.

Suddenly the rain cam in and we had to rush around gathering everything up - where did that massive cloud come from?? I guess when you have your face in the soil you don't notice the sky as much. So there aren't any good leaving photos from this day :(

But I shall give you one more - Maggie's face when she sniffed my wee dram of whiskey at the end of the day, haha..

That was one brown post! More colour next time :)
Hugs and love

Christmasy Deliciousness

I've been having a bad day and to be honest I feel completely overwhelmed by things that need doing, not least keeping up with my blogs, writing for other people, socialising, clearing up the house (it looks like a dust bomb has hit it) and trying to get stuff done at the lottie before Andrew goes back to work. My depression is slowly killing me today, I guess I am coming down after the efforts of Christmas.

I've been asleep most of the day and have the worst headache and indeed ache all over (another bout of flu coming?) and if that isn't bad enough my letter 'u' is sticking. Oh dear me, my 1st world problems are horrendous *shame on me!*

****

Anywho :) I wanted to share a little of the fabulous food we had over the Holidays; food we grew ourselves of course ;)

First up is the Jack O'Lantern Pumpkin (if you remember, it was the only large one we managed to get this year). We've been enjoying it roasted and in risottos but we also included it in the 'big meal'.

As it was cut up we saved the seeds and not just for planting again this year oh no! We roasted the vast majority in the oven with cumin, turmeric, paprika and salt and they are the most moreish, yum-tastic healthy nibble ever! I hope you do the same soon - never waste the seeds, I promise it's hardly any trouble and you come across as a top chef!!

The flesh was cut up and blanched and then packaged up into bags for the freezer. A great tip so you don't get bored with it quickly. And this year it was added to the traditional veggie mash - oh yes, it was most excellent.

Every year since we acquired our plots we have made Christmas veggie mash with our own parsnips, carrots (usually our own but not this year due to the disastrous crop) and spuds (never our own, they are far too cheap and plentiful at this time of year in the shops) a gulg of olive oil, some freshly ground pepper and a few spices.

It made for fab Boxing Day potato style cakes too :)

The parsnips also get the roasted and honeyed treatment in our house - god save you if you try to get in my way when these babies are ready to eat, I turn feral.

The stuffing balls (and again see above warning) has our own leeks in as well as bought sausage meat, fresh cranberries and orange juice, breadcrumbs and sage.

The ever disgusting Brussel Sprouts were bought this year which really felt like a kick in the teeth. I hate them with a passion unlimited in its ferocity but I do like to see others (weirdos) eating them, loving them and knowing I had picked them the day before. This year was just not conducive to planting them with our re-jigging of the plots and making the beds bigger. I guess these look good though.

The best thing (apart from the parsnips and stuffing) in the world at this time of year is Sloe Gin or Sloe Vodka, it's up to you, we have both. We have a secret go to tree every year and make this delicious tipple, it tastes a little medicinal but I love the burn at the back of the throat and the smell. I was so fortunate to find these 50s port glasses in a local secondhand shop on Christmas Eve. I LOVE them and yes, I did fill them up a little too much - I didn't drink it all, honest!

That's all for now, I just realy wanted to share this and say THANK YOU to Andrew for making the best Christmas Dinner ever! Ever! xxx

Strawberry clear up, sloes and death

Okay, it's late on Thursday night and I am yet again sedated for the 4th time today. Knowing that the day is almost over calms me and for a moment of two I have been quite clear in my mind. I thought it would be nice to write a blog - it's so much a part of the real me.

So, I really hope you have your strawberry beds all sorted out for the winter! Of course I would have written about this 2 weeks ago when I did mine but better late than ever. Now my plants were brand new this summer so I hadn't much to do, just cut off all the runners (goodness there were about 8-10 radiating from each plant with plenty of babies on each) and chop the top leaves off. Then I gathered up all that lovely straw (perfect for the compost bins) and weeded = happy days.

Before ~

After~

Strawberries can be left in the same place - yay for no worries about crop rotation! If yours are 3-4 yrs old, runners are you ticket to new, tasty, hardy, FREE plants for you and all your friends. They very conveniently have little roots and are so ready to get going that you can simply let them plant themselves :) but you know, put them where you want them!! Alternately pot them up :)

Andrew also found a darn good sloe tree within Maggie walking distance and so the inevitable happened - we have started on the 2012 vintage Sloe Gin. I am quite sure that there are other things you could do with sloes but I am happy to make a tasty beverage.

And lastly for now, I must share the sad news that we have had to say farewell to another of our fancy goldfish. Awesome Fred was, just that, Awesome, hence the name but we had been very ill for months and despite all we could try for him, he was just getting worse; living upside down and recently not able to right himself or eat :( Poor guy, he has been buried with love.

Sloe Gin - Wordless Wednesday

Christmas angel corrupted by the demon drink - homemade Sloe Gin!