You can tell we're coming into Autumn around the garden. The apples are ready for picking, the kitchen garden is looking tired - it's worked hard this year, the green tomatoes dont't look like they're going to ripen (bring on the chutney), the sloe berries are waiting for their first frost (not quite yet but see below for a sloe gin recipe) and the rose hips are just looking good - although if you're up for rose hip tea or jelly or wine or whisky or chocolate - please be our guest.
Whatever the time of year you visit Lower Hall, feel free to sample and pick whatever you can see.
Recipe: how to make sloe gin
Ingredients
- 1 litre bottle of gin
- 450g sloes
- 225g caster sugar
- 1 large sterilised jar or 2 empty gin bottles
Method
- Wash sloes and seal in an airtight bag. Freeze overnight or until you’re ready to make the gin.
- Put frozen sloes into sterilised jar or empty gin bottles.
- Add gin then the sugar directly onto frozen sloes. Their skins will split which means you can avoid the laborious pricking of each individual sloe berry.
- Once the sloes have thawed, seal jar tightly and shake well.
- Store jar in a cool, dark place and shake every other day for a week. After the first week you only need to shake it once a week for 2 months.
- The liquid should now be dark red and ready for drinking, although you'll find it improves over time.
Serve sloe gin neat, over ice or drizzle over ice cream.
Make a cocktail like sloe royale by adding a drop to sparkling wine or champagne.
