Top up your glass with a sip of sloes

Around the first frosts of the autumn is the popular time to collect sloes from the blackthorn bushes to make sloe gin. I have been asked by several people where the good areas are, but I get the impression that the fruiting of the tree this autumn is healthy and abundant and as long as you do not leave it too long you should gather enough supplies. Sloe gin is a more popular drink than imitation port. Prick the sloes with a skewer, half filling a bottle with them, adding a few spoonfuls of sugar and then the gin. It improves by age, but most people are impatient. The Romney Marsh and the surrounding countryside hold plentiful hedgerows of this very prickly bush. The blackthorn was planted centuries ago to supply materials for the upkeep of the seawall. Blackthorn flowers in March and into April, much earlier than the hawthorn which flowers in May (hence the other name of may tree). Blackthorn blossom is pure white, compared to the certain varieties of the hawthorn tree which has pinky colours and hues to the blossom. The leaves also vary, with the oval leaves of the blackthorn compared to the lobed leaves of the hawthorn. Finally the fruits differ between the species with the dark purple sloes compared with the dark red haws of the hawthorn.

For more information contact Owen Leyshon, Romney Marsh Countryside Partnership, telephone 01797 367934 or log on to www.rmcp.co.uk