If you see some cheap gin on offer in the supermarket or off licence buy a bottle, drink a third (maybe a nice gin cocktail or classic G&T) then top up with wild sloe berries and sugar, replace the lid and leave somewhere cool, gently shake the bottle every few days to dissolve the sugar and you will have Super Sloe Gin in time for Xmas!

OK maybe not the best advice to drink a third of a bottle of gin but Sloes are the perfect accompaniment to the start of autumn.  Really you need to de-stalk, wash & freeze the sloes then defrost before you add them unless you want to spend ages pricking them individually with a pin!  the freezer trick works perfectly and is the solution to the old saying that “you shouldn’t pick sloes until after the first frost”!

You should find a bumper crop of these berries from the common hedgerow blackthorn bush now, challenge your friends to a Sloe Gin making competition and then sit back and wait for the ceremonial tasting between Christmas and New Year.

To make 1 litre of sloe gin you will need:-

• Approx 300g sloes
• 80g sugar
• 750ml gin

I try to find 4 small 250ml kilner bottles then split the ingredients between the four or make in a 1 litre bottle then decant and sieve through muslin when ready.