Where can I find Sloes?

[Thoresby85]

Hello

I wonder if anyone can help me please? Im trying to locate sloe bushes around the Lincoln area as I would really like to make some sloe gin - does anyone know where I can find any sloes please?

 

[VEG]

Have a look for some blackthorn bushes (Prunus spinosa)

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

take a walk in the countryside - preferably away from roadsides where there's more of a chance of untended hedges and have a look - half the joy is in looking for them!

 

[BeeJayBee]

Try to think back to where you saw some low trees or hedgerows covered in white blossom in April or May, it's likely to be Sloes.

Be careful when you pick, the thorns are long and black, hence the name Blackthorn.

 

[garethjbarry]

It has been a super year for sloes, you can not miss them as they look more like bunches of grapes. I get mine from next to canals, single track roads and fields with old hedge rows. Good luck!

 

[enrico]

If you don't find them this year then note in spring where the first white blossom is. Sloe blossom comes before Hawthorne and the bushes have the blossom before the leaves. Hawthorne has the leaves before the blossom. And sloe has viscous thorns that will go septic at the drop of a hat so be careful!
E

 

[For want of a better word]

Blackthorn bushes adjacent to my Orchard apiary site absolutely loaded down with sloes... every year for past 3 years since bees have been there.... not many elsewhere?

 

[garlicpickle]

Quite a few round here, I went out this morning and picked 4lb in about half an hour. Will put some in gin and might have a go at some jam with the rest.

 

[drstitson]

As above - look out for the white hedgerow blossom in late spring (end feb/early march in south london - nearer end of april/start of may up in Lincoln area). Out before the Hawthorn.

 

[alanf]

As above - look out for the white hedgerow blossom in late spring ...

If you missed that, you're looking for bushes in the hedgerows with the small oval leaves. In Lincolnshire start looking where there are still some livestock in the fields and old hedges that have not yet been ripped out or hacked back to geometric lines. Not many blackthorns around the prairie format cereal farms.

 

[village girl]

Sloes are best picked after the frost. There are lots about hear this year good luck

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

nowadys if you wait for the first frosts they'll either be prunes or the birds will have had them 'first frosts' was a term the ancients used as they didn't work on months. I'll be picking mine in a few weeks.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Sloes are best picked after the frost.

That's because the frost softens the skins. Pick and freeze them for the same effect

 

[oliver90owner]

Clearly they will likely not be ripe as yet - the birds have not started to take them. There are loads of alternatives for the wild-life, so better to wait for the first frosts as village girl says. I have checked around one of my out-apiaries and although not as many as two years ago there are more than last year. I won't be picking for another month yet, I would think. No point in picking fruit while sub-standard.

I may well still pick more elderberries yet as they are still in good condition. My area is still a couple of weeks behind the norm for this time of the year. The only thing that has mostly gone over in the garden is the runner beans - not many to harvest, possibly because I have left the maturing beans for seed collection.

RAB

 

[garlicpickle]

They're ripe down here I think - I squeezed some and they were soft. Was also admiring the hawthorn berries and wondering if I could make anything out of them as there were loads!

 

[psafloyd]

They're ripe down here I think - I squeezed some and they were soft. Was also admiring the hawthorn berries and wondering if I could make anything out of them as there were loads!

You can make things from haws, and I intend to try. So many berries, looks like we will have a hard winter.

Apparently sloes best after first frosts, but I dare say if ripe, a spell in the freezer would suffice.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Apparently sloes best after first frosts, but I dare say if ripe, a spell in the freezer would suffice.

Again - all mumbo jumbo from old wives' tales. Pick when ripe, periods of first frost generally happen too late nowadays.
The trick with the freezer is freeze, put in steeping bottle whilst still frozen then pour gin on - the 'shock' will cause the skins to split so no need to spend hours with a hat pin pricking them

 

[user 6228]

Sloes are bad for your liver...

Or is that the stuff they are pickled with

 

[oliver90owner]

. So many berries, looks like we will have a hard winter.

This is an old wives tale. What it actually means is that there was a good period of weather for the blossom to get pollinated.

 

[BeeJayBee]

. So many berries, looks like we will have a hard winter.

This is an old wives tale. What it actually means is that there was a good period of weather for the blossom to get pollinated.

There was no soft fruit in this area last year, so if the old wives were right we should have had a very mild winter.

This year there was a lot of blossom, the temperatures were about right too, so it got pollinated and the fruit stayed on the trees.