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Autumn – the season of fruits and next year’s tariff!

Apples from the orchard

In the cottage orchard, here at Coed y Berclas, the branches of the apple trees are weighed down by the fruit they bear. Bit by bit, as they ripen, we are picking lovely red and golden apples which would never be accepted in a supermarket because they are anything but regular in size or shape. They are, however, very tasty, especially eaten straight from the tree. This season’s crop is large so we are storing, cooking and freezing, pie making, looking up chutney recipes and giving apples to friends and family.

The sloe gin is coming along well, the sugar has all dissolved, so I have stopped shaking the bottles and put them all into a cupboard until near Christmas when I will strain the liquid from the berries. The colour is already a lovely wine red.

At this time of year I am also reminded that the end of 2010 is approaching and I have been prompted to work out the tariff for 2011. It will be there on the Tariff and Availability page soon and we already have a number of enquiries. Goodness, doesn’t time fly.

New cooker in the cottage

This week, we replaced the gas cooker in the cottage with a sparkling new Cannon with far more safety features. It was on our list of ‘things to do’ but jumped up the list when the thermostat in the old oven started to misbehave. Old cooker out and new one sourced and in within a morning. Is that a record?

Dorothy

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Sloe Gin Recipe for a Cheery Christmas Treat

Sloe berries for making Sloe Gin

It’s that time of year again when here at Coed y Berclas we pick sloes to make sloe gin which will be ready in time for Christmas. In case you’d like to join in the fun, here’s the method my Father taught me:-
Sloe Gin Recipe.

Sloe gin is a lovely liqueur for sipping after dinner but we pour a little over fresh fruit and yoghurt as a dessert. It’s very easy to make and you can pick the sloes (blackthorn berries) from the hedgerows.

For the sloe gin recipe you will need:-

  • Bottle of gin (don’t waste your best gin, the cheapest will do nicely)
  • Empty screw top bottles (they can have contained your best gin!)
  • Enough granulated sugar to fill a bottle
  • Pick enough sloes to fill a bottle (if you pick too many they can be frozen for later use – you can always buy yourself another bottle of gin and double the quantities!)
  • Divide the gin evenly between the three bottles so that each is one third full.
  • Pour sugar into each bottle until each is two thirds full.
  • Fill each bottle almost to the top with sloes.
  • Screw on the tops and shake each bottle to mix all the contents.

Once a day, shake the bottles to mix up all the contents until the sugar is totally dissolved and there is no longer any settling at the bottom.
Now leave the bottles until just before Christmas then strain the liquid. Discard the sloes and pour the Sloe Gin back into the bottles. The longer you keep Sloe Gin the better it gets but try some over Christmas – you deserve it!

You might have noticed that both the ingredients and the method are ‘informal’ – this is how my Father made Sloe Gin and how he handed it on to me. It works!

Dorothy

Sept 27th 2010