First Spring Blossoms and Winter Warmers

Early March may seem an odd time to be thinking of mid-winter but now is the time to pay special attention to hedgerows if you want to make an excellent traditional English winter drink; sloe gin.  The urban lifestyle is very instant, nip to the supermarket for anything you want but the rural mindset takes a longer view on things, we like to plan ahead and let things mature. Seeing the white blossom in a hedgerow in March is just such an example.

Today I woke before the dawn chorus, a fishing trip to a stretch of a brook where I have not fished in years was this morning's plan by invitation of my brother.  On my travels I noticed many of the blackthorn bushes in the hedgerows were in blossom, the leafless branches covered in white flowers like a blanket of fluffy snow. Their neighbours, the hawthorns, are not quite showing their leaves. This is an important difference between the two; the sloe bush flowers at the start of spring without leaves and the May bush flowers at the end of spring with leaves. Both of these traditional hedgerow bushes produce fruit that can be eaten but it is the sloe from the blackthorn that makes the boozy drink; sloe gin.

Blackthorn blossoms, 10th March 2012

Sloes should not be harvested until after the first frosts have hit and ripened them up, however each year it is a gamble as to whether the birds or your neighbour will have got to the fruit before you.  If you see your favourite bush being devoured by birds you best take a chance and pick some yourself! This is why we pay attention now, it is so much easier to spot a white blossom in the hedge when all the other trees and bushes are still waking up than look for the small blue dusty berries when everything is in full leaf.

To see the blossom lifts the spirits (quite literally come winter!) because spring has truly arrived, the winter snowdrops and cold loving crocus are nearing their end, now that explosion of flowers and green is only just around the corner. Winter clothes can be put away for another 6 or 7 months, we don't need them again until the sloes are ready.

How to make Sloe Gin