If it is not quite sweet enough, add more sugar. If it is too sweet, add more gin and berries.

Uncle Bob’s recipe for Sloe Gin:

For me Autumn is a wonderful time of year and always has been. Even as a young lad the prospect of running through woodland kicking the thick carpet of leaves that lay on the ground, collecting the bounty of conkers that lay beneath the horse chestnut tree, or simply collecting acorns to fire from my catapult at my pals head was just so exciting! Well perhaps you just had to be there to appreciate it.

Now as a more senior member of the community, I still find autumn just as exciting but for completely different reasons. Of course the colours of the autumn leaves are every bit as beautiful as they were 50 plus years ago, but running and kicking them takes much more effort.

A well rounded conker is still as tactile as it ever was, but I no longer trawl the forest in search of them.

As for the acorns, well I seem to have lost my catapult.

"The daily routine of feeding and dogging in the birds brings a different kind of excitement to my aging mind and body"

These days, autumn takes on a whole new kind of magic. The prospect of the new game and fowl shooting season starting, with partridge and pheasant being released into the covers from their pens, the daily routine of feeding and dogging in the birds brings a different kind of excitement to my aging mind and body.

Mother nature is as generous as ever this year providing a bounty of fruit, nuts and berries in the woodland and hedgerows but these day’s there is one particular fruit that gets my attention above all others. I’m not sure whether the Sloe Berry count’s as one of your “5 per day” but if it doesn’t it should do.

As I tap away at my keyboard writing this article for your enjoyment, I am sipping on a glass of Sloe Gin and I must say it tastes every bit as good as it looks, it was a large glass but seems to be evaporating quite quickly so I’ll press on lest I have to re-charge my glass and lose the flow of things.
I have to say that around my area there has been an abundance of Sloe Berries and I of course welcomed the opportunity to tap into mummy natures generosity and go picking. The resulting carrier bag, half full of beautiful dark blue berries covered in that misty, dusty coating was ample reward for my efforts.

Now to make Uncle Bob’s Sloe Gin and enjoy the rewards of mother nature’s and uncle Bob’s efforts.

The ingredients are simple, you’ll require the following;

Ingredients
One kg of Sloe berries
Half kg of sugar
One litre of gin (you don’t need the expensive kind)
One clean demijohn

Wash then prick or cut the berries, put them into the demijohn
Pour the half kg of sugar onto the berries
Pour in the litre of gin
Cork or cling film the top of the jar to keep out unwanted guests such as flies, dust etc…

Now let nature take it’s course but you’ll need to help a little by swirling the demijohn on a daily basis until the sugar has dissolved and the liquor starts to take on a crystal clear reddish colour.

Now the good part – taste to see if all is to your liking. If it is not quite sweet enough, add more sugar. If it is too sweet, add more gin and berries. If it too strong, you’re a wimp!

The longer you leave it, the better it will become but when you feel it is just right, decant back into the gin bottles from whence it came. Now enjoy the rewards of your efforts.