Blackberries and Sloes

I cannot recall a year when blackberries have been so plentiful, so large and so sweet.

After a month of gorging on them plucked from brambles, or baked in crumbles or bagged and frozen, they are coming to an end but there are still plenty.

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These were some we found along a footpath on a ramble yesterday.

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As the blackberries decline, sloes are ripening bringing their iridescent blue to hedgerows. I'll soon pick a couple of pounds for a friend who makes Sloe Gin

[Jenise]

Is a sloe what I know as a blueberry?

More like a small tart plum
Sloe gin uses, I guess
I just recently learned about bilberries, which are wild European blueberries (I read too many British mysteries)

Is a sloe what I know as a blueberry?

No.

I picked some blueberries growing wild in Bar Harbor island, Maine. They grow on a ground hugging bush, and are soft in the mouth. And imported from USA ones have become popular here, partly because they are supposed to be healthy.

Sloes grow on bushes or trees, they are the fruit of the Blackthorn. Because the blackthorn has long sharp thorns on its branches it was used as a hedging plant and so are found plentifully along old hedges. Un hedged they'll grow from a bush into a tree.

They are a relative of the plum, with a plum stone. But they are very small and bitter, you wouldn't want to eat one raw.

I have has Sloe Jam - it had little flavour. Main use is in Sloe Gin which is a sweet purple liqueur, made by marinating sloes and sugar in gin.