Last Saturday, between heavy showers, I went in search of sloes. These dark purple, almost black, fruits look like blueberries but are bitter to taste and dry the mouth when eaten. They have few uses to us humans beyond slowly infusing gin, which is exactly how I deploy them before reusing the same sloes a few months down the line to make port.
You would assume that anywhere you'll find a blackthorn tree, which is pretty much every Irish hedgerow, that you'd find sloes, but this is far from the case. While arguably every hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) bush is replete with bright red haws, the same cannot be said for Prunus spinosa. Last week I came across no fewer than 100 trees yet only a handful yielded anything like the quantities sought.
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Weather conditions, a fungus called Taphrina pruni and other sloe enthusiasts getting to the harvest first are among the reasons for the dearth, which some years can leave a gin enthusiast like myself dispirited, literally. The threat from the thorns of the blackthorn is in my opinion exaggerated, when compared to, say, gooseberries or brambles. Nonetheless, it's best to proceed with caution when picking sloes, wearing long sleeves and ensuring any wounds you do suffer are well cleaned.
In times gone by, it was recommended not to pick sloes before the first frost, which ensures their skins are softer and the juice is easier to extract. However, a few days in your freezer has the same effect, meaning you can harvest from October onwards, regardless of whether temperatures drop.
Roughly one pound (500g) of sloes, each individually pierced ideally with a thorn from the same tree from which they were gathered, should be added to a litre of gin and 250g of sugar and left in a sealed receptacle for two-three months, shaking occasionally. Once infused, decant the gin into a new bottle, before adding the sloes to wine and more sugar, preparing the aforementioned port. In addition to their fruits, the blackthorn is prized for its wood, which is hardwearing and tough. It is traditionally used for making walking sticks and shillelagh (sail éille or saill éalaigh, as Gaeilge), the wooden clubs or cudgels once widely sold to tourists. It's said that witches’ wands and wizards' staffs were fashioned from blackthorn, a tree that has many associations with faeries and the other world.
The blackthorn is not a tree commonly associated with gardens. It's unspectacular in youth and middle-age, only developing any character in maturity if left unpruned, when its trunk becomes gnarled and its bark covered in lichen, where good air quality permits. Like many of the Prunus family, it is prone to suckering, which means saplings spring up yards from the 'morther' tree – a boon if you're trying to create a woodland but a pain in any conventional garden.
The blackthorn produces white blossom in the spring but this is only really effective when dozens of the same tree are in bloom simultaneously. Yet it should not be overlooked when planting a native hedge; its robustness and thorns making it a key component in any wildlife friendly natural barrier. Like many native hedging plants, young blackthorn should be available at good nurseries, costing little more than £1. But be warned, you'll have to wait a long time for it to produce sloes.
