Is this a Bumper Year for Sloes?

[Broch]

I will probably try and wait until the start of September to give them maximum chance to ripen but if the farmer starts moving towards my favourite hedges I'd go out tomorrow, store them for a week or so, wash then freeze them till I'm ready. I've not got the gin fermenting yet so I won't be ready to use them for a month or so anyway.

 

[Pupers]

I totally agree, it seems a very promising looking Sloe harvest. Normally pick end of September and stick in the freezer, hardly get a frost here nowadays, always used to get first frost in October.

 

[TeeDee]

Can anyone explain to me what the frost does??? On a quasi scientific / flavour level.

 

[Pattree]

It breaks down some starches into sugars. The old varieties of sprouts required a similar freezing.

 

[Silverclaws2]

Loads where I am and no diseased trees this year from what I have seen

I live in a place where my Aunt told me they used to go collecting them off the cliffs where the trees mostly are to sell to the gin distillery

 

[Broch]

Can anyone explain to me what the frost does??? On a quasi scientific / flavour level.

I quote: When sloes freeze the cell walls and membranes rupture which releases acids, sugars and enzymes and softens the fruit. When it thaws the enzymes start reacting with the tannins and flavonoids which reduces the bitterness.

 

[TeeDee]

I quote: When sloes freeze the cell walls and membranes rupture which releases acids, sugars and enzymes and softens the fruit. When it thaws the enzymes start reacting with the tannins and flavonoids which reduces the bitterness.

Ok - so in that sense using a freezer can be a far more reliable way to create the presence of Sugars than waiting idly for a/the frost.

 

[Broch]

True, but if they're not ripe yet you'll obviously get less, hence my delay.

 

[Pattree]

If they have the powdery blume on the skin I believe that they are ready. Ours are only big pea sized but I think that the recent heat checked them. Small is what we’ve got.

 

[slaine_23]

Ok - so in that sense using a freezer can be a far more reliable way to create the presence of Sugars than waiting idly for a/the frost.

I’ve had good success with freezing - has added advantage you can freeze for later use. Some say you’re supposed to pinprick each sloe, not convinced it makes much difference. Need to look at what’s growing in my garden, sounds a bit early for sloes up north here.

 

[slaine_23]

A question for botanists/more knowledgeable - are sloes Biennial bearing?
After a bumper crop last year from my garden hedges, there’s nothing this year and was nothing year before which I put down to harsh weather in the spring.. And have just returned from a walk where on one side of the beach there was an abundance of sloes but on the other side (both are headlands very similar exposure etc) there were virtually none.
Have heard that plums are biennial and sloes are in the same family (?) so could that explain this?

 

[slowworm]

A question for botanists/more knowledgeable - are sloes Biennial bearing?

I don't think they are, although I gather some plants can get into the biennial habit. I think it is more down to when the flowers are open, you often get a cold snap and that probably affects pollination or fruit set.

Down here we don't get many hard frosts when they flower and get plenty of sloes every year. This year it was quite warm as our bees were on the flowers, a bumper harvest again.

 

[Pattree]

There was a huge crop two days ago!!! Someone or something has had them. They aren’t on the floor, it would be covered.

These were hidden inside our hedge so I’m suspecting a human.

They are fully ripe but only one third of their proper size. As stated before, I think it was the heat that checked them.

 

[slaine_23]

I don't think they are, although I gather some plants can get into the biennial habit. I think it is more down to when the flowers are open, you often get a cold snap and that probably affects pollination or fruit set.

Down here we don't get many hard frosts when they flower and get plenty of sloes every year. This year it was quite warm as our bees were on the flowers, a bumper harvest again.

Yes it’s most likely the conditions I suppose, but it’s strange to see a plant literally right to next to another one has lots of fruit but its neighbour none, seems very fickle.

 

[Nice65]

 

[Silverclaws2]

What to do with sloes other than make sloe gin as there is loads of them down here, big juicy ones as well ?

 

[Glow_worm]

I've mixed them in with other things to make fruit leathers in the past. Cut into pieces and stirred into porridge at fruitless times of year!

 

[demographic]

Another bumper year, theres sloes where I've never even noticed blackthorn trees, apples weighing down branches and more blackberries than I've ever seen.

 

[Toddy]

@BorderReiver called it a Mast year.

Folklore says that leads to a hard Winter.

We've screwed things up so much, who knows ?

 

[Pattree]

We have bucket loads of these.
They are a cross between a damson and a bulace.
Unfortunately as with all seedlings you don’t know which genes you are getting.

These are leather skinned, rock hard and taste awful. The stones are much bigger in proportion than either if it’s parents. They wither long before they soften. A seriously Hadean plumb!

This is not just my opinion. They are available to rooks, jackdaws, a host of garden birds, a pheasant or two, squirrels and three sorts of pigeons but nothing eats them.

…… but it fills a gap in the hedge!