The people from Sloe Motion, a local business based near York, joined us for our September meeting. We had a very enjoyable evening taking in the history of the drink, how it is made, how the business developed and , of course, tasting the delicious product. Sloes are the fruit of the blackthorn, a common hedge plant. When the farms were enclosed with these hedges the country folk needed to find a use for the fruit. Combined with cheap sugar and cheaper gin a delicious drink was born. We discovered that although the drink is still basically made in the same way, there is no longer any need to pick the fruit “ after the first frost” as many of us thought. We were told instead to freeze the sloes after they are picked and use them from frozen which helps to break down the tough skins and lets the flavour and colour out. If you want to have a go at making your own take a look at this month’s recipe inspiration.
Sloe Motion make many other products and we tasted Hedgerow Gin, Sloe Whisky and sloe gin itself. There was an opportunity to stock up on supplies and one lucky sweetheart won a bottle to take home.
You can find the full range of products made by Sloe Motion on their website.
Comments