Sloes

Yesterday we picked the first batch of sloes which feels really early. 1.3kg from just three branches that MrPP cut from the very top of the patch of blackthorn scrub at the top of the garden. 
   
And as an added bonus I have a great lump on the top of my head from where he lost control of the telescopic pruner and it swung back over his head and landed on mine. Ouch!!
   
Beyond sloe gin, is there any anything else you do with sloes? Just how much sugar wuld you need to add to make a bearable jelly?!

Dont know if this site will help PP?
http://www.jam-making.com/jam_sloe.html

Thank you - and we know someone with an orchard full of apples, although never anything as eye-watering as proper British cooking apples, sadly. We'll have to experiment

Sloes are the most bitter of the plum family, size really does matter. Sloes, Bullaces, Damsoms, Plums. We are two month off picking sloes yet, and I won’t even look at the bullaces until the schools go back. Freezing them helps as it makes them sweeter, don’t know why it works but it does.

I freeze them to soften the skins before putting them in the gin but have no plans to test the sweetness theory by tasting! Ten years ago we would have been picking in mid August ...

When does spring start for you PP?, cos that is super early. Historically I would have picked sloes after the first frost but these day I’m picking from the end of September onwards. You only ever suck on one raw sloe,they are so astringent.

When does spring start? Who knows? It was hotter and dryer in March/April than June/July this year! We had Christmas lunch outside and snow in Feb ... Asparagus was finished by mid April.
The flowers were out in March if I recall.
MrPP always tries a sloe. Every year. Hysterical.

Does he have dementia, or are you whispering in his ear like his mama used ‘try it this year, you might like it this year’

Given that he'd lost control of the telescopic pruner which landed on my head I wasn't gonna stop him!

You think he lost control, maybe he didn’t.