Sloe Gin. Too slow for me!
I was waiting for the first frost which didn't come.
So I gave up, picked the sloes anyway and took the advice to freeze them overnight and then thaw them to mimic the frost.
Were they fooled? Only time will tell. Ten weeks time apparently.
I only bottled the ingredients today. The kitchen smelled fantastic although not entirely appropriate for 10 in the morning.
Counting on my fingers, I can crack open the first bottle on Boxing day.
Apparently I can keep the second bottle for another year.
We'll see about that.
SLOE GIN
The clear weather of juniper
darkened into winter.
She fed gin to sloes
and sealed the glass container.
When I unscrewed it
I smelled the disturbed
tart stillness of a bush
rising through the pantry.
When I poured it
it had a cutting edge
and flamed
like Betelgeuse.
I drink to you
in smoke-mirled, blue-
black sloes, bitter
and dependable.
-- Seamus Heaney
The clear weather of juniper
darkened into winter.
She fed gin to sloes
and sealed the glass container.
When I unscrewed it
I smelled the disturbed
tart stillness of a bush
rising through the pantry.
When I poured it
it had a cutting edge
and flamed
like Betelgeuse.
I drink to you
in smoke-mirled, blue-
black sloes, bitter
and dependable.
-- Seamus Heaney
