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Time to spot your sloe bushes

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  • #1

    Time to spot your sloe bushes

    We are coming up to the right time to spot where your nearest sloe bushes are! The blackthorn is the first hedgerow bush to break into blossom in spring with its starry white flowers - it is a relative of the cherry so you know what to look for.
    Now you need to find out where you are going to head for in the autumn, preferably after the first frost, to gather your harvest for sloe gin, sloe and apple jelly, etc etc etc.
    Whooops - now what are the dogs getting up to?
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  • #2
    anyone got a photo?

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    • #3
      How about this? You can recognise them because they are a froth of white blossoms in an otherwise dead looking hedge!
      Attached Files
      Whooops - now what are the dogs getting up to?

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      • #4
        I seem to think Shakespear wrote about that blossom .....

        Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
        Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
        Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
        And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
        Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
        And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
        And every fair from fair sometime declines,
        By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
        But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
        Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
        Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
        When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
        So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
        So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

        Mind you I could be confused was that regarding Blackthorn or Hawthorn
        He who smiles in the face of adversity,has already decided who to blame

        Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Jeanied View Post
          sloe and apple jelly
          Would you have a recipe for that please Jeanie
          He who smiles in the face of adversity,has already decided who to blame

          Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity

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          • #6
            How poetic, I love that one.

            However blackthorn isn't May (May is a crataegus or hawthorn which comes later)
            Sloe and apple jelly - this is the recipe I used and a google search turns up several others.
            Last edited by Jeanied; 11-03-2011, 11:21 PM.
            Whooops - now what are the dogs getting up to?

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Jeanied View Post
              We are coming up to the right time to spot where your nearest sloe bushes are.
              Not for a good while yet up here Jeanie. I'd give it another month. Our sloes are slow.

              (You've probably got daffodils too - haven't you? *sulk)
              Last edited by Sylvan; 12-03-2011, 01:38 PM.
              The problem with rounded personalities is they don't tesselate.

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              • #8
                Usually well into April here. As long as no-one spots MINE, think a spring walk to note where they grow is a great idea.
                Whoever plants a garden believes in the future.

                www.vegheaven.blogspot.com Updated March 9th - Spring

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                • #9
                  I've just seen a mixed hedge round the corner from me with white flowers - another look is needed I think!
                  Whooops - now what are the dogs getting up to?

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                  • #10
                    One of our blackthorns has begun to flower.
                    T'other one is in a shadier situation so will be a while yet.
                    The problem with rounded personalities is they don't tesselate.

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                    • #11
                      Lot's and lot's of blackthorn bushes around here Jeanied...well you already know that though . I still have some in the freezer from last year, me thinks a cheap bottle of gin might be in order .

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by ginger ninger View Post
                        Lot's and lot's of blackthorn bushes around here Jeanied...well you already know that though . I still have some in the freezer from last year, me thinks a cheap bottle of gin might be in order .
                        Ah! That's what the carrier bag is in the freezer!
                        All the best - Glutton 4 Punishment
                        Freelance shrub butcher and weed removal operative.

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                        • #13
                          our damsons are flowering now, but no sign of the sloes

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Glutton4... View Post
                            Ah! That's what the carrier bag is in the freezer!
                            I'd advise against looking inside random carrier bags in the freezer G4. We once had a bat in ours.

                            Our damson's nowhere near flowering but the greengage is trying to - and the cherry plum's managing very well
                            The problem with rounded personalities is they don't tesselate.

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                            • #15
                              I almost crashed driving to work through country lanes this morning, as I think I saw one, and stupidly turned my head around to do a double-take. Forgot there was a bend coming up

                              Shall double check on the way home tonight !

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