Any botanists?

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chewie

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Out gathering a few blackberries earlier when i stumbled across these

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0v6sj58l4tydgis/IMAG0004.jpg?dl=0

I have no idea if they are sloes or bilberries or damsons, they are small and bitter though they may have a bit of ripening to do.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hbx5eiqnban4f84/IMAG0002.jpg?dl=0

The small white tablet is a campden for size reference (about 8mm diameter), they have a relatively large stone in them and the leaves are somewhat on the skinny side and no photos i can see anywhere show a leaf as skinny.
 
Out gathering a few blackberries earlier when i stumbled across these

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0v6sj58l4tydgis/IMAG0004.jpg?dl=0

I have no idea if they are sloes or bilberries or damsons, they are small and bitter though they may have a bit of ripening to do.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hbx5eiqnban4f84/IMAG0002.jpg?dl=0

The small white tablet is a campden for size reference, they have a relatively large stone in them and the leaves are somewhat on the skinny side and no photos i can see anywhere show a leaf as skinny.

Will send the pics to the missus tomorrow, as she is away visiting her mother, she is a botanist! unless someone else knows in the meantime i will update tomorrow at some point! P.S Also take a close up of the leaf flat as you can! that will help the indentification.

D
 
A stone fruit, so not bilberry which is heather like in its growth, and multi seeded.
Sloes are from Blackthorn, Prunus spinosa. Your leaves are much finer and stunted. How big is it? Is it hedge like, bushy or tree like? It does look to have a stone. I have tried to put it through a key but no joy as it starts off with evergreen or deciduous, leaves spiny toothed ...
As all are "edible" treat as sloes, which retain their astringency right the way through ripening.
Don't go cracking the stones. The kernel, like apple pips, apricot, cherry and peach stones contains a cyanide relative

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
 
Leaf beside the split fruit

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6qtof65npwx5l8f/IMAG0006.jpg?dl=0

And a close up

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xriui4s99odgu37/IMAG0008.jpg?dl=0

They do have a stone in them, flesh is green in colour, i wasn't noticing any thorns on the branches which lead me to believe they aren't sloes. The area they are in is quite overgrown and growth could well be stunted due to being choked by goose grass, nettles, brambles and trees which are mostly ash, beech and sycamore. Where they are is the place i grew up at and there are quite a lot of these bushes/shrubs around, from 40 years ago till now i never knew what they where, at best i would say they range from 3-8ft tall.
 
Sloes. Pretty variable so no surprise that the leaves don't match text book illustrations. Its also not uncommon to not show signs of the murderous spines. And astringency is perceived by a lot of people as bitter so that fits.

They'll need another six weeks or so before they are worth doing anything with.

Sloes (blackthorn) have a couple of close relatives in the hedgerows, but both make small trees: Bullace - larger ovoid fruit (sort of wild damson) and cherry-plum - which are reddish, much more palatable, and ready now. You can't mix them up. All three were bred together to become our domestic plums.
 
I would eer on Bullace, a wild plum grows freely in hedgerows.
'IF' they are i am not too sure that i would want to brew with em:nono: however thay can be used along the lines of sloes,ie in spirits
 
I would eer on Bullace, a wild plum grows freely in hedgerows.
'IF' they are i am not too sure that i would want to brew with em:nono: however thay can be used along the lines of sloes,ie in spirits
As I had already commented, our three native wild plums are difficult to confuse.

Reminds me of a frequent debate when I was in Scotland. "Is that a buzzard or a golden eagle?". It is always a buzzard. Then you might get "is that a golden eagle or a hang glider?". Ah, now you're talking...
 
I would eer on Bullace, a wild plum grows freely in hedgerows.
'IF' they are i am not too sure that i would want to brew with em:nono: however thay can be used along the lines of sloes,ie in spirits

That's what i was thinking on, either chuck em in with a bottle of vodka or gin, i was out and about a bit this evening again and came across some sloe's which are still green, defo on a blackthorn with there huge 1" thorns. What reading up i done on the purple ones from last nights forage though is confusing, there the same size as the sloes but the reading suggests if they are a variety of plum they should be a fair bit bigger. I would send them of to get a 100% definitive answer from a lab or some such if i knew of one that would do it.
 
Sloes. Pretty variable so no surprise that the leaves don't match text book illustrations. Its also not uncommon to not show signs of the murderous spines. And astringency is perceived by a lot of people as bitter so that fits.

They'll need another six weeks or so before they are worth doing anything with.
This year in our area there are sloes which are ripe enough to pick, which is early. Not all are ready , but enough for me to go out tomorrow and get some before there are none left.
Bottles of gin and vodka await. :thumb:
 
Well they where sloes, I picked about a 1kg of em and they have been marinading for over a week now in 2 litres of gin, i should get 4 x 700ml bottles of about 27% liquer once watered down. These are probably very old bushes which would maybe explain the lack of thorns (there where thorns on some) and in parkland which is not tended to so never cut back and no new growth, they are certainly over 40 years old as I remember them from being a ween.
 
Yeah, sloes aplenty on untrimmed hedges - seem ripe enough now (lots of things a bit early this year) and you can always bung them in the freezer to simulate the first frost.
Not entirely sure what the first frost is necessary for.. maybe breaks them down a bit / releases juices a little more easily?

Best infusion I did last year was crab-apples in vodka - only did a little to test, but damn it was good - a really amazing clean apple flavour.
I've already got a litre going of the same tree and may try another local crab (/seedling) to compare or a newly planted cultivated crab has maybe just enough fruit for comparison too.
 
From the reading I've done the frost gets rid of the bitterness, mine got 12 hours in the freezer and the taste difference was night and day. They where defo ready for picking from there location as it is a south-southwestern facing slope so gets sunlight for the vast majority of the day.
 
100% Sloes. They are 'ripe' when you can squish them between a thumb and finger (obviously not like a grape squish though, cause they have a stone in). Even when they are ripe they will still suck out all the moisture in your mouth like a fan heater to the kisser. Sloes (a.k.a. blackthorns) are also very variable. Some have typical slender leaves, others broader, and some sloes are the size of skittles, over more like squash balls. Some have thorns every half inch, others have a single thorn on the bush. There are also bullaces also which IMHO are just big sloes.

Sloes are very very early this year - in East Anglia, I found ripe sloes kicking about mid-August - plenty enough to make some wine.
 
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