First, find some blackthorn in your local hedgerows. Sloes are the fruits of the blackthorn, and are small (about 1-2 cm in diameter), hard, and deep purple-black in colour, sometimes with a white cloudy bloom.

Pick the sloes in September - October. Some say to wait until after the first frost, others claim that by then the birds and other pickers will have taken them all, and that the frost makes no difference to the taste anyway. Since I live several floors above the ground, quite close to the seafront, and rarely leave the house much before 8, I never know when it's frosted even in Brighton, let alone out in the country where I found the sloes. Damn city living.

When picking the sloes, watch out for the thorns, which can be two or three inches long. If you want to be good and traditional, break off a thorn or two to prick the sloes with later (although another tradition calls for them to be pricked with a solid silver fork, so if you have one of those hanging around, forget the thorn.)

At home, give the sloes a rinse under running water, then dry them well. Pick through and remove any which are wrinkly or squishy or otherwise unpleasant-looking (not that they will be particularly pretty after sitting in hard liquor for three months).

Now comes the rather tedious part, the pricking. I read on one webpage that you should gather round and do this with family and friends, sipping wine and chatting while stabbing sloes. It sounds lovely but unless you like spreading sticky sloe juice all over your wine glass it's not really the go. You'll just have to converse sober. Anyway, using a thorn, or a solid silver fork, or any other sharp implement you have handy, prick each sloe several times, to break the skin and let the gin in and the flavour out.

Once you've got your sloes pricked, start assembling the bottles. Into each bottle, place 1 pound (450 g) of pricked sloes, half a pound (225 g) of sugar, and 1 pint (600 ml) of gin. (Obviously, adjust the measurements to suit the size of bottles, but keep the proportions the same.) Screw the lids on tight and give them a good shake. The sugar will take a while to dissolve - ours did it overnight - but if you are anything like me you will help it along by shaking the bottles every time you walk past them because you are so thrilled you have finally got around to making something with fruit that grew on a hedgerow and you can't keep your hands off them.

The gin will gradually take on a lovely, deep magenta colour over the next few days. Keep shaking the bottles once a day or so for the first four weeks. After that, give them a shake every now and then for a further two or three months. At that point, decant the gin, straining it through several layers of muslin to catch the sloes, which can be discarded. Return the sloe gin to clean bottles. It can be drunk straight away, but it will continue to improve for several years.

23 October 2004