Preparing for autumn
The tree are starting in turn in our little bit of England & that means that it will soon be time for the ritual slaughter of our indigenous wildlife to start – ooooooooo, I can hardly wait. In a couple to weeks time I shall head up to Scotland to get among the grouse & red deer with our usual team of stout bulldogs. However, as all sensible sporting folk know, the is nothing finer than to have something homemade in your hip flask to toast the days sport before heading down off the moor. So yesterday was spent digging out last years brew of sloe gin & preparing next years batch.
Luckily, Free Market Towers is blessed with two very old damson trees, which are simply dripping with fruit – so we now have two demijohns of damson gin starting to work their magic, at the back of the barn. Personally, I use Ma B’s recipe – a pound of fruit, a pound of sugar to a pint of gin. The worst part is of course, having to wait a year to drink it; however the best things take time!
Still, by way of consolation, late last night we uncorked some of last years vintage which has already been declared ‘a triumph’ – ah, whilst I might not connect every pheasant that I shoot at, at least what is in the flask will hit the mark … roll on the cold weather
Comments
FM,
Please save some gin for me when I get over to FMT in October. You don't have to save much -- a bottle or so will do.
Posted by: Kim du Toit | August 31, 2004 11:40 AM
You've got to admire a man who makes his own booze. Does it taste better because you made it yourself? Perhaps, though even if it tasted like paint thinner it is, after all, "hand crafted" and worthy of respect.
And I wouldn't worry about connecting with every pheasant you shoot at. If you can take that new tricked out Remington along, you'll be able to cap a mouse at 300 yrds!
Posted by: Stephen Blythe | September 1, 2004 7:19 PM
Free Gin anyone?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3605456.stm
Posted by: nbc | September 2, 2004 4:09 PM