Content
- Harvest sloe - Tips for a rich sloe harvest
- Ancestor of plums
- Father Frost softens the taste
- When is the sloe ripe?
- Spiked Delicacy
- Tips & Tricks
Harvest sloe - Tips for a rich sloe harvest
Sloe crops with their characteristic sourish aromatic taste have been making a comeback in the kitchen in recent years. Whether as an aromatic jelly, internally warm sloe fire or as a biological agent for bleeding gums and stomach problems: In the small stone fruits are many healthy ingredients that make them a healthy highlight in the kitchen and medicine cabinet.
Ancestor of plums
The blackthorn fruits and foliage look like miniature plums, grown by crossing the blackthorn with black cherry plums. In contrast to their big brothers, the small fruits taste very sour and left raw consumed an unpleasant furry feeling in the mouth.
Father Frost softens the taste
The aroma of the drupes is slightly milder and more aromatic if you pick them only after the first frost from late November to early December. The minus temperatures make the cell walls of the sloe more permeable and the starch contained in the fruits is converted to sugar.
When is the sloe ripe?
The small fruits have reached the optimal maturity, when the shell is strongly colored blue-black up to the stem approach. If you do not want to wait until the first frost with the harvest is now the right time to pick the drupes. So make sure that the delicious little berries have not already been harvested from the birds and you hardly find fruits anymore.
Spiked Delicacy
It can be a small challenge to pick sloe. The blackthorn is well protected by the long, very sharp spines and the small drupes have to be picked individually from the branch. Wear strong gloves and a jacket when harvesting so you do not injure yourself on the spines.
Collect the delicious fruits in an air-permeable basket and process them as quickly as possible. Thus, the sloe do not become wrinkled or begin to spoil. Wild fruits do not mix well with plastic bags - this also applies to wild fruits such as barberry or elderberry. Before further processing, unless the recipe requires it, remove the large kernel of fruit as it contains traces of hydrogen cyanide.
Tips & Tricks
Always pick wild sloes away from busy roads and sprayed fields. Do not "poach" in nature reserves. It is forbidden to harvest the blackthorn, because the delicious fruits serve as valuable food for many species of birds in the cold season.
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