Tag: sloe

#365daysofbiking Flower power

Wedesday March 17th 2021 – On the cycleway near Stafford Park in Telford, the blackthorn is heavily in blossom, and it’s beautiful. The first of the major blossom shows, it’s only beaten here by the odd ornamental cherry that would have come into flower a month ago.

Blackthorn – the once sought after sloe, beloved of home brewers – is interesting as it flowers before coming fully into leaf (much of the greenery here is an interleaved hawthorn).

Lovely on a dull, chilly morning.

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September 2nd – This year, as usual, I’m charged with foraging fruits and other goodies for the family winemaker, and precious jewels indeed are the sloes.

Thankfully on my ride out to The Roaches, I found a plentiful crop I’m not going to give the location of!

Thes dark red berries with the blue sheen, very similar in appearance to damsons make a lovely warming gin and are much prized.

A great find!

February 12th – A mad, mad, bonkers season. Discernible by the blossom before the leaf, this is blackthorn (that’s sloe) in bloom on a motorway embankment in the Black Country. 

Out on an errand in the morning, I spotted loads of it in healthy, bright bloom. As a hermaphrodite flower I’m not sure if this early blossom will be good or bad for the crop come autumn.

Along with the daffodils now widely in bloom, this early spring is like nothing I’ve ever seen before.

September 28th – I haven’t seen any sloes this year. There are usually some growing in the hedgerows around Engine Lane in Brownhills, near the old Carver building, but they seem barren this year. What I have found, though, is damsons. Similar in colouring and texture, sloes are rounder and form clumps on the bush. Damsons hang individually, on a short stalk, and are vaguely egg-shaped. Sloes can be used in a number of drinks – sloe gin being one, where as damsons are more versatile and tasty enough to be eaten as a fruit, make jam with and so on.

However, growing on Engine Lane as they are, next to a notorious landfill and on former industrial land, it’s no wonder they are rotting on the ground. I certainly wouldn’t eat them, but nice to see.

Setember 10th – I believe in random acts of kindness. I also believe in random acts of guerrilla planting. Myself and people who know me, at this time of year, engage in collecting the seeds and fruits of deciduous trees and shrubs – acorns, sycamore seeds, beech nuts, sloes, haws and so on – then spread them randomly on thin hedgerows, scrubs and wasteland. I’ve spread patches of cowslip on Clayhanger common, scattered wildflower seeds down the Goscote Valley, and collectively we’ve populated canal banks, footpaths and barren places with tree saplings.

We support the trees, because, well, the trees they need support. Do. It. Now.