Gathering Sloes

Image borrowed from Bing.

Gathering Sloes

By the end of October, go gather up sloes
Have thou in a readiness plenty of those
And keep them in bedstraw. or still on the bough
To stay both the flux of thyself and thy cow.

Tusser
Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry 1573


We have had the first serious frosts,
which means it's time to go into the woods
and gather sloes.

Sloes are the fruits of the Blackthorn,
used to make sloe gin, wine or jelly.

In olden days they were used as a household remedy:

Blackthorn loves a sunny place
at the edge of the woods, not too tidy,
often by a stream between the woods and the fields.

In Spring, a blossoming blackthorn hedge
makes itself known from far away
as a frothy white cloud hugging
footpaths and lanes.

we came away with:
more than three kilos of sloes;
well done all.

Friko

Posted over on her site Friko's Musings

Image by Friko.