Lavendon Garden Sloe Gin

About 14 months ago - before I started this blog. I mixed up some Sloe Berries from the fields where I walk the dogs along with some Sugar and Gin in a Demi-John, corked it and put it on top of the fridge to infuse. All year I've been waiting, shaking it occasionally and wiping the dust from the top. A couple of days ago I uncorked the Demi-John and ran the purple liquid through some muslin to separate it from the berries along with any other floating bits and bottled it up into sterilised bottles (old Tip-Tree ketchup bottles are great for this). After 14 months I had 3 and a half bottles of Lavendon Garden Sloe Gin (My wife Julia even made labels). I've never made Sloe Gin before and in truth I've never drunk it either so I popped round to my parents house to give it it's first try out (Julia was too chicken to give it a go). A few sips later all seemed fine Mum hadn't gone blind and nobody was being sick so I hailed it a success. What better way to see in the new year!