taking it sloe

not every year is a good year for prunelles as they are called in french. in english they are called sloe berries, and yes they are at the origin of sloe gin and so very many disastrous first encounters with hard alcohol. this happens to be a good year for them in the midi, and here we don’t make sloe gin, we make liqueur de prunelle, under the guidance of our next-door neighbor, whose family has made the recipe for generations. it involves macerating sloe berries in high proof clear alcohol for three or four weeks and diluting with a syrup. but the real fun comes before that, when you have to try to pick a jarful of the berries without getting pierced by their wicked thorns. no one to my knowledge has ever succeeded.

prunelle (aka sloe) berries in late december