Post by murrayc on Oct 5, 2016 17:04:30 GMT
This is the time of year when we (Pat and I) are normally at our most secretive: slinking off into woodland in search of our own special place, the nest of blackthorn trees that have a rich crop of dark, velvety blue sloe berries. We can be detected after the event, lugging heavy plastic carrier bags full of the fruit, eyes shining with triumph despite the twigs and leaves in our hair, the livid scratches on hands and arms, and the tell-tale purple staining of the fingers where the ripest ones have bled. Later I will be off in search of the cheapest gin from the supermarket, along with as many packets of sugar as I can carry, and Pat will be patiently pricking each berry before infusing them. The cupboard under the stairs will be visited twice daily for the ritual shaking of the bottles as they turn from palest pink to that rich ruby and the sweetness and thickness of the liquor is almost palpable. Sloe gin: the perfect winter warmer, to be sipped at Christmas, savoured in the New Year and slurped into the early spring or whenever the year's supply runs out.
Except that this year is different. Everywhere I have looked, all of those special places, the thorns are covered in leaves but there are are no fruits or only a very few. At first I thought it was the effect of some appallingly managed hacking-back conducted by some cowboy contractors in a semi-public hedgerow near where I live, but then I looked in other places and found the same thing. I have just found this extract online from the Daily Telegraph in July, as part of an article about the wet spring and early summer and the effects on wildlife:
"And cold and damp conditions could even see a sloe gin drought this Christmas, as they have encouraged a fungus which stops the berries developing.
Blackthorn trees are the source of the purple berries used to flavour the tipple, but early indications are many of this year’s sloes may be deformed and unusable.
The fungus Taphrina pruni is to blame because it causes a condition known as pocket plum. This leads to strange distorted fruit. The fungus stops a stone from forming and the sloe never ripens. The Woodland Trust said reports of malformed berries had come in from Scotland to as far south as Buckinghamshire with particularly nasty outbreaks in Yorkshire and Lancashire."
Have others had the same experience?
Except that this year is different. Everywhere I have looked, all of those special places, the thorns are covered in leaves but there are are no fruits or only a very few. At first I thought it was the effect of some appallingly managed hacking-back conducted by some cowboy contractors in a semi-public hedgerow near where I live, but then I looked in other places and found the same thing. I have just found this extract online from the Daily Telegraph in July, as part of an article about the wet spring and early summer and the effects on wildlife:
"And cold and damp conditions could even see a sloe gin drought this Christmas, as they have encouraged a fungus which stops the berries developing.
Blackthorn trees are the source of the purple berries used to flavour the tipple, but early indications are many of this year’s sloes may be deformed and unusable.
The fungus Taphrina pruni is to blame because it causes a condition known as pocket plum. This leads to strange distorted fruit. The fungus stops a stone from forming and the sloe never ripens. The Woodland Trust said reports of malformed berries had come in from Scotland to as far south as Buckinghamshire with particularly nasty outbreaks in Yorkshire and Lancashire."
Have others had the same experience?