Description of sloe:
Prunus spinosa L.
prunus spinina Spinaceae Prunus spininae Prunus spininae Prunus spininae (Old or other familiar names: pine tree, prune)
Rose family – Rosaceae
Genus with more than 200 species. Coneflower is a densely branched shrub 1-3 m tall. Its branches are stunted and become prickly thorns. Its leaves are elongated elliptic to lanceolate, with a quivering edge and sparsely hairy. Flowers 1-3, white. Petals 5-8 mm long and white. The outer part of the flower is a green calyx, bell-shaped and pentametric above; the upper corolla has 5 white petals and many stamens. The calyx has a bell-shaped cavity in which the pistil is set. The fruit is roundish, about 10 mm in diameter, with a berry-like stalk, bluish black in colour. The flavour is very tart.
It has been known and sought after since ancient times.
It flowers from the end of March to the end of April, sometimes until the beginning of May, the leaves appearing only after flowering.
Occurrence:
It is widespread throughout our country, notably in grassland, along roadsides, on scrubby hills, on the slopes of mountains, at the edges of woods and fields, in hedgerows and in sparse woodland. In Europe, it grows on stony ground, on forest edges, in Western Asia and in North Africa.
Uses:
The flowers are used as a blood purifying tea. It is used as a medicinal herb in the West. Dried flowers are traded as flores acaciae. Its flowers contain amygdalin and tanning agents, The tea of the flowers of the caraway is given mostly to children with the tea of the pansy, for skin diseases and rashes, and is also used as a remedy for freckles and liver spots. It is also the most innocuous laxative, which has a stomachic and tonic effect and reduces high blood pressure. The decoction of its fruit is consumed against enteritis, but also used to make jam or brandy for consumption and against enteritis.
Its fruit is used in the preparation of other alcoholic drinks, such as Sloe gin (in England), Patxarán (in Navvarra), Prunelle (in France), Umeshu (in Japan), Prunella and Bargnolino (in Italy).
Active ingredient:
Amygdalin, tanning agents. In the flowers: flavonoids, hexaglycosides (in fresh inflorescence). In the fruit: tanning agents, colouring agents, fruit acids, sugar, vitamin C, pectin. In seeds: hexaglycosides.
Effects of sloe tea:
Anticoagulant, astringent, cleansing, diuretic, laxative, tonic, against enteritis, hypertension, skin rashes and liver spots. Its fruits have an appetizing, refreshing and vitalizing effect on the body. Care should be taken with this plant because it contains a substance that produces hydrocyanic acid!
It is used in homeopathy for heart weakness and headaches (headaches from the forehead to the back of the head),
Taking:
The flowers are picked in completely dry weather, during sunny periods. Carefully picked flowers should be dried on tarpaulin in the sun as quickly as possible. In the old days, the flowers were covered with a tarpaulin under the bushes and beaten off with sticks. The parts of the branches that fell with the flowers were sorted out with a sieve. The flowers should only be spread out in a very thin layer and turned several times a day until they are completely dry. Although the bitter almond smell of the celandine flower is lost during drying, it does not lose its value. The dry flowers should be packed in a skatula or small box, which should be lined with paper beforehand. 5 kg of the fresh flowers and 3 kg of the fruit are needed to produce 1 kg of dry goods.
The fruit should be collected without stems, when ripe (it can be dried in the oven), the bark should be dried in the sun and the leaves used fresh.
Cultivation:
It is undemanding to soil, forming an impenetrable hedge.
Making sloe wine:
Ingredients:
4-2 kg of sloes
2-1 kg sugar or beet sugar
5 l -3 l water
As I wrote earlier, the pears are picked when the tansy has already bitten – this varies, but you can expect it around the end of November or the beginning of December. When picking, be very careful where you pick the plant, avoid picking along busy roads. It should be cleaned of dirt, branches, stems, etc. Healthy berries should be washed, but not with hot water! It is then worth drying them, draining them and then the next stage. It’s best to grind the flesh of the pears off the seeds with a grinder, but be careful, as the seeds can ruin the machine, and if you put them in the machine to ripen with the seeds, be prepared for a bitter aftertaste.
Some recipes say that seeds are necessary at the beginning because they also leach out substances/flavours. Toast 2 tablespoons of the sugar until brown, pour in the water, add the rest of the sugar, and once boiled, let cool slightly warmer from hand warm. Pour this over the cucumber flesh or berries, and cover the mouth of the pan with gauze or tulle. If you have put seeds in the pot, stir every 3-4 days, if only the pulp, there is nothing to do with it until the boiling is over.
Fermentation/source:
If kept at room temperature, 20 C, the fermentation/source will take 3-9 weeks. When it is no longer bubbling, you can feel the end of the boil, don’t wait any longer! Strain, put in bottles, bottle. If you want to experiment further, you can do another maturation of some of it. In this case, pour 1 kg of sugar or beet sugar dissolved in 2 litres of water over the pulp and boil again. After filtering and settling, the two are mixed and put in their final place in jars.
There are recipes to inoculate the curdled meat with yeast and pre-ferment it (with sugar) for a few days, then after fermentation, mix in the rest of the sugar. After a few days when the boiling is over then it can be milked and bottled. (Someone also uses a pectin-degrading enzyme for fermentation.)
You should know that this is not a grape wine, it will not age with storage!
Making pumpkin gin:
You can make a divine gin for yourself from this thorny bush-grown pear.
Ingredients
– 250-350 g sugar
– 1 litre of any gin (you can also make this with vodka)
Poke the pears, put them in a sterilised, sealable jar with the sugar and pour the gin over them. Store in a dark, cool place, shake daily to melt the sugar and mix the ingredients. after 4 months, strain and serve.
It’s a struggle to get the berries because of the sharp spines. On the plus side, you don’t have to fight the birds for the crop. The tree makes an excellent stick, a tough, hardy creation.
Source:
Dr. Ferenc Darvas and Dr Gyula Magyary-Kossa,Domestic herbs, their production, marketing, effects and medicinal uses
Béla Páter, Wild herbs, their production, use, and distribution
Andreas Wacker, Medicinal plants in homeopathy, ISBN:978 963 7268 71 7
Rápóti Jenő-Romváry Vilmos, Medicinal plants, ISBN:963 241 190 0
Bertalan Galambosi, 88 colour pages on herbs and medicinal plants, ISBN:963 231 455 7
Jenő Bernáth, Medicinal and aromatic plants, ISBN:963 286 258 9
Dr. István Isépy, Medicinal plants, ISBN:963 11 6369 5
Babulka Péter, Discovering wild medicinal plants, ISBN:963 9237 66 3
Dr. János Zelenyák, The effects and uses of medicinal plants
Ingrid and Peter Schönfelder, Herb Guide, ISBN:963 684 124 1
Alexandra, Treasury of herbs, ISBN:978 963 357 507 9
János Boruzs, Useful advice on domestic herbs, ISBN:963 9246 18 144