If you appreciate a sloe gin Sloe gin - Wikipedia you might be interested to know it comes from the blackthorn fruit. I bet they make an incredible jelly as well. Byron Nursery had an abundance once on the plants and I passed on them. Byron Nursery are my go to when I want something rare like seaberries etc. at a reasonable price. I’m rolling it over again and considering it Prunus spinosa - Wikipedia. Is anyone growing this fruit?
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Great flashback to when I was a kid. I remember that the sloe was not so good fresh but made a pretty good jelly. Thanks for the reminder. Bill
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Does Byron have a webpage? The main one I found by searching looks wholesale only.
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Yes it is wholesale only. If you contact Gene Redlin who runs Byron he will ship 5 plants but his minimums are minimums http://www.byronnursery.com/BareRootPlants2.html. His June berries are excellent for my climate as well. I only call them when I have a large order and nothing says you can’t go in on it with other people.
As a vaguely relevant aside, trying to get blackthorn seeds online is how I discovered Amazon doesn’t make it immediately obvious that sellers are in fact scam artists in China who airmail you god knows what.
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Try this link again, they sell them but are out of stock https://www.forestfarm.com/product.php?id=3724
Oikos tree crops has them in stock. I’ve ordered from them a couple of times and been pleased.
http://oikostreecrops.com/products/edible-fruits/plums/sloe-plum/
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I agree with you haldog oikos is a great nursery! I order unusual wild pears from them and have been very pleased.
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I see they sent me an email with almond-leafed pear listed, you ever try that one?
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I’m not sure but I don’t think so. Think I grew the oikos. I ordered pears a year or two ago when they offered bundles of 30 pear trees. When they fruit I will post pictures. I’m growing them close to the woods to keep my deer busy during the fall.
I’ve never managed to get sloe berry bushes planted which thus far I’ve only tasted in sloe gin but perseverance will prevail some day but today they are still out of stock at oikos. The other nurseries seem to have stopped carrying them. This is their description “The Blackthorn Tree-Dark Purple Astrigent Fruit-Freedom from Black Knot too!
Sloe plum is a dwarf growing mountainous shrub found throughout Europe. It still is widely used at one time for jellies, syrups, conserves, olives and flavoring for gin and herbal teas. Eaten fresh, the fruit is very bitter but once cooked or processed in some way a different flavor profile emerges which is why it is still sought out today. Sloe plum has dense branching with lots of fruit spurs all along the stems. It spreads by rhizomes ever so slowly working its way out from the first plant. Once the main plants begin to fade in fruit production, the sprouts take its place. Our Ecos strain is from the variety ‘Plena’ which is noted for its prolific flowering and fruit. Because of its susceptibility to black knot we only use seeds for this particular strain which does not nor did it ever had black knot in our 30 year history with our planting. Best in exposed open areas with full sun but tolerant to next to the house planting as well. Currently in production for fall of 2018. New clonal selections will also be produced in 2018.” Perhaps I need to just grow them from seed https://m.ebay.com/itm/BLACKTHORN-SLOE-Prunus-Spinosa-5-10-20-30-SEEDS-/321149206419
Regarding my previous comment, I did end up buying some of the almond leafed pears, so will be interesting what they do in the future. Being seedlings, should be a good amount of time before fruit production for wildlife, hopefully something likes them.
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Blackthorn are still on my list to plant but I’ve not planted them yet. The nurseries are all out of stock every time I try and make the order. I suspect blackthorn is very popular here for making sloe gin If nothing else https://www.bbc.com/food/recipes/sloegin_7722
The problem persists sloe berries are certainly difficult to find
I remember, as a kid, growing up in east-central AL, encountering occasional wild plum bushes that my dad called sloes… the fruits were much more sour/bitter than the tasty Chickasaw plums that we ventured out to pick to make jelly. Were they truly Prunus spinosa, a European native? I don’t know… these were growing wild in pastures/woodland edges; I presume there were probably old homestead/farmsteads that long ago vanished or burned that could have seen their occupants plant sloes… but I doubt that the Creek tribes(or their predecessors) were importing them from Europe to plant.
A year or two back, I was visiting my sister and BIL in Elmore Co., AL, and we took a ride to visit some hunting property he’d bought a few years back. At the edge of a utility powerline clearing that runs through the property, were Prunus bushes bearing small purple bitter/sour fruits… which say “Sloes” to me. I didn’t pay much attention to bark/leaves, but they definitely were not typical Chickasaw plum fruits - actually more reminiscent of the few beach plum fruits I got from the P.maritima bushes I bought from OIKOS years ago… but more bitter than just sour.
So… are true sloes naturalized in parts of the Americas, or are these just plums with really bad fruit quality? IDK.
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Sloe gin does not seem at all common now in the USA. When I ask people if they know what it is they do not seem to know.
Blackthorn grows wild here in hedgerows, and sloe gin is still made. They flower very early and it is said that a prick from the thorns will cause a bad infection.
German nurseries have many large fruited selections. Some are said to be non astringent and edible fresh. Some cultivar names I’ve seen available are Nittel, Rossatz, Wienerwald, Merzig, Reto (ripe and edible fresh in September), and Godenhaus (largest fruit and most productive, larger tree).
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Ive also heard they can brined and used like olives.
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