Why do people wait for a frost to pick Sloes?

In order to get the most out of your sloes you need to get as much of the flavourful juice out as possible. Where this used to occur naturally in Autumn as the berries went through the freeze-thaw action of the first frost, nowadays most people prefer to use a freezer. Sloes are ripe far earlier than the first frosts these days, to check on the ripeness of these delicious berries, squeeze them gently between thumb and finger and feel them ‘give’ a little, as you would with any other stone fruits. They should also be a dark purplish/black colour under the cloudy bloom which coats the skin. The timing of this stage varies by a couple of weeks each year, as I write this I am planning my first sloe-picking of the year at a local patch, but last year I wasn’t out until October.

Collect what you need, take them home and give them a rinse to remove any unwanted critters or bits of muck, and then put into bags and freeze for at least one long night before using. The final step to really help is when you remove the bags from the freezer, allow them to defrost just a little and then rub the bag between your hands so that the sloes scrub against each other. This will break up the skins a bit more and in our experience functions as pricking the skins would, allowing the juice to escape that bit quicker when you start your infusion. Don’t worry about waiting for them to fully defrost before using either, you can put them straight into an infusion or gently heat to defrost if you are cooking with them.