Mary Green continues her series on trees in the Celtic calendar.
S
eptember at last brought cooler weather, but we’ve cer- tainly had a summer this year! I
hope we continue with a traditional mellow autumn. Maybe we will have a warm spell in October, called St Luke’s little summer – his day is October 18. And at the end of the month we will be into the start of winter by the old calendars, follow- ing All Saints’ Day. I’m often pleased by how well the
Celtic trees fit in with what I would be writing about this month anyway. This month is a good example: the tree is blackthorn and the “second- ary tree” associated with this time of year is ivy.
AS BLACK AS AN Blackthorn or sloe is a small tree
but a really important part of our countryside and traditions. It is one of the plum family, with black twigs and fruit, and white blossom. In win- ter it looks very dark and its spiky thorns make it an impenetrable bar-
rier. It was always much planted for hedging as well as growing wild. Blackthorn is not the first white blossom we see in the hedges in spring; that is the very early cherry- plum. But blackthorn is the first one that really covers the hedges in
blossom and creates pathways for the bees and other spring insects. It flowers in March or April, about the same time as cultivated damson and plum trees, with small very bright white flowers in thick clusters. So long as there are not too many late frosts, the fruits follow, ripening much more slowly than cultivated plums. They are ripe about now, in October. Perhaps the word “ripe” is mis- leading with sloes. They stay very bitter and are almost impossible to eat raw. But they have always been used cooked, especially to flavour other sweeter fruit like apples. Some people say they are better after a frost, and you can often pick them into November.
Winter holly Warwickshire
44 Drooper plums The Village October 2018
One of their main uses nowadays is in sloe gin and other liqueurs. This takes about two months to steep, so is always magically ready for Christ-
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