Town End Farm, holiday accommodation in Yorkshire

A luxurious escape to the North York Moors

Tel: 01751 417960 Email: relax@townendfarm.org.uk
  • Home
  • Accommodation
  • Local Area
  • Our Story
  • Blog
  • Gallery
  • Contact Us
  • BOOK NOW

Celebrations at the Long Barn

by Ian Berry | Feb 28, 2023 | Celebrations, How we can help you, Local Businesses

Since opening in 2015, we’ve lost count of the number of big celebrations that have taken place at the Long Barn. There have been lots of birthdays with a “0” in them . As well as anniversaries and reunions. We’ve had visitors here in their...
Next Entries »

Recent Posts

  • A Mindful Escape at The Long Barn: Your September Sanctuary
  • Our Digital Guide: A Little Something to Make Your Stay Perfect
  • Flower and Produce Show 2025
  • What’s on in August?
  • Kirkbymoorside: The North Yorkshire Gem You Need to Discover

Recent Comments

  • David Wotherspoon on Appleton Sheep
  • web page on Five Tips when booking a self catering cottage
  • Lesley on Spring Watch
  • Lesley Jones on Village Life
  • Isabel Ferguson on Doorstep Delivery

Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram

Town End Farm

In 2012 we had a mid-life crisis (although one of Ian’s colleagues told us we had already passed that marker). We have always been customer focused in our careers and had dreamed about taking control of our lives and running our own business. So, we took the plunge and decided to sell our house and set up a self-catering business for large groups of friends and family to meet up in style and comfort. We have put our hearts and souls into the restoration of this characterful luxurious self catering barn and tried to think of every detail you need to make your stay truly memorable. There is space to spread out in & relax, space to come together in. 7 generous en suite double bedrooms mean no one has the short straw. The Long Barn is the perfect place to escape to with family and friends for a special celebration in the beautiful North York Moors National Park.
Town End Farm
Town End Farm20 hours ago
Have you ever made sloe gin?

We’ve been staking out where the best sloes are for several weeks; luckily some of the best ones have been in the hedgerows just 5 minutes walk away.

When the berries have a bloom on them (in bright sunshine they look almost metallic purple) they are ready. If you squeeze them, they have a little give. Take care when picking, the sloe bushes have lots of spikes on them.

Lots of recipes suggest that you wait until the first frosts which help to split the skins. We’ve found that if you leave it that long (especially as our winters have got milder) you either find the birds have got them, or the farmers have destroyed the crop when they cut the hedges.

Our tip is to freeze them once picked to simulate a frost which means they will then steep better in the gin. However careful we are, we always end of with a fair few sloe leaves in our bag of sloes. Pick these out before washing the sloes; it’s easier to do this with dry sloes than with wet ones. Pick out any wizened sloes that you may have picked by mistake. Then wash the sloes and stash in your freezer until frozen.

There are loads of recipes online; we’ve settled on this method over the years. We don’t bother pricking the sloes as they’ve been frozen, and so as they thaw, their skins burst. If you want, give the frozen sloes a bash with a rolling pin. We put frozen sloes, sugar and gin in a kilner jar, but any big jar or bottle will do.

The proportions we use are 500g sloes to 250g sugar to 1 litre of gin. We don’t think it matters particularly if you use caster or granulated sugar. We tried it one year using a sugar syrup but felt it just diluted the gin. We also use supermarket branded dry gin, rather than anything posh. We then give the jar a good shake and put in a cool dark place. When we remember, we give it a shake – more frequently in the first week or two. We leave it for 2-3 months and then sample it.

We usually make the gin in September, so tend to sample it just before Christmas. We then either leave it another month or two, or strain it through a sieve, and decant into clean dry bottles (usually the ones the original gin came in) We don’t like it too sweet, but at this point, if you wanted to add a little more sugar, do and let it steep for longer.

The sloe gin is ready to drink from now on. We think the longer it is left the better it tastes – ideally for another 12 months. But if you can’t wait, it will still be delicious. It’s now part of our winter routine, there is something cosy about lighting a fire, drawing the curtains and watching Strictly with a sloe gin in hand.

Another variation of this tipple is to make it with vodka and damsons. It’s a similar process – freeze the damsons, mix them with similar proportions of vodka and sugar as the gin. We think it’s a slightly smoother drink and is particularly delicious with a small square of 70% dark chocolate.

For other options, a google search will reveal all sorts of sloe gin cocktails you can make, from a Sloe Negroni to Sloe Gin Fizz. We just might try a few this year, and report back.

This year is a great year for sloes in the North York Moors. Hopefully you will be able to track some down wherever you are and give making your own homemade sloe gin a go.
View on Facebook

@town_end_farm_long_barn

 

 
20 hours ago
2 days ago
3 days ago
4 days ago
5 days ago
6 days ago

Connect with us

 

 

 

 

   

Home
Accommodation
Local Area
Our Story

Copyright Town End Farm 2021 All rights reserved

Contact Us

Call us
01751 417960

Email us
relax@townendfarm.org.uk

Get directions
Map and directions

Book Now
Customer Reviews
Blog
Gallery

Newsletter

Sign up for news and more

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!

Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
Legal Stuff

Manage Cookie Consent
We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}