Sloe, sloe quick quick sloe

Being an ardent forager has some advantages (and a few pitfalls involving trespass and carrying knives and scissors) but it essentially means I can find something edible growing wild out in the countryside which is free and in abundance. Even nettles if you know what you're doing are quite edible and make a very nice soup, look up the recipes online there are quite a few of them, just wear all over clothing and gloves when picking.
However as August is now midway through my thoughts turn to fruit and what I can add to alcohol. Blackberry picking will probably start at the end of this month and will go into some cheap French brandy to make a very tasty winter warmer, this is the recipe I use, but there are others

450g/1lb blackberries

225g/8oz caster sugar
1 litre/1¾ pint brandy (no need for quality)
You can add a couple of cloves and some cinnamon too, but not strictly necessary

Mash up the blackberries and put them into a jar (parfait type if you can get them cheap) add sugar and brandy, shake every day till the sugar dissolves, then once a week for 2 months. Strain using a muslin filter (or fine nylon) and drink till you fall over, it does mature I'm told, but I've never made enough of it to find out.

However I was lucky the other day to spot these bushes growing near one of my dog walks.

Sloe berries and growing in abundance too, though probably not ready to pick till after the middle of October, still sloe gin here I come, just so happens I'm off to France on a booze cruise middle of next month, so I'll get a few litres of gin on my trip.

Best recipe I've found is here at the cottage smallholders site, there are others.

My good friends also have a plum tree growing in their garden that they'll give me some fruit from, there are also hedgerows full of bullace plums around here too, you can make bullace vodka from it, never tried it yet, but I'm going too.

The problem is of course, buying spirits even abroad is expensive, buying in this country really isn't worth it, besides I am averse to paying anything more in duty to the government than I already do. Anyway buying several litres of gin can get you funny looks from supermarket till people, I haven't been asked for I.D. yet, but it's coming. A thought did occur to me though, it's easy enough to make wine from the fruit, but after that there is the possibility of distillation (probably illegal) still as it would be for home consumption it's worth investigating, (though again the law frowns on this too). All I'd require are a stainless steel pressure cooker, some copper tubing, a drilled cork, plastic bucket some bluetack and a lot of ice and a little bit of time (probably a thermometer too)... just saying.