Hedgerow Gin

I'm a bit puzzled, gracesum. If you made gin from the plums and damsons, why did you need to buy litres of cheap gin as well? Did you end up with more gin? Or does the fruit just flavour it?

You make it like sloe gin i.e. marinate the washed and pricked fruit in Kilner jars with gin and sugar, turning the jars over every so often, strain the (flavoured) gin off after a few months and use the distinctly boozy leftover fruit with ice cream!
I have yet to learn how to distil alcohol and in any case I think that might be illegal? (But I might be interested in learning!)

You can do it with vodka too!
I not sure if cryodistillation is illegal or not? Perhaps someone cantell me?

Yes, I think it is, too - although you can brew beer, cider and lager, and make wine - doesn't really make sense. I've always been mystified by sloe gin etc. though, as not liking gin I never bothered to find out how it was made. Thanks for that!

I made my first sloe gin last year, never having had access to a hedgerow full of sloes before we moved here. It was delicious (there's not much left - I only made one bottle!) and I shall certainly be repeating the process on a larger scale this year.

Sloe gin a liqueur - spirit, gin, sugar.
I agree - I think distilling own alcohol illegal as it can go wrong and poison people.
Sloe gin requires a LOT of sugar, I guess with damsons they would need much less?
Personally i adore damson jam, so if I get my hands on any it is straight to the jam pan.
The mention of gin reminded my a walk with my GD and GS last month. We caught a bus to a small bay, which turned out to be in the teeth of a gale, coming straight across Sydney harbour. So route marched them both across the headland to a sheltered beach - about 2-3 k.
On the way GD spotted some juniper berries on the ground (tiny bluish/grey)
I stuck my thumb nail in for them to smell (it is a lovely smell - inspired it was, to use them to give gin that herbal flavour)
"Can you eat them" she says, "no, they have been in the dirt!" I respond.
later on she goes and tells her parents that she did taste one. Not entirely sure if she did, or whether she was just winding them up. Cue mega parental lecture about the dangers of nibbling on unauthorised berries

Sloe gin/vodka is wonderfully warming! As is damson gin/vodka ...think I'd prefer my damsons in the spirit not the jam

I like raspberry vodka too ...not that I wish to give the impression that ...mmm Hic!!

Oh, I love the sound of raspberry vodka!

Now that does sound good! Recipe please

jeni we made sloe gin and Blackberry vodka for Christmas its was very nice

Or lemonchello vodka, Christmas pudding vodka, the choice is endless but you could be legless

No way limoncello! It's horrible!

Coffee vodka is delicious!

Am I detecting a common thread here? [hic emoticon]

Yip! Hic!

Someone gave me a large rumtoft pot some years ago, when we lived abroad; I think it was an unwanted gift they wanted to get rid of! I gave it a go, but even with spiritous liquors being a ridiculously low price in our duty-free Forces NAAFI shop, it was a rather expensive exercise. Basically, you use any ripe soft fruit (strawberries, raspberries, peaches, etc) in season, layer it up with its weight in sugar, and top up with rum or brandy! You keep layering it up, as and when you get hold of the fruit until you get to the top, basically. Then you leave it to mature (if you have the will power), and then eat the rum soaked fruit with lots of cream (and go and lie down in a darkened room for a week!) DH thought it was a scandalous way to use good rum. I thought it was a wonderful way to get a monumental hangover! When we came home to UK, I gave it to a charity shop!

Here's something to do with horrible red wine:
Soak prunes in it in a jam jar. Put at back of cupboard and forget about them for a while. They have to be proper prunes with the stone in otherwise they sort of disintegrate.
Rises the humble prune to status of treat.

The liqueur you get from the rumtoph fruit is delicious but very sweet. I have made sloe gin for a few years now - the longer you can leave it all before straining the fruit off etc the better it is. If you rinse the sloes and pop them into the freezer for a couple of days the skins crack so you do not need to do all the pricking with a fork.

You have to be careful if you are using blackberries and strain the liquor off after about 8-10 weeks. Any longer and there is a danger that it will taste "woody".

I strained and blitzed the blackberries left over from making blackberry vodka, and poured over ice cream at Christmas a family gathering. Very lovely

Coffee & Orange Liqueur is a favourite. Make 44 cuts in a very large orange, put a coffee bean in each cut and place in a jar. Add 44 tsp of white sugar and half a bottle of vodka and secure lid of jar. Stir daily for 44 days. Strain, but do not squeeze the orange. Add 1 tsp glycerine. (From experience, I'd say making only one batch at a time is pointless )

Three of my very favourite things, Notsogrand! Sounds absolutely delicious....

Start it tomorrow and it'll be ready on 30th June nag.

Will do!

Me too! Snifter on June 30th it is then.