Sloes past their best

A couple of months ago, I checked out the Blackthorn bushes that I know about, to see what the likelihood of enough to make home-made Sloe Gin this year, would be.

Some of the usual bushes had little or no sign of any sloes but a couple of others had what looked like a very promising crop.

Just been today and they had all gone way past their best.

I know some say that you should wait until after the first frost before you pick them.  So because we have had no signs of frost at all this year, I didn't make it a priority to go back before now.

As you can see, I'm way too late.

So I headed off in search of alternative bushes.

Thankfully, I managed to find 2 or 3 with a reasonable crop of healthy Sloes.
So all is not lost, but the final product may not be ready for sampling before Feb 2016.