It had never occured to me until today, that my ambition to make some of my own schnaps in Höfen might be cut short by the fact that there is simply not enough fruit. A very long and very cold spring, and a cold and wet summer mean that there isn't any of the surplus fruit that normally fuels local wine and schnaps production: apples, pears, plums.
After a walk around the fields I can report that there are luckily some trees with fruit, and it's now a matter of who owns them and if they harvest them, in order to rescue my schnaps plans. Otherwise I will have to divert to elderflower and rosehip, which are both classified " specialist" schnaps - probably because it's incredibly timeconsuming business - which means my Schnaps would indeed be for very special occasions only.