Sloe, sloe quick, quick, sloe

We have a blackthorn hedge around each parking bay at work (each bay is for about 4 cars depending on how prettily you park). The flowers are lovely at this time of year.
The hedges attract so much wildlife,  but what isn't so good is getting into or out of your car in the dark in the winter. The blackthorn is extremely thorny and scratchy, and can damage the cars and sometimes they tear our skin as well.
We could of course collect the sloes that form in late autumn, and make sloe gin, then if we drank that, we wouldn't feel the scratches.