Lifestyle
Have you ever thought about taking the hedgerow home? Step outside your front door and find nature’s pantry just waiting for you.
There are so many natural ingredients you can forage for. And with summer fruits now ripe and ready for picking, there’s no better time to start.
Q&A WITH...
The Fynoderee Distillery are experts when it comes to foraging. The small business from the Isle of Man forages for a range of ingredients which go into their gins.
Founded by Gerard, Tiffany and Paul, the company produces fresh and exciting flavours you’ll most definitely want to try!
• Please visit: fynoderee.com
What foraged goods do you put in your drinks?
The Fynoderee Distillery forages for local flowers, berries, seeds and plants that make up the unique botanical mixes for our Manx Dry Gin recipes. We have a range of seasonal and special edition gins, and each features a ‘key note’, locally foraged botanical – this brings a seasonal and local taste of the island into every bottle we produce.
What can people look out for to use in their own drinks at home?
During spring and summer, it’s really fun to pick flowers to decorate cocktails or to make into pretty ice cubes. Flowers such as gorse, primrose, nasturtiums, borage, wild rose petals and elderflower work well.
By autumn there are so many different hedgerow fruits available for infusing into spirits such as blackberries, sloes and elderberries. We make a very popular Manx Sloe Gin every year by infusing Manx Sloes into a batch of our Winter Gin.
Sloe gin can also be homemade in a demi-john. Blackberries infuse beautifully into vodka or can make a delicious syrup to make a classic ‘Bramble cocktail’.
Do you have any top tips for people wanting to start foraging?
A successful day’s foraging starts by planning where you are going. Go for a recce in advance to see what is growing in that location, how easily accessible it is and to ensure that you have permission from the landowner to forage there.
Have an idea of the quantity you need before you go out, so that you pick just the right amount. It’s important to read up on the etiquette of sustainable foraging to ensure that your foraging does not damage or harm the environment.
Don’t forget to bring boxes to collect your harvest, wear gloves and sunscreen and bring sustenance with you – foraging can be hungry work!
What do you think the benefits of foraging are?
Heading out into the beautiful Manx countryside to gather our botanicals is one of the most enjoyable aspects of our spirits making process!
Connecting with the landscape that we love so much means a great deal t
