From June through to November, flowers and fruit flourish on our farm, keeping us busy with picking, pressing and bottling. From November through to Christmas is mostly markets and fairs, selling the liqueurs which we have been making throughout the year.
It’s always a lovely time, when we see customers who have been coming back year on year, meet new people, and get to tell people about our farm, it’s ethos and how best to serve the liqueurs and sloe gin. We also get to see just how much our customers enjoy the liqueurs; it’s satisfying to see people remark on how fruity and fresh they taste, and always a joy when our message gets across and the organic part of our liqueurs is appreciated.
We’ve had a bumper year for berries, our elderflower liqueur won a Great Taste Gold Star, and we’re experimenting with crabapples from the orchard to create a small batch of spiced crabapple gin.
Sloes, however, have been thin on the ground after an early frost this year. We’ve got plenty of sloe gin from last year, and enough sloe whisky (or did we drink it all?) to last us, but we are at the mercy of our weather. Because we don’t buy in any fruit, just using what grows on the farm, we won’t be making any new sloe gin this year, but
instead have gathered armfuls of crabapples from the abundance in the orchard, and have created a delicious winter drink with star anise and other spices. And of course we’ll be making more mulled elderberry liqueur. We hope you can come and join us at one of our winter fairs, just check the What’s On page for details.