Herbs and gin – an invitation to Jekka’s Herb Farm for the launch of her gin collaboration with Bramley & Gage really was the perfect mix.
The last time I’d visited to interview Jekka McVicar it had been a cold, wet December day when looking around really wasn’t an option. So, the chance to see the herbetum, set up to educate people about herbs, and find out more about gin-making was a real treat.
The multi-award winning grower is supplying the botanicals for a ‘Jekka’s Edition’ of 6 O’clock London Dry Gin, produced by the family-run distillery just down the road from her nursery in South Gloucestershire.
Herbs are picked at the farm and then taken to the distillery in Thornbury to be turned into gin the same day.
Suitably fortified by herb-based canapes, we were given a guided tour of Jekka’s Herb Farm, which has the UK’s biggest collection of culinary herbs with more than 650 varieties.
Grouped in families – the thymes, the mints etc. – many were familiar, including basil, oregano and rosemary but there were also some more unusual things, such as Szechwan pepper and liquorice.
The real joy of a tour with the acknowledged ‘Queen of Herbs’ was the insight into these versatile plants. Who knew that meadowsweet is a natural painkiller, that thyme can be used to make a household antiseptic or that rosemary tea is good for the memory and a great hangover cure.
Particularly useful is knowing the difference between culinary bay and ‘false bay’, which causes food poisoning. The trick, we were told, is to hold a leaf up to light and, if it’s opaque, you can eat it.
We were encouraged to taste many herbs, including green coriander seeds, which have a zesty, lemon quality, and sorrel, which is oddly reminiscent of ‘Granny Smith’ apples; Roman soldiers used to eat the leaves of wild sorrel on long marches.
The second part of the trip was to the distillery to learn about gin-making and to sample the Jekka’s Edition’.
Made according to strict London Gin rules – pure alcohol and nothing added after distillation – it’s the latest offering from the family firm that started as a sideline making fruit liqueurs on a Devon fruit farm nearly 30 years ago.
The farm has long gone but they still make liqueurs, including raspberry, greengage and quince.
We met ‘Kathleen’, the 200L copper still, and were taken through the distilling process by Head Distiller Edward Kain, who started the business with his wife, Penny; the firm is now run by their children, Michael and Felicity.
He uses a baby still for developing new gins, testing different combinations of botanicals to get the right flavour; ‘Jekka’s Edition’ took 17 trials before he was happy with the result.
We finished with a chance to smell the botanicals used – and sample the gin.
Working with Jekka’s Herb Farm has, Michael told us, been “an unexpected pleasure” while Jekka declared it “brilliant because herbs are both in the kitchen and now in gin.”
And the gin? Definitely on my list of favourites.
• Jekka’s Herb Farm runs regular open days and master classes. For more information, visit the website.
• For information on distillery tours of 6 O’clock, see here.