Edible Plants

Useful articles about specific edible plants and plant families. Plant identification, wild flavours, anecdotes, and ideas about food and drinks usage.

conifers

Drinker's Guide To Conifers

We all love juniper, but lots of other conifers, from christmas trees to spruce plantations, make great drinks ingredients
lunch with added wild

Wild food tastes better, discuss

Are flavours better in wild food versus cultivated food? I’m…
What is The Botanist gin's signature serve? Local, seasonal and personal! How to a make your gin and tonic more exciting

How to a make your gin and tonic more exciting

What is The Botanist gin's signature serve? Local, seasonal and personal! How to a make your gin and tonic more exciting
lavatera flowers for infusion in gin

Colour-changing Gin and Tonic

Priming your gin with this common garden and wayside flower before making your gin and tonic yields some surprising results...
primrose illegal

Primroses and The Law

Alpine Absinthe - Wild wormwood

Alpine Absinthe

Andy Hamilton in the Italian alps in search of the secrets of Vermouth, to make his version of an alpine absinthe. He shares his tale and his recipe here.
birch trees in Spring

Birch Bitters

Manuka

Manuka Bush Tea

The medicinal commute - lime blossom

The medicinal commute

Dock leaves and stems edible and delicious

The Rumex Cube

It was only recently that I discovered you could eat dock stems. That's dock, Rumex crispus the curly leaved variety and Rumex obtusifolius
wild angelica growing on Islay

Carrot Family Bitters

There are members of the carrot family growing wild and in abundance that are potentially fatal - you must be able to tell apart the different species with 100% certainty

Wormwood - A love affair & DIY Absinthe

I've sadly never encountered uncultivated wormwood in the UK. So, on my return from Italy, I quickly went out and bought my own plant and planted some in a spot in my garden.
The Machair sand dunes marram grass Isle of Islay

The Machair

Here in western Scotland the 'grassy' grazed hilltops of the dunes behind the sandy shore are where the machair forms, one of the rarest habitats in Europe.
Michael Kaplan Great British Vermouth and The Botanis

The Great British Vermouth

We had a visit from Michael Kaplan of Great British Vermouth Ltd this week.
Woodsage - try it in your beer

Uses for Wood Sage

Unlike hops, where just the flowers are used you can use the whole of the wood sage plant to brew with - great, no waste and trouble free, you might think - well no!
The Botanist Gin Hawthorn

The Mayflower

The Mayflower is a shruby tree that produces a small pink-blushed white flower with a sweet earthy scent akin to elder blossom.