Juniper

It’s not Gin without Juniper!

Juniper has been part of the landscape in the UK for 11,000 years, an echo of the last ice age when the glaciers finally retreated. And now, following a significant decline throughout the UK, has been identified as a species of conservation concern for England & predicted to become extinct in the lowlands within the next 50 years!!!

Plantlife completed a year-long restoration project in March 2022, but this isn’t the end, many years of work and a huge amount of effort is required to maintain and continue the efforts set out in this project, especially as it could take 10-years for the ‘fruits of their labour’ (literally speaking) to prove worthwhile!

Juniper is 1 of only 2 botanicals that are not native to the landscape of Oak Moor Meadow and the surrounding farmland. However, we have been doing our bit for Juniper by planting 160+ Juniper Saplings (in October 2021, purchased from The Woodland Trust). We are aware that our Juniper planting scheme doesn’t fit the ‘Reintroduction’ criteria (in terms of identified areas for reintroduction projects), but if our planting scheme works, and the juniper thrives, we’ve boosted the overall population, and who knows…. The juniper berries may be of a high enough quality to go into our gin ?!

With the progressive forward march of global warming and climate change, the conditions for future juniper may be more favourable in the UK.

At present, we purchase our Organic Juniper from the Organic Herb Trading Company in Somerset whose values and ethics are aligned to our own.