Picking Gorse

There is a popular saying around here, "When gorse is out of blossom, kissing is out of fashion". The good news is that gorse is in flower for most months of the year, taking a short break in summer. Which is a relief if you firstly, like kissing, and secondly like using the flowers to make sparkling gorse wine. 

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Our sparkling gorse wine is part of our 'Rewilding' range of drinks, where we forage for ingredients found in the surrounding Devon countryside, and use it to make our drinks.

We picked this gorse in the most amazing location. It is on the cliff tops, above a hidden beach near our house in South Devon. There is a tiny, secret path (an old smuggler track) obscured by blackthorn, that leads off the coast path, and down the side of a cliff to a grove of gorse, and eventually the secluded, sandy beach.

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Foraging from the cliff edge, we could see dolphins and seals swimming in the ocean. Diving into the sea we watched the spectacular acrobatics performed by cormorants and guillemots, while soaring above our heads was the fastest animal on the planet, a peregrine falcon. At our feet we saw lizards and glimpsed an adder. ​

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