News Lifestyle Happy hours in the garden: Grow your own cocktails

Happy hours in the garden: Grow your own cocktails

New York:  Gardening can be an intoxicating hobby, especially if the botany is booze-related.Consider the possibilities: grapes fermented into wine, corn distilled into bourbon, hops used to flavor beer and fruit to sweeten liqueurs.Why run



The marketplace is untapped for this emerging type of niche gardening, said Tim Russell, a spokesman for Territorial Seed Co. in Cottage Grove, Oregon. Territorial is teaming with Stewart to sell a cocktail-friendly line of herbs, fruits, vegetables and flowers.

"A lot of young people are looking to do cooler things in their gardens like grow their own cocktail ingredients," Russell said. "We're hoping this will draw them further into gardening."

The average liquor bottle contains a great deal more than straight alcohol, Stewart writes.

"Once a spirit leaves the still, it is subject to endless experimentation with herbs, spices, fruits, nuts, bark, roots and flowers," she said. "Some distillers claim to use over a hundred different botanicals in their secret recipes."

So if distillers are continuing to experiment, why not gardeners?