Ex-midwife in high spirits after setting up farm distillery

Three years ago, Justine Schroder converted her Kaikōura farm shed into a boutique gin distillery.

Her small-batch gins made with foraged botanicals and seaweed sell under the Mt Fyffe brand.

A 40-litre copper alembic still named 'Bruce' is bubbling away when Cosmo Kentish-Barnes turns up at the picturesque coastal sheep and beef farm Justine's husband Barry runs.

Filling Justine's shed-turned-distillery is a delicate, herbaceous aroma.

"I'm making a batch of Woolshed Gin ... using botanics that I can find around the farm, so things like kānuka, mint, elderflower and rosemary."

She places these foraged plants above traditional botanicals like juniper, coriander and angelica root in the still's column.

"The steam rises up from the pot and takes the flavours into the swan neck and then down into a condenser that turns the steam back into liquid."

To highlight and support the nationally endangered Hutton's shearwater or Kaikōura tītī, Justine has created a Shearwater Gin.

It tells the taste story of the seabirds' flight path from the mountains to the ocean to feed.

"So I've got botanics from the mountains; rosehips, blue borage from the streams and then Kekerengu seaweed from the coastline".

Three dollars from every bottle of Mt Fyffe gin sold goes to a local charity that helps with Hutton's shearwater breeding programmes, rescue and rehabilitation.

While Justine makes gin, Barry - a fifth-generation Kaikōura farmer - is out on the farm.  

He runs a herd of 1000 sheep and 200 cattle on the property, which has sweeping views towards the coastline.

Justine's dream is to one day build a bigger distillery that takes in the vista.

"I'd like to have people come up here, enjoy a little something to eat, watch the gin being made and then taste some of the gins, that's my goal!"

She took a step closer to that goal this week when Mt Fyffe's application for an off-licence was approved. The existing distillery in Kaikōura is now able to offer onsite tastings, tours and sales.