2 minute read
Stillgarden Distillery
STILLGARDEN DISTILLERY
Social Botanist Project
Stillgarden Distillery’s Social Botanist Project brings together a community of like-minded individuals who care about the environment and shared spaces
Stillgarden Distillery is a new independent distillery based in Dublin 8. “With an aim to bring science, nature and community together, Stillgarden is constantly striving to develop exciting, sustainable, socially sourced beverages and has developed 14 different spirits, cocktails and aperitifs since its launch in 2020, as well as a range of gifting sets,” says Viki Baird, Managing Director, Disruptive Spirits, aka Boss Lady. With a keen focus on sustainability and reuse, Stillgarden have been recognised with awards from both Dublin City Council and MODOS (the circular economy training programme for micro, small and medium size enterprises run jointly by Dublin City Council and the Eastern-Midlands Regional Waste Management Planning Office). They recently were delighted to become a certified Origin Green member.
SOCIAL BOTANISTS “Stillgarden Social Botanist Project is a community of like-minded individuals who care about the environment and spaces people share together. The Social Botanist Project educates people on the importance of biodiversity, sustainability and our natural ecosystem through weekly outdoor workshops and activities,” says Baird.
One of Stillgarden’s most popular products is its Social Gin, which was created with its social botanist community. For this innovative project, Stillgarden recruited a group of budding botanists and gave them hydroponic grow boxes to grow botanicals at home. Once ready, these were transplanted into Stillgarden’s community garden. “When the botanicals were harvested, the social botanists were invited to taste various iterations of the gin and decide on the final flavour profile, and so, a community sourced gin was born,” explains Baird. Stillgarden also make the Sidecar Gin for the Westbury Hotel and have collaborated with several other Irish businesses.
In 2020, Stillgarden cleared debris and rubbish from an unloved green space to create a 450sq m (4,844sq ft) public space for a community. Viki Baird, Managing Director Stillgarden Distillery
Members of the community were given pre-seeded botanical grow kits to take home and learn a new skill. Stillgarden also grew a community garden with plants that had been grown by the social botanists. The aim was to build community spirit (no pun intended!) and this has since grown into a much bigger project. “Since then, the group has grown from 10 members to 150 people, and over 100 trees have been planted in the Inchicore area,” Baird reveals. They also run community gardening groups with regular meetups to forage, tend the garden and take wildlife walks to drive awareness about urban wildlife.
Stillgarden has also committed to the all-Ireland pollinator plan, launched monthly community clean-ups, and introduced wormeries to the distillery grounds to aid composting in the garden there.
