It was 18 months ago that I made up my batches of damson and blueberry gins and the gin /fruit has been brewing in their demi-johns every since. I am finally decanting them and bottling them up for Christmas, using all the old used gin bottles saved up over the years.

The damson gin is a lovely clear bright plum colour, the blueberry a much deeper shade of blue. I sterilize the bottles using a baby bottle sterlizer and then rinse them out thoroughly. Decanting is done using a narrow funnel to capture the fruit - you need to do it slowly because the bottles fill up surprisingly quickly and can overflow.

The gin will be given as a Christmas present to my (many) gin-drinking friends. One prefers the blueberry gin over the damson but it all depends on individual taste - both are delicious. The fruit is delicious with yoghurt or ice cream or in summer fruit puddings. You can freeze them and keep them until the summer.