Growing up on a Cumbrian farm, Becky Griffiths ate vegetables from the family garden and surrounding fields, drank milk from their cows and made gins flavoured with the fruits of the countryside. 

So when looking for a creative, food-related venture, she decided to return to her roots by making fruit liqueurs from her Walthamstow home: Mother’s Ruin was conceived in September 2012.

Becky is passionate about using locally sourced fruit or fruit she has a connection with. She brings frozen damsons back on the train from the family orchard in Cumbria’s Lyth Valley; grows rhubarb on her Tottenham allotment; scours local hedgerows for sloes and elderflowers and uses mulberries from a neighbour’s 200-year-old tree. 

And while she doesn’t travel to Spain for  oranges to make her Seville Orange Rum, she visits New Spitalfields Market in the early hours of the morning, bringing back huge quantities on the W15 bus.

The process is relatively simple but long: fruit is mixed in 5 litre containers with alcohol and sugar and left to infuse for up to a year. The exception being the oranges, where the whole fruits are cooked for a couple of hours before the messy, labour-intensive process of getting peel with no pith and pulp with no pips.

This year, over 100 litres of Seville Orange Rum has been made using 75kg of oranges.

When ready, the liquid is strained through muslin and bottled by hand. The attractive tall, slim dark bottles were carefully selected and Becky also designed the labels with an old fashioned font and the fruit’s Latin name.

Liqueurs are sold either online or from her small shop, wonderfully named East London Gin Palace, in Walthamstow’s quirky Wood Street Market.

When applying for her alcohol licencs, there was one objection: someone obviously thought it would be a den of iniquity. 

Never one to rest on her laurels, Becky is always experimenting. Herbal and floral liqueurs have been unsuccessful, and lavender gin will not be bottled. 

However, apple and pear bitters, using 50 to 60 per cent alcohol with bark and roots, will be hitting the shelves soon.

Once again, Becky is paying careful attention to the packaging and sourcing a small bottle with dropper and designing a label that wouldn’t look out of place on the shelves of an apothecary.

Mother’s Ruin is clearly going from strength to strength and Becky is currently looking for space close to her shop for storage, so do get in touch with her at www.mothersruin.net if you think you can help.

If you want a local gift to take to your next dinner party, a glass of damson gin to sip on a cold, wintry night or bitters for your summer champagne cocktails, just pop into Mother’s Ruin or visit the online shop. You’re sure to receive a welcome as warming as her liqueurs.