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Juniper Foraging

All of our unique Texas junipers are collected by hand by family and friends on adventure-filled camping trips to the Davis Mountains in West Texas.

Juniper Foraging Gallery 6
Juniper Foraging Gallery 6

Foraging in the News

Austin Chronicle Food – Five Food Gifts to Help Smash the Patriarchy – Excellent comestibles from women-owned Austin businesses – December 2022, by Wayne Allen Brenner

Austin Chronicle Food – Five Food Gifts to Help Smash the Patriarchy – Excellent comestibles from women-owned Austin businesses – December 2022, by Wayne Allen Brenner

You’re not going to find a more local, more handcrafted gin anywhere, not with UT biology professor and private distiller Molly Cummings out there foraging various species of West Texas junipers herself. And you’re unlikely to find a more palate-pleasing spirit than her WildJune, conjured from red juniper berries and 10 other botanicals, although Cummings’ London dry-style gin called WildBark (which uses alligator juniper) also has its tippling champions.

Fox 7 Austin – UT professor says her self-made gin may be protecting her from cedar fever by John Krinjak, February 2022

Fox 7 Austin – UT professor says her self-made gin may be protecting her from cedar fever by John Krinjak, February 2022

Molly Cummings is a UT professor by day, and a gin distiller by night. She says she hasn’t had cedar fever in years, and her gin may be the reason.

AUSTIN, Texas – Allergy season is in full swing in Central Texas, and for many of us, cedar fever can be a nightmare. Could a martini or two help relieve it? A University of Texas biology professor—who happens to moonlight as a gin distiller—thinks there might be a connection.

When Molly Cummings first moved to Austin from Wisconsin, her cedar fever was pretty bad.

“I would be horribly congested, it would drip back into my throat, it would be like that for a couple weeks,” said Cummings.

Years later the UT professor followed her siblings into the distilling business, but was especially intrigued by gin—for which juniper is a key ingredient.

KXAN Austin – UT professor creates possible cedar fever cure in a martini glass by Eric Henrikson, Fwbruary 2022

KXAN Austin – UT professor creates possible cedar fever cure in a martini glass by Eric Henrikson, Fwbruary 2022

AUSTIN (KXAN) — If you suffer from “cedar fever” each winter, you may want to reconsider your drink order the next time you head to the bar.

A classic drink is actually made from the plant that causes that dreaded allergic response in Central Texas — gin.

“Gin essentially, is a process where you take a vodka and you make it more interesting,” said University of Texas Biology Professor Molly Cummings. She has an interesting side hustle. “I’m a gin entrepreneur and founder and forger for WildGins Co.,” she said.

Austin Chronicle Beverage Issue – Biology Professor Brings Field Expertise to Craft of Botanical Foraging by Veronica Meewes, October 2021

Austin Chronicle Beverage Issue – Biology Professor Brings Field Expertise to Craft of Botanical Foraging by Veronica Meewes, October 2021

“What a beauty!” Molly Cummings says with a sparkle in her eye.

She could just as easily be referring to the expansive, cloud-mottled West Texas sky or the undulating purple Davis mountains surrounding us. But she’s gazing directly up at a juniper tree – one she’s named Eve because it was the very first one to give her berries – and she is about to scale the roof of the house right below it to forage some more.

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