The calendar the label runs on

Most of the country works to four seasons. Across the Top End, Aboriginal communities have always read the year in six or seven, each one marked by what is ready to be taken from Country. Seven Seasons is built on that calendar rather than a production schedule.

Green Ant Gin is harvested in the windy season, October into November, which is right now. Bush Apple Gin comes out of the monsoon, December into January. The yam for the vodka waits for the rains. Bush honey and wattleseed go into the coffee liqueur after the bush fruit season in June and July.

Daniel Motlop played over a decade of AFL, then went back to Darwin and set about building work that keeps people employed on Country instead of flying in and out of it. He started with native produce at Adelaide’s Central Market, worked out that retail alone would not hold a supply chain together, and built a spirits company to do it properly. Harvest permits come from the traditional owners and the money goes back to the community.

“We don’t own it, but we protect it.”

Daniel Motlop, founder, Seven Seasons

What to do with it