It's not every day you see chardonnay and pinot noir growing in a Scottish greenhouse, or beers made of sticky willy and nettles.
Stranger still is the tank of montepulciano that has just finished fermenting in a nearby shed. This Italian grape rarely strays beyond Abruzzo, let alone making it to the outskirts of Edinburgh.
Welcome to the whacky and rather wonderful world of the Secret Herb Garden, which opened this summer on a seven-acre plot beneath the Pentland hills near the city by-pass. You could say the man behind it - Hamish Martin - is a kind of latter-day, flower power, herb guru. He definitely looks the part with his long, flowing locks.
We sit in the cafe over a mug of coffee and roasted elderberries to talk about weeds. Gardeners have long waged war against them, though Martin sees this as a doomed attempt to impose order on nature. Besides, he doesn't like the word "weeds", and would rather talk of the plants' medicinal and edible qualities.
"Over the summer we had a big water jug with sticky willy," he tells me. "It tastes like cucumber water, and is good for the lymphatic glands." When a musician friend turned up wrecked after a lost weekend he was put on the sticky willy diet, and bounced back in no time, apparently.
If it cures hangovers as an ingredient in his brisk, hoppy pale ale brewed by the nearby Top Out brewery, Martin could be on to something big. It is available in a few shops including Glasgow's Inverarity 121 (£2.95), and from the herb garden once it obtains its licence.
Back in the greenhouse, the chardonnay and pinot noir were eaten as grapes. Next year, Martin might try and crush them into wine. Producing anything from home-gown vines is virtually impossible in Scotland, but this year's balmy summer has seen a few bottles from Upper Largo in Fife, and even the Outer Hebrides. As for the tank of montepulciano, I can't wait to try it. Martin has always wanted to make his own wine having run Inverarity Vaults - the wine business he sold in 2011.
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