Purveyors of Provenance
Tell us a little bit about your background and the inspiration
behind The Jam Shed. ● I was taught to cook by my mother who was professionally trained in France. I used to stand on a chair at the Aga as she guided through cooking of all sorts from fried breakfasts to 5 course cordon blue meals. I got so attached to the Aga that one day I even tied my horse up to it to warm her up - my mother was not amused! When I could no longer work as a management consultant due to illness, I started preserving the produce Ted (my husband) and I grew in the garden or foraged from the surrounding countryside. Ted couldn’t keep up with eating the production, so I started selling it to friends. Time spent with Ted’s family on the remote, mountainous sheep farm in South Africa taught me different preserving techniques and how to make the best of what is seasonal and around us. We sell at farmers markets across
Essex and Suffolk. I also supply about 15 or more deli’s and farm shops as well as a number of gastro pubs. I am often invited to give talks on preserving and demonstrations on Jam or Chutney making including the Centenary Lecture to a WI group!
How many jars do you produce
each year? ● I make approximately 60,000 jars per year. We still use maslin pans and make small batches to ensure a high quality – so we are de�initely a member of the slow food movement! We use what is around us, so if there is a glut of anything we come up with new �lavour ideas. There is just me in the kitchen with a delightful young lady who helps me out part time – I like to think there is a little part of me in each jar! My neighbour picks for me – from local fruit farms, gardens and foraging in the hedges. You’d be amazed at what is grown in gardens and wasted these days.
14 The Delicatessen Magazine
Each month we will be featuring a local producer to fi nd out what goes on behind the scenes. In the fi rst of our articles we speak to Libby Laurence, creator of The Jam Shed, a small family run preserves company based on the Essex Suffolk borders.
What is your most popular product? ● It depends on the area. My curds
are always the most popular - lemon and passionfruit. They have no preservatives at all so are de�initely a fresh product. Beetroot & horseradish Relish is the most versatile and always goes well, but also the Rhubarb and Vanilla Conserve, Mint and Raspberry Sauce and hedgerow jellies. The Elder�lower Cordial is in demand all year round as a refreshing cooling thirst quencher or as an addition to Prosecco for a celebration. I even export Mirrabelle Jam to a Mirrabelle farm in France!
What do you see as your biggest
challenge? ● There never seems to be a quiet period - marmalade, rhubarb, soft fruit, stone fruit, Christmas. For example, during the season when the soft fruit comes in I have up to 200kgs of strawberries to get through before they spoil - all done in 14 pint maslin pans balanced on top of electric
stoves, we still use the traditional methods. This is at the same time as raspberries, gooseberries, redcurrants, etc. I have managed to get my sleeping down to just 3 hours a night so I can �it everything in!
What’s next for your business? ● I really need to get myself a
commercial kitchen sorted then I can have somebody working alongside me all the time. It’s dif�icult at the moment because of storage and the physical space of working around each other. We have an annex in the garden in which my husband currently houses his motorbikes but he knows his days are numbered! When I get my �inances together I would like to build him a double garage in the garden and then once he has vacated I can move myself in! It would be wonderful to have somebody who can run things so we can have a family holiday - imagine! ●
www.the-jam-shed.co.uk
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