IN SEASON
to enjoy during the colder months. We spoke with Ann Stallard, owner of Waterhouse Fayre, about preserving this beautiful produce all year round...
From budding berries to pickles and preserves, how did Waterhouse Fayre start? Back in 2002, I was working in Burnham-On-Sea and living in South Molton, travelling 120 miles to work every day, leaving at 7.30am and if lucky, getting home by 7.30pm. With land to spare, we decided to plant fruit, special fruits, including diff erent varieties of raspberries, blackberries and tayberries.
T e fruit takes approximately 2 years to
produce a good crop. T e plan was to sell the fruit to the restaurants and hotels in North Devon and do a little Pick Your Own (PYO). However, restaurants want fruit without any blemishes and PYO only pick at eye level so we had a surplus. My husband Neil’s solution was for me to make jam, but I had never made jam before. I was brought up in Hong Kong and I was 18 years old before I had even tasted a blackcurrant. So, I started making raspberry jam and runner
bean chutney, but soon had a surplus of that too. Neil had another solution “you can have a market stall”. Not keen, but I went along with it, having given up work by then and doing only some cookery demonstrations. To cut this long story short,
Waterhouse Fayre W
From surplus fruit to potted preserves...
hen coming to the end of an abundant fruit growing season, our thoughts turn to how we preserve the fl avours of summer
I extended my off ering, and had my fi rst market stall in January 2004. Just 3 years later, I had to give up the market stall to concentrate on making preserves because the business had really grown and I was supplying a number of farm shops and delicatessens.
How did you source your ingredients for your fruit-based products? We moved from South Molton 3 years ago and now live near Tiverton. We have 7 acres and have put some of it to fruit growing again, but this time concentrating on the fruits that we either cannot buy or are too expensive to make jam with, for example, tayberries. We have built really good relationships with fruit growers in the West Country and so are able to source quite a lot in the area.
How do you capture the seasons in your jams and preserves? To be honest, I have to be able to off er my whole range the year round, but the main fruit and vegetable season is May to September. It isn’t possible to make a year’s worth of everything in that short time. Some fruits are absolutely fi ne to freeze and others are not good at all, so I concentrate on making jam with the fruits that need to be used fresh, freezing the other fruits to come back to later. T is means I am making preserves all the year round.
What is the most unusual and surprising product that you make? I make a green tomato chutney with green chillies
in it. I use white sugar to keep the colour green and called it Mean Green Tomato Chutney, but it never really appealed to people, even though it is a really tasty chutney. I always said it looked like pond weed so last year I changed the name the Exmoor Pond Weed Chutney and it has really taken off .
You still make your preserves in small batches; how does this make your product more superior? Each cooking pot holds about 4kg of fruit and makes between 16 to 20 jars. T is is not much more than you would make at home. I believe that keeping the batches this small and giving them close attention keeps the ingredients at their best and produces a preserve full of the original ingredients. You can really taste the diff erence even if you don’t understand the science behind it.
What is your picking process and how does the fruit make it from the orchards to the kitchen? Our fruit is picked at the right time, which means it is not overly ripe. Some of it is made into preserves straight away, but if it can freeze it, we prepare and weigh the fruit into batch sizes, identify it and then freeze it. Our freezer is very organised, it needs to be to be able to fi nd what you want.
Some fruits, like the Victoria Plums, do not
freeze well. Our Victoria Plum Jam is made fresh within 3 days of picking. You can freeze the plum, but the jam will end up more of a brown colour whereas fresh plum jam has a great pink colour. We buy these from a grower near South Petherton who produces the most amazing plums, they helped us win Champion Sweet Preserve with Taste of the West in 2016. T e most important thing is that we will
only use the best ingredients to produce the best preserves. Lots of people think you make preserves with ‘seconds’, well you can, but you will not end up with the best product. I try to keep abreast of what foods become
popular. T e health benefi ts of turmeric are now being realised, so this year I have launched a Fresh Turmeric Chutney which has black pepper, ginger and garlic in it, all good things and it won a gold with Taste of the West as well!
38 | THE WEST COUNTRY FOODLOVER
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