Each year we round off a summer of picking making our Hedgerow Harvest Jam, it's the perfect summery of everything that we have picked through summer and into the start of Autumn.
This week marked the first day of meteorological autumn - and it felt particularly apt that, at the same time, we were picking the final Cheshire damsons and elderberries needed to make our award-winning Hedgerow Harvest Jam.
The foraging journey for this product began what seems like a lifetime ago, in the heatwaves of late July. We started with local blackberries and the first of the plums. Every few weeks, a different variety came into season for us to pick: starting with the Yellow Eggs, followed by Purple Pershore plums, then Victoria plums, and a new variety for us this year, Belle de Louvain.
Our final stop for plums is always Evesham, where the damsons signal that the end of the plum season is approaching.
This year, the apple season arrived earlier than expected. Last week, Archie and Bert were busy picking across six different gardens and ten different apple trees, bringing in nearly two tons of apples.
We’re always in awe of just how much a single apple tree can provide, and we’re incredibly grateful to all the people who let us pester them each year to return to their garden apple trees. Thank you for having us back year after year!
Hedgerow Harvest Jam is one of our oldest recipes, and there’s probably no better product for showcasing what we pick throughout the harvest season.
The elderberries and blackberries are true wild hedgerow fruits, gathered from the places where they grow naturally. The plums and damsons, on the other hand, were once valuable orchard crops. But with the decline of local grocers and the tradition of home jam-making, there simply isn't the same demand for them anymore. Increasingly, these wonderful fruits are left to fall rather than being picked.
That’s something we love about Hedgerow Harvest Jam. It brings together fruits from the hedgerow and orchard, giving them a new lease of life and preserving a little piece of the harvest season.
Finally, like all good Fruits of the Forage recipes, we add a bit of cooking apple. Apples are so abundant locally that even in a bad year there are plenty to go around. They also have another useful quality: their natural pectin helps the jam set beautifully without the need for added pectin.
Each fruit tells a little part of the season. Together, the blackberries, plums, apples, damsons and elderberries create a jam that truly captures the abundance of our local hedgerows, gardens and orchards.
So, as we round up another harvest season, we’re raising a spoonful to all the gardens, trees, hedgerows and helping hands that made it possible.
We’ve had nine different pickers out this season, giving everyone the chance to step away from the kitchen, warehouse or office and get involved with the picking. It’s a great way for the whole team to experience the journey of the fruit we work with - from the tree and hedgerow, right through to the jar.
And now the picking is finished, the fruit has been gathered, and the jam is made.
The harvest may be coming to a close, but a taste of it lives on in every jar of Hedgerow Harvest Jam.