A Busy Few Months

Wow, what a busy few months it’s been here at Clare’s Preserves HQ! Here are a few highlights of what we have been up to:

Friends here in Bovey Tracey kindly offered us their crop of blackcurrants…..four of us spent a couple of back breaking hours picking berries from the first bushes and decided to head back the following day to pick the rest……only to discover that ‘The Girls’ (their Alpacas) had broken into the enclosure and feasted on the other bushes and stripped them bare!! The blackcurrants we manage to pick were used to make a limited edition ‘Blackcurrant and Lime Jam’ (link) – it was so popular we have now added it to the product range.

Autumn has been particularly busy as we have been inundated with seasonal goodies. It’s been a great year for blackberries so many dog walks in September and October were combined with foraging for blackberries and sloes. Every year we are lucky enough to have unlimited access to our friend’s ‘Newton Wonder’ apple tree in Liverton – it never fails to produce the most amazing crop of cooking apples. This year we picked about 50kgs and these are being used in our ‘Apple & Mint Jelly‘ and chutneys, including ‘Beetroot & Orange‘ and ‘Old Bakehouse‘ . The first Damsons of the season came from wonderful neighbours, whose orchard is located about 100m from our kitchen! These were used to make the delicious ‘Spiced Damson Chutney’. We were also given some quinces and Chinese Hawthorns, which we’ve had great fun experimenting with!

Our list of stockists continues to grow and the latest additions are: The Ginger Cat Deli, Exminster , The Cider Vat, Sampford Courtenay  and The Deli in Dartmouth . We are also delighted to be supplying the newly opened luxury country house hotel ‘Pig at Combe‘ with our marmalades and jams. ‘Jano’s’ of Totnes now serves our ‘Carrot & Garlic Chutney‘ on their menu.

We don’t rest on our laurels here though! Next week we start making our award winning Luxury Christmas Mincemeat with 10 year Old Somerset Cider Brandy, available in two sizes 330g / 600g . We are also currently finalising a new Cranberry Chutney which will be available in the run up to Christmas…keep an eye out on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for updates. We also have a couple of events in the run up to Christmas – The Christmas Fair at Dartmoor National Park Visitor Centre, Princetown on 26th November and The Shops at Dartington Christmas Fair on 17th/18th December.