Rosebud Preserves has shared with Frost Magazine that its NEW season Gooseberry & Elderflower jam is now available to buy from fine food retailers and online at www.rosebudpreserves.co.uk. Hooray!
Gooseberry & Elderflower Jam (£3.95/227g)
Gooseberries 66%, unrefined sugar, water, fresh elderflowers 2%. Prepared with 66g of fruit per 100g. Total sugar content 60g per 100g.
The perfect seasonal pairing of sharp summer gooseberries with the muscat scent of wild elderflower. Naturally set with unrefined sugar goes the blurb, and honestly, the jam lives up to all of this, and I have also tried the strawberry jam. Lucky me… Scones for tea again this week. Perfection.
Using fresh, local or foraged ingredients is very important to Elspeth Biltoft, founder of the company. For the Gooseberry & Elderflower Jam that means at the end of May/beginning of June you will find Elspeth foraging in the North Yorkshire countryside for fresh elderflowers with members of the Rosebud Preserves team.
Elspeth says: “Every year we check local hedges for abundant quantities of fresh creamy white flowers. They must be picked when the day is warm, dry and sunny. It is more a pleasure than a chore and we work as a very efficient team. When we return to the farm we chill the blossoms and when we’re ready, make a simple Muscat flavoured liquor with them to add to the gooseberries, to make the jam.”
Elspeth continues: “Gooseberry & Elderflower is perhaps the most special of our jams and has won more awards for us, over the years, than any other product. The ingredient list is deceptively simple – sharp Gooseberries, just enough unrefined sugar and generous quantities of freshly picked Elderflowers. The soft natural set retains a sweet/sharp fruity flavour, replete with the heady scent of Muscat.”
Now, if you are planning on foraging for elderflower yourself, it will have to be next year, but make a note of these tips that Elspeth has given us:
Whilst gathering take care not to damage the Elder bushes, they have fragile stems, or surrounding habitat by trampling over it.
Spread yourself around, picking a little here, then there, rather than stripping the bush. After all, flowers develop into berries and provide food for birds.
Get permission to pick on private land.
And best to pick away from traffic fumes.
How did I not know that Rosebud Preserves has been making its jams, marmalades, chutneys and jellies at Masham, North Yorkshire, since 1989? Living a stones throw away in Thirsk I should have done. My excuse is that I only left London environs two years ago.
The company was started by Elspeth Biltoft and her founding principles, to source local produce whenever possible; to cook traditional recipes; and practice time honoured techniques, without the use of additives, preservatives or pectin; remain the same today.
All prices quoted do not include postage and packing.
As well as selling direct, the products can also be bought from fine food retailers, such as Whole Foods Market, Neal’s Yard Dairy, Castle Howard Estate and are served with afternoon tea at Cowarth Park, Ascot, Berkshire. The company also exports its products – since 1992 it has been exporting to the United States of America.
Rosebud Farm, Healey, Masham, North Yorkshire, HG4 4LH
Annie Clarke is the author of the Home Front series pub. Arrow. 