VISIT
www.eastgatelarder.co.uk
JAM
HOT Eastgate Larder, run by Jane Steward,
is the home of some great Norfolk preserves. Emma Outten tries her hand at making jam
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I DON’T KNOW what the ladies at my local Women’s Institute would make of it but, before I’d spent a day at Eastgate Larder Norfolk Preserves, I’d never, ever, made jam. Maybe I thought, somewhat misguidedly, that life’s too short to make jam, but that was before I’d met Eastgate Larder’s Jane Steward. Jane’s real passion is for reviving the medlar. But when she’s not busy reviving this long forgotten, old English fruit which was once Britain’s sweet treat, she makes rather lovely preserves, using only locally sourced produce, with as much as possible grown at home in Eastgate, near Cawston. Her preserves can be found at such places as Creake Abbey Farmers’ Market, and the Slate deli in Southwold. Since moving to Eastgate, Jane has become a committed grower of fruit, vegetables and flowers – all very fitting considering she recently discovered that her plot was a fruit farm around 100 years ago. In 2015, she was cured of a stage 1 bowel cancer, thanks to the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital’s screening programme, and digging and planting became vital to her therapy. As she says: ‘My passion for growing, harvesting and making is essential to who I am.’ My first foray into jam making was all thanks to my colleague, Rachael, winning a day at Eastgate Larder as a prize at last year’s Royal Norfolk Show, and raising money for Thornage Hall, near Holt, in the process (it was Jane’s charity of the year, with five per cent of her retail sales going towards the regeneration of the herb garden at the Hall which provides supported living accommodation). Donning aprons, and with jam thermometers at the ready, there was a bit of a Great British Bake Off feel to our day - who was going to get a good set first? We kicked off by making raspberry jam, and soon discovered that jam making is surprisingly simple – involving equal proportions of raspberries and granulated sugar, and some lemon juice (only because raspberries have very little pectin, so the addition of pectin-rich lemon juice helps achieve a set). There’s no slaving over a hot stove for hours here – raspberry jam is particularly quick and easy to make.
