All of our chutney are based around traditional recipes.   This means that, despite not using artificial preservatives in our produce, they are designed to naturally preserve the ingredients.   For this reason they will keep a long time unopened (and even open in the fridge).   The other benefit this brings is that they mature with age.  Although most are perfectly good straight after production, the flavours do improve with some age.  

To save you the trouble, we therefore store them before we sell them for a period of time.   This is most critical with our Christmas Chutney which we want to be perfect for the big day.   So we make it in the sweltering heat (unlikely) of a Glaswegian summer so it has time to mature.     If you've not tried it then it is tomato-based but includes some Christmas spices and a little bit of heat which is absolutely perfect for meat leftovers (especially roast beef and lamb) and also cheese.  Even if you've over indulged over the period the flavour and smell will work perfectly.

No, I'm not dreaming of a white Christmas, for us August is one of the best months of the year.    Although this year the weather has been terrible, at least for us up in Scotland, August is when the bulk of fruit reaches it's perfection.     So the kitchen is full of delicious smells and the store of jam is full to bursting, with enough supplies to get us through the winter.    We get our fruit from many sources but at this time of year it is 'pick your own', friends and family and also our own garden.   This year we managed a reasonable crop of both blackberries and gooseberries with brambles coming along nicely.  Not quite enough to make a batch of jam but it's great to know that our own fruit is in some of the production.

Of course the other advantage of August is that there is a reasonable chance that the outside markets will be less affected by the weather.   This year has been mixed at Partick, my shorts have yet to make an appearance, but we have missed the worst weekends.   Hopefully we get a decent Autumn and upcomign events at Loch Lomond Shores and Erskine are lucky.

Thanks as always to our customers and watch out for exciting news about our website