From Big Apple to Apple Jelly
By SARAH FRENCH
Jars of fantastic foods make great presents.
SARAH FRENCH talks to the head of a jam and pickle-making empire
ELSPETH Biltoft has just got back to North Yorkshire from New York. She’s been meeting with her US distributors who ensure Rosebud Preserves reach homes across America via stores like the Pasta Shop in San Francisco, the Whole Food Group and the wonderful Dean and Deluca in New York.
After a four-day visit in which she also took in the New York Fancy Food Fayre, she’s back at work in Healey, near Masham, overseeing the latest batch of jars ready for export. It’s a case of from the Big Apple to apple jelly.
“Twenty-five per cent of what we produce goes to America now, ” says Elspeth. “We sell 17 different products there and the most popular by far are the herb jellies, with the mint jelly being their favourite.”
Over here and it’s the likes of Liberty of London and Neal’s Yard Dairy as well as more than 200 independent shops that stock Rosebud’s jams, chutneys and pickles. They also make preserves for the Black Sheep Brewery Masham, Harewood House, Castle Howard, Theakstons Brewery and most recently Alnwick Castle, all made at the former village farm.
Elspeth started the business with her exhusband in the late 1980s. Neither had any relevant experience. With a degree in fashion design, Elspeth worked in museums for four years while her husband was a deep sea engineer. “He wanted to be self-employed and have a land-based job, but we weren’t farmers and had no knowledge of food, ” she explains.
Three things Elspeth did bring with her to Rosebud Farm, however, were a country childhood – having grown up in Marske, near Richmond, and Barnard Castle – a love of quality things and an interest in social history and English traditions. “As children, we were very involved in following the seasons. We’d pick brambles in the autumn and wild watercress in January. I was making jellies from rose hips and crab apples from a very early age.
“My dad was a countryman and we always had big gardens with lots growing in them.
It was a natural follow-on to put things into jars.”
When their planning application to allow light industrial use of the 19th century barn next to the house was granted and a grant from the Rural Development Commission followed, they started cooking. “We made our first products in the winter of 1988 and started selling them the following January.
There were eight things including marmalade, mint jelly and cucumber pickle, ” recalls Elspeth.
Those early products remain staples of the range, which has now grown to 50 different products, along with strawberry and raspberry jam and Old Yorkshire chutney.
“We’ve got to 50 through listening and responding to customers. Things like our lemon curd and redcurrant jelly were as a result of specific requests. We always like to offer something different such as the sweet onion marmalade which people really seem to like, and the red tomato and chilli jam which is lovely with chorizo sausage or young goat’s cheese. Last year we introduced quince jelly, which is another old favourite.
“Everything I know I’ve learned as I’ve gone along, ” admits Elspeth. “Boiling points and ph levels are about as technical as I get.
For me it’s all about experience of eye and taste.
“The thing that interests me the most is sourcing the best raw ingredients with the best flavours to produce even better products, to constantly improve in terms of quality and value for money. I never ever tire of trying to reach perfection.”
Achieving perfection has just become a whole lot easier. A 30,000 grant from the European Regional Development Fund secured through North Yorkshire County Council’s Economic Development Centre has allowed Rosebud to expand and make major improvements.
Work has just finished on converting outbuildings adjoining the barn into a large kitchen with dry storage area, a walk-in refrigeration room and an eight-metre extension for a state-of-the- art deep freeze facility.
“Before, there would be cries of ‘does anyone know where the damsons are?’ and we had to scrabble about in freezers. Now there’s a place for everything, ” says Elspeth.
A logical flow through the buildings starts at the freezer and fridge and moves through to the dry store area with its comforting aroma of spices. Sacks of sugar are neatly piled up while on the shelves there are raisins, currants, sultanas and peel above crates of Black Sheep Ale and Riggwelter beer from Masham, and Theakstons Old Peculiar, all ingredients for chutneys and pickles.
Into the kitchen, which is twice the size of the old one: stainless steel abounds in the fruit and vegetable preparation area to the jar drying and heating cabinet. Opposite is the piece of equipment which best symbolises how far Rosebud has come.
Alongside Elspeth’s old faithful pan which is full of Bramley apples being pulped to make jellies for the United States, is her pride and joy – a 200 litre, digitally-operated pan, imported from Italy. Despite its size, its three steel paddles are gentle on fruit, as proven by the whole gooseberries bobbing about in a jam mix. The pan, its gas supply and sophisticated extraction system have transformed the efficiency of the production, as has the depositer machine, which fills jars automatically.
A board on the wall lists all the products with a key to indicate where stocks are getting low. A ‘needed-now’ asterisk next to the damson jam explains why kitchen supervisor Brenda Cundall prepares to load bagfuls into the pan, while five stars next to beetroot and horseradish relish suggests an emergency.
“People love it, ” explains Elspeth, “but it’s only good made fresh and it’s not the right time of year for beetroot.”
With other seasonal ingredients like the wild crab apples, elderflower and rowan berries, Elspeth returns to her childhood. She and some of her team of nine ladies and two men “pick like mad” straight from the hedgerows of the Yorkshire Dales to store up enough to last the year. Everything else is carefully sourced and stored. Mangos, plums, red and blackcurrants, gooseberries, strawberries and raspberries come in mixed palettes a tonne at a time and are blast frozen to ensure a year-round supply.
The herbs come from down the road at Sandhutton, near Thirsk. The same supplier will grow beetroot for Rosebud this year, while the rhubarb comes from Wakefield and the damsons are Cumbrian. The quinces are grown in Essex and the organic green tomatoes come from Lancaster.
Wherever possible, Elspeth sticks to a single grower with whom she builds up a strong relationship. The oranges come from a certified organic grower in Seville; Elspeth buys a couple of tonnes in January and they’re washed, dried and frozen in North Yorkshire.
Whilst not registered organic, there are no additives or preservatives in Rosebud Preserves. Natural pectin and lemon juice in the jams, and sugars and vinegar in the chutneys, bottling while the products are hot and careful storage combine to create a natural setting process. From the kitchen, the jars are put on trolleys and rolled up the ramp into the labelling area to cool. The labelling is done by hand using high quality, cream paper labels, no self adhesive stuff here.
The jars are then stored in boxes from A-Z, a system devised by despatch supervisor Barbara Wallis, and packed at a rate of 20,000 a month.
The business has evolved and grown gradually in 15 years but does Elspeth pinch herself over the slick and professional operation Rosebud has become?
“I have grown with it so it hasn’t been a shock for me but I was really excited on the days that we moved departments into their new homes and set up the new equipment.
That was really thrilling.”
Despite their growing size and popularity, Elspeth is determined Rosebud will stay where it is.
“We could move onto a trading estate tomorrow and it wouldn’t affect the integrity of the product and might even make the business more efficient.
“But this is a nice environment to be in. I like to get out on a morning and look at the lovely view and be in my own community. It’s part of what we’re selling when people in America buy a pot of our jam. It’s who we are.”
Rosebud Preserves are available via mail order (01765) 689174 and they also have stalls at farmers’ markets. If you want to pick up some tasty presents or stock up for the festive season, the Country Life Guide to Farmers’ Markets has a list of markets in the North- East and throughout the country, detailing when they are on. For a free copy visit your local tourist information centre or send an sae with postage to the value of 62p to: The Country Life Guide to Farmers’ Markets, PO Box 49, London SW19 5AT.