The stall’s story

Hedgerow Preserves began in a farmhouse kitchen outside Evesham, where Rachel Ashworth started bottling the surplus from her family’s orchard more than a decade ago. The first batches went to neighbours and the village school fair; the recipes that sold out first — a sharp Waterloo plum jam and a gooseberry and elderflower curd — are still made the same way today.

Everything is cooked in small, numbered batches in open copper pans, which Rachel prefers because they show the set clearly and let her pull each pan at exactly the right moment. Fruit is bought whole from growers within roughly thirty miles, picked at full ripeness, and prepared within a day of arrival. There are no commercial pectin blocks in the pantry; setting comes from the fruit itself, a little lemon juice, and patience.

The range moves with the seasons. Spring brings rhubarb and ginger; summer is built around strawberries, raspberries and currants; autumn belongs to damsons, quince and spiced chutneys. Between six and nine varieties are on the stall at any one time, and each label carries the batch number, the picking county and the date it was jarred, so you always know what you are buying and how fresh it is.

Hedgerow joined Famica Market in its first season and now ships nationwide alongside the market-weekend stall, with nothing made that Rachel would not put on her own table.