A Forres woman who followed her daughter’s advice to turn her hobby into a business has never looked back.
Lorraine Munro makes jam and chutneys from her home kitchen in Waterford, Forres using local fruits and vegetables and no additives. Mills Cottage Preserves is named after the Waterford property where she lives and operates from.
She prides herself on cooking with local produce and without additives. Lorraine explained: “My jam is just pure fruit and sugar. I don’t use pectin or Certo. I don’t put anything in it at all. Even if I have to use frozen fruit, I drain it overnight so the water’s gone.
Most of the fruit in Lorraine’s produce is from Wester Hardmuir or Speyfruit. She uses a mix of recipes handed down from her grandmother, mother-in-law, and from books.
“I use courgettes, onions, garlic, apples. These are regulars, but if I see nice fruit somewhere, I’ll just buy it.”
Favourites
We asked Lorraine what her fastest sellers are, and she said her top three are raspberry jam, three-fruit marmalade, and toffee sauce.
She admitted that people do go a bit crazy for her toffee sauce: “I think it’s just a wee touch of sweetness and a wee bit different. They put it on their ice cream, and I do have a few folk that have admitted they drink it out of the jar! I think that’s a little bit excessive, but I’ve got a few who mention that.”
She added: “I’ve always cooked. When the kids were little, it was homemade cakes or homemade soup; things were always homemade. And then I started making jams and chutneys, and I was just giving it away to friends and colleagues at work.
“And it was my daughter who said if you’re going to do this, you do it properly. So, I started getting proper jars and labels made up. I got in contact with the council because you have to get your certificates for environmental health and trading standards.
“There’s quite a lot involved. You can’t just go to the market and sell it like granny used to.
“I started just doing small markets, but then I started doing some of the bigger ones like Seafest, the Maggie Fair, places like that.”
No thickening agents
Lorraine explained that to avoid the use of pectin and Certo as thickening agents, she just boils her jams slightly longer: “It’s just a thickening agent, but I don’t like it. A lot of people say that you can taste it, and I think you can. I probably lose maybe a jar by boiling it longer.
“I’m very aware of all the allergens now so I actually don’t put any spices or nuts in, anything that would affect people.
“A lot of my recipes that I’ve adapted, some of them would say a spoonful of nutmeg or a spoonful of mustard. I don’t do that. And then that way folk can’t say they can’t eat that. You still get the same taste, it doesn’t need that teaspoon of nutmeg. It doesn’t need mustard. If you use all the right ingredients, it doesn’t need all that.
Asked if she ever thinks she will outgrow her home kitchen, she said: “Not really, I know my limit.
“I don’t really want to charge that much; I just like doing it. I like people, and I’ve got a lot of regular customers that come back.”
To find out more, or buy Lorraine’s products, visit Mills Cottage Preserves on Facebook
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