We make in runs and we count them down. Everything on this site is one batch: what it was, the day it was made, how many came out, how many are left.
Fruit comes in on the day it is ready, not on the day we planned for it. So we cook what has arrived, in one pan, and we stop when the pan is empty. That run gets a number. When the number runs out it does not come back until the fruit does.
Nothing here is made to a forecast. The 2024 damson was four runs and 288 jars because that is what Pennfield had. The 2025 quince was one run of sixty because the tree had a bad spring.
Each one holds while the next slides over it, the way they go on the rack.
Three hours on the lane for 9 kg of brambles. Picked Monday, in the pan Tuesday, because bramble sulks if you leave it.
Trimmed to 2 cm so it breaks down even. Bay from the yard, two leaves a run, out before it goes bitter. Sixty jars because that is all the shed gave.
Five hours on the lowest ring, stirred by whoever walks past. The copper and the week's fruit on the bench — this is the whole stock list for a Thursday.
Empty crates standing at the gate before picking. Windfalls are free, bruised and in a hurry — eighty-four jars out of two mornings of sorting.
The pan tells you when. You do not tell the pan.Alun Prees · the evening boil, last run of the week
Batch 0391, dilled beans. Monday to Friday, nothing skipped.
Dilled beans racked after the brine. Batch 0391.Beans come in from Tolpuddle at 06:40 and go straight on the scale. 31.4 kg. That number decides the run size before anything is washed.
Cider vinegar at 5%, salt at 3%, dill heads whole. Packed by hand because a machine will not see a soft bean and we will.
Eleven minutes in the water bath, then three weeks on the rack before a single jar is sold. Anything that has not sealed by Thursday goes to the staff shelf.
The run is written up and the count goes public. 0391 went out entire to two wholesale accounts, which is why you cannot buy it.
Six runs you can buy this week. The number after the slash is what came out of the pan; the number before it is what is left.
We keep a list. If a run you want is down to single figures we will put one aside for a week, and if it is gone we will tell you when the fruit is due rather than sell you something else.
