A walk on the Wild Side

A business is born

May 2012

As many of you will have noticed, Belle's foraging has become rather focused on jam making, which is probably a blessed relief for those of us that experienced the Chickweek pakoras and fried Dandelion  leaves! 

What was left of the product - people keep buying it!

I have to admit that her jams, jellies and chutneys are very good, every one enhanced with something a little out of the ordinary, often picked from the hedgerows and towpaths. But I am not alone in appreciating this walk on the Wild Side. She has started supplying a local Deli In Boldmere (Sutton Coldfield) and we popped in to see her produce on the shelves. I was busy taking some photos when a customer approached the counter and bought a jar of Wild Side jam.

The "Hedgerow's Finest"

One thing leads to another and with the canal festival season approaching fast, she is in full production. The problem with this time of year is a lack of basic fruit to forage so a trip was made to the Birmingham wholesale market in Digbeth, the place all the local shops and restaurants go to source their bulk purchases. What a place, it's mayhem with cars, vans, lorries and handcarts millling round in seeming chaos, and it isn't much better in the fruit and veg market. Boxes are everywhere and fork lift trucks pirouette round you with piles of produce tottering over your head. I don't think that the Health and Safety have found this place yet - certainly a walk on a very different wild side!

So, the jam business has started and been endorsed by the jam buying public. For those of you who live further afield a postal service is available, a facebook page exists and the website is being built.

Exciting times - a business which is bound to come to a sticky end!