My name is Kerry Dodd founder of Hembridge Organics.  Vegan friendly, gluten free organic preserves.

I soon realised that farmers would grow the same fruit and vegetables as each other resulting in a “glut” for the county. I decided that surely, we could turn this glorious harvest into something else.

What to do with the gluts, over ripe and ugly produce?  All perfectly good just not that pretty. We give this otherwise abandoned fruit and veg a second chance, a new lease of life and turn it into delicious award winning, vegan organic jams and chutneys.  You will find no nastiness in our preserves.  We use no artificial sweeteners, thickeners or chemicals.  We just rely on the pectin produced naturally by the fruit to produce a “set”.

Why is organic so important to you and why did you want to be certified by the soil association?

Being organic is important to me as I like to be able to read an ingredients label and know exactly what that ingredient is without having to have a degree in chemistry to decipher it.  The soil association is an internationally recognized symbol which guarantees the organic provenance of our products and ingredients.