Sitting on a colonial style verandah looking across rolling fields towards the hazy blue rise of Moelfre Uchaf in the distance, it felt almost as if we could be in the North Island of Brenda Otter’s native New Zealand where, as a girl, she helped her mother turn some of the produce of that antipodean island’s ‘fruit bowl’ into gem coloured jams and preserves. “Gathering what we could see growing around us was just the way we were brought up in that part of the world,” explains Brenda.

Continuing that tradition of her childhood, Brenda now makes use of many of the seasonal fruits of the hedgerows around her home in Llysfaen since settling in North Wales after an earlier stint

working on a pick-your-own fruit farm nearby. "For several years I’d done all the administration for my husband’s business and, when he decided to give it up, I wanted to do something different,” Brenda adds. “After my raspberry jam won first prize in our local Horticultural Show I decided that perhaps I could turn my skills into a business.” Combining the flowers and berries of local elder trees and wild blackberries with gooseberries, rhubarb, plums, raspberries or apricots, Brenda sells most of her wonderful jams and chutneys at the Rhos-on-Sea Country Market, in Old Colwyn and often has customers visiting to buy at her gate. “Selling directly to the public, with that unique relationship where you get real feedback, is really something I would like to do more.”

Providing further income, the forty or so hens bobbing contentedly around her garden or straying into the field next door provide a regular source of eggs in addition to the inspiration for her business’ name as her flock includes Black Rock and Hebden Black hens alongside Welsummers and Araucanas. “I got the Araucanas as I thought people would like the pretty blue eggs but, surprisingly, my customers seem to prefer their eggs to be brown!” Brenda expands.

Talking about the shift from administration to producing food Brenda seems very happy with the change. “After years spent in an office it’s great to be able to work from my home in the countryside producing something from the hedgerows I can see from my garden. It’s even better when what I make earns me some money as well!”