Welsh jams, chutneys, sauces and jellies!
About Karen & David and the farm
Husband and wife team Karen and David Collett established the business Goetre Farm Preserves in 2004 after moving to Goetre Isaf Farmhouse a few months before the turn of the century.
David is a native of the area, and Karen moving to Wales in her teens to help run a local hostelry with her parents. Both are experienced caterers, David spending his whole working career in the trade, employed locally in the mid 80s as head chef at a well respected hotel and before that five years cooking aboard a luxury liner, cruising in far off places. Karen is a trained patisserie and also well experienced in all aspects of the hotel and restaurant trade.
Views of the Mawddach Estury
Goetre Farmhouse is situated high up in Caerdeon valley in the beautiful Snowdonia National Park a stones throw away from the coastal town of Barmouth. Goetre has a small orchard with some very old greengage plum, welsh plum and damson trees as well as a few blackcurrant, redcurrant and gooseberry shrubs. It was after a bumper crop of greengage plums one year that they decided to try there hand at producing jams and chutneys. They proved to be a great success with family and friends so they began selling at local fairs, fetes and the like. They received such a positive response that a decision was made to create a small farmhouse kitchen company. An old storeroom behind their own kitchen was converted in to a small production unit, and within a few months the business was up and running.
Xena helping with whinberries!
David does the cooking in traditional style using open top pans on one single five range gas burner, on average producing between a dozen and twenty jars per pan.
All the recipes are their own creations, or have been specially selected, they are proud of not using any artificial colourings, flavourings or preservatives in their recipes.
Every product produced at Goetre Farm has a unique bilingual (Welsh - English) label. The jars are hand filled and labels cut out individually there is no industrial bottling or labelling plant at Goetre, so no apologies are made for the odd, slightly askew label as this truly reflects the traditional farmhouse kitchen business that Goetre Farm Preserves is.
During the last few years the business has grown steadily, as well as selling at local farmers markets, David and Karen also attend large events such as The Royal Welsh Show, Llandudno’s Celtic winter fayre, Anglesey show and many others, for a full list of where they will be attending see the forth coming events page where you can also see a list of shops that stock their products.
Karen and David source as many ingredients locally as possible, from apples plums and berries, to other vegetables and fruit grown in the surrounding vicinity. If you take a look in their photo gallery you will also see that many hours are spent harvesting wild fruits, such as whinberries (also known as Bilberries) and blackberries, as well as visits to P.Y.O.F farms for raspberries and other soft fruits. When they have to buy in fruit only the best is sourced to maintain the standard they require. Goetre Farm Preserves is an authentic farmhouse kitchen, producing both traditional and creative recipes. Enjoy browsing their site and do not hesitate to contact Karen or David if you need any information.
