Courses: Preserving
Summer Preserving Workshop
Saturday, 9 July 2011
Select, create and bottle your own summer flavours in the beautiful surroundings of Tresillian House, a magnificent Georgian manor house with a famous walled garden, near Newquay in Cornwall
Whether you want to make preserves for your own business or to stock up your store cupboard with scrumptious summer flavours to enjoy, this is the course for you.
Learn to make the most of seasonal produce by creating delicious preserves with leading experts Pam Corbin and Liz Neville.
On this one-day, fully catered course, you will learn about the art and skill of preserving using fruit, vegetables and herbs grown in our historic walled garden, one of the finest in the country. For over 20 years, John Harris, the head gardener, has practised organic and moon gardening techniques here to produce fuller-flavoured, better quality, cheaper and less labour intensive crops.
The course cover a wide range of recipes, including a number from Pam Corbin’s bestselling book, Preserves. We will be exploring as many techniques as possible with seasonal produce that is available such as jams, jellies, chutneys, curds, cordials, vinegars and bottling.
You will select seasonal produce from Tresillian’s gardens, including berries, currants, scented flowers, herbs and summer vegetables such as cucumbers, tomatoes and courgettes.
The workshop will take place on Saturday, 9 July from 9.30-5.00. There will be breaks for tea and coffee as well as lunch prepared with produce from the gardens and preserves demonstrated in the Workshop. There will be a short tour of the walled garden after lunch.
Our October 2009 Autumn Preserving workshop at Tresillian House was featured in the April 2010 issue of Cornwall Today:
Page 1 (614 kB PDF) | Page 2 (337 kB PDF)
How to Book
The preserving workshop price of £65 includes tuition, ingredients, lunch and teas and coffees. A deposit cheque for 50% of the total fee is required to secure course placement and full fees must be paid within two weeks of start date.
For enquiries, contact us by phone or email and provide us with your name, address, telephone number, and course date.
There are parking spaces available for day and residential guests.
Local accommodation is available. Contact us for information on local hotels and bed and breakfasts.
What our Students Say
“The Preserving course at Tresillian has been a huge inspiration and kick started a small industry in my kitchen. Along with all the home made specials on our breakfast menu at Treann b&b (www.treannhouse.com), we offer homemade preserves. Pam and Liz have given me the confidence to tackle everything from tangerine cointreau marmalade for the winter months to an array of fruity jams and the heavenly gingered courgette in the summer. The guests love the preserves so much they have asked if they can buy jars to take home – so I must be making things up to the standards set by the two queens of preserves! Pam and Liz are so experienced and it’s amazing how much you can learn in just one day”
Emma, Owner, Treann House B&B, Padstow
“I have been an amateur jam maker for many years. This course has dispelled all my fears and showed just how much fun jam making can be. Pam and Liz were wonderful teachers, full of common sense and practical ideas, an entertaining cabaret and the results were delicious too! I am looking forward to experimenting in the future and the gingerette drink recipe is already made for Christmas.”
Margaret Shakerley, Fowey
“The workshop was a really good experience and I have acquired the skills to teach my students at the Anchor Trust to make plenty of jams, chutneys and pickles. They have already been able to raise money for Children in Need from making preserves with me and are also now selling our jars to raise money for the Help for Heroes charity”
Ian Mitchell, the Anchor Trust, Penzance
Pam Corbin
Some Twenty years ago Pam and her husband bought a small jam making business called Thursday Cottage. Relocating the business to East Devon, they spent many years making a profusion of different award winning preserves. Having hung up her professional wooden spoon Pam, now teaches at River Cottage. In 2008 her first book Preserves was published as part of the River Cottage handbook series.
Liz Neville
Liz Neville started preserve making professionally some 10 years ago. Her company, Parrett Preserves, was formed when Farmers Markets began and there were a shortage of producers. More recently, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, founder of River Cottage, approachd her to produce "own label" products and during the past 3 years Liz has been co-presenting preserving courses at River Cottage together with Pam Corbin. You can meet Liz at local Farmers Markets or at farm shops where she does 'meet the producer days'. She still personally makes all the preserves at home either using their own organically grown fruit and veg. or locally sourced when necessary.
John Harris
John Harris is the Head Gardener of the Tresillian Estate which includes one of the last remaining working Victorian walled kitchen garden in the South West. He gardens in accordance with the phases of the moon, organic principles and the ancient principles of compatible planting. John is an author, speaker and broadcaster. He has written R J Harris’s Moon Gardening, now in its second edition and is a national horticultural speaker, garden consultant and designer. He appears regularly on Radio Cornwall and Radio Devon’s Sunday morning gardening phone-in programmes as well as on Radio 4 and other local radio stations. He has worked on BBC TV and ITV gardening programmes. John and the walled garden have been written about in a number of books, national and international media and other publications and he has also advised on historic horticulture for films. He is chairman of the Quintrell Downs Gardening Club, Chairman of Newquay Championship Show and Horticultural Adviser for the Cornish Women’s Institute. He is a silver medal winner at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. For further information see the website at www.coloradomoongarden.net