Trio of Winter Table Preserves
Three winter preserves for the quiet table – composed, warming, and made to be returned to through the dark months.
 
This Winter Table Trio belongs to the darker season, when meals slow down and food is asked to carry warmth, colour, flavour, depth, and steadiness rather than sparkle. Made in small batches and worked with patience, these are preserves for winter eating – not for display, but for daily enjoyment alongside simple, well-made food.
 
Each preserve moves comfortably between savoury and sweet, designed to sit with roots, breads, cheeses, roasted vegetables, and winter plates drawn close to the hearth. Nothing here is sharp or fleeting. These are flavours built to deepen with time, to be opened, returned to, and shared.
 
Together, the trio offers a quiet winter palette – fruit, warmth, and body – held steady for the lean months.
 
Orange & Poitín Preserve
Whole oranges cooked slowly with poitín to create a warming, bittersweet preserve shaped for winter food rather than breakfast toast. The alcohol is fully cooked off, leaving behind a rounded citrus body and a low, steady warmth that settles rather than lifts. This is not a marmalade. It is darker, softer, and more composed – citrus held low in the palate, suited to savoury plates as much as sweet.
 
Flavour notes
Cooked orange peel
Bittersweet citrus depth
Gentle spirit warmth
Rounded winter finish
 
Feral Fig Chutney
A slow-cooked winter chutney made from fresh local feral figs gathered at full ripeness. Worked gently to preserve their depth and softness, this chutney leans savoury, bringing body and richness without tipping into sweetness. Anchoring rather than brightening, it sits easily beside winter foods, offering weight and steadiness on the plate.
 
Flavour notes
Ripe fig depth
Dark fruit richness
Soft savoury warmth
Grounded finish
 
Wild Cranberry Preserve
A composed winter preserve made from wild cranberries, cooked into a jewel-dark condiment that carries colour and fruit depth without sharpness. Balanced and quietly bright, this is cranberry shaped for winter – steady, rounded, and restrained. It brings contrast where needed, without pulling the palate out of the season.
 
Flavour notes
Deep red fruit
Gentle acidity
Winter brightness held low
Clean, composed finish
 
Flavour pairings
Hard and soft cheeses
Sourdough and oatcakes
Roasted root vegetables
Baked squash and winter brassicas
Roast pork, game, or slow-cooked meats
Simple winter plates drawn close to the hearth
 
Serving suggestions
Use sparingly and return often. These preserves are designed to sit at the table and be worked with slowly through the season. Spoon alongside meals rather than layering thickly – a small amount carries depth, warmth, and colour.
 
Storage
Store unopened in a cool, dark place.
Once opened, refrigerate and use within several weeks.
Use clean utensils to preserve freshness.
 
Winter Hearth Soulfoods – Mother Tongue of the Cailleach Country
The Winter Soulfoods collection is an immersive body of work set in Cailleach country – the boglands of Béarra – approached as ecosystem, archive, threshold, and kitchen. It imagines what it might mean to work from within the Cailleach’s own domain, drawing flavour, nourishment, and craft from deep ground, slow water, turf fire, and time.
 
The bog is not treated as symbol or backdrop. It is a keeper of strata – layers of matter and memory held intact. A place where time is thickened rather than spent. A preservative ground where fermentation, storage, and patience are not techniques, but ways of living in relationship with the land around you, and the land within you.
 
Within this terrain, food is ceremony and commitment. Ingredients are gathered as the year unfolds, worked slowly, and held back for winter – not for spectacle, but for sustenance. Fruit depth, bitterness, warmth, and balance shape flavours meant to be met with attention, feeding the body deeply, strengthening bones, and sustaining through the dark months.
 
These soulfoods are acts of natural pace and continuity – ways of staying in relationship with place, season, and deep time. Crafted through hand, hearth, and long devotion, they carry the quiet authority of a path walked faithfully, day after day, in preparation for the dark.