The story

My life has changed enormously since 2016, when I started the business. Everything I do, for and around Eastgate Larder, is focused on reviving the overlooked and forgotten medlar, Mespilus germanica.

I’m a member of Slow Food UK, which celebrates the diverse food traditions of these islands, and protects our edible biodiversity.

I’m incredibly lucky to work from my home in north Norfolk, where I grow the fruit, hand make preserves and compound medlar gin liqueur in a dedicated making kitchen. It’s here that I label the jars, pack the orders and wave them off in the arms of the courier to land on the shelves of independent cheese mongers, farm shops and delicatessens around the UK.

The book that I wish had existed when I met my first medlar in 2008, MEDLARS, Growing & Cooking, was published on 20th April 2023. Written largely at my kitchen table, from where I have sight of one of the medlar orchard ‘rooms’, it was the work of the blisteringly hot summer of 2022.

Published by Prospect Books, the book is available online from the usual places and bookshops nationwide.

Some of my stockists are also selling the book alongside the medlar jelly, chutney and gin.

When you buy a copy, a royalty will go to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital Charity to support the work of their wonderful gastroenterology team. I owe them.