Today we say goodbye to Jennifer Fraser, my mum — the woman whose ideas, determination and kitchen table became the beginning of Highfield Preserves.
Highfield Preserves began rather simply.
Dad was making wine from our vineyard in Devon and, with the wine being well received and a few medals won, Mum decided to see what else she could make with it.
Before long there were big pots of chutney bubbling away on the Aga, the house smelt permanently of vinegar, the dog would be lying at her feet and jars were being filled on the kitchen table.
That kitchen table now sits in my office and even has some of the pot burns, and I still tell that story when people ask me how the business began.
From those first few jars, Mum created something that grew far beyond our family kitchen.
More than forty years later, we are still making jams, chutneys, marmalades and curds here in Devon, still cooking in small batches and, I hope, still doing things with the same care and attention that she did all those years ago.
Highfield has changed enormously over the years, but Mum will always be part of it.
Today is a very sad day for our family, but it is also a day to be enormously proud of what she started, of all the people who have been part of Highfield along the way, and of the little Devon preserve business that grew from her kitchen table.
Thank you, Mum.
Your legacy lives on in every jar.
Donald Fraser