Fruit picking. The fruit grown at Tiptree is picked by locals, or by caravanners who are booked into our caravan camp for a summer break, or by students from our International Farm Camp. In all cases the decisions when and what to pick are made by our farm manager or by Peter Wilkin (the chairman) himself. Picking is overseen by gangers and the fruit is immediately taken to the factory by tractor and trailer from the surrounding fields.

Fruit sorting. Every fruit that we use is sorted by us here at Tiptree before cooking. We remove under and over-ripe fruit, blemishes and any foreign matter such as straw that may have found its way into the fruit.

GMO ingredients. Not in Tiptree products.

Jelly. Jelly is a term used for jam made from the juice of the fruit. Red currant serves as a good example: The fruit is picked and brought to the factory in the usual way, but then we cook it and squeeze the juice out, to be cooked again with sugar and a gelling agent and acidity regulator, as required.

Lemon Curd. The descriptions Lemon Curd and Lemon Cheese mean the same thing. Tiptree Lemon Curd is made from fresh eggs (each individually broken with the yolk separated from the white) and dairy butter. We don't use artificial preservatives so our Lemon Curd has a shorter shelf life and needs to be refrigerated and eaten within three weeks of opening.

Little Scarlet Strawberry. The product for which Tiptree is best known, secreted away during wartime (Christa Beelenberg), the choice of secret agents (007), and unique to Tiptree. The Little Scarlet originates from the USA and has been grown at Tiptree since 1887. The tiny berries are usually no larger than a 1p coin (up to 20mm) and have an intensely sweet flavour. The plants are difficult to cultivate, erratic croppers and due to its size, the fruit takes longer to pick and sort. Wilkin & Sons are believed to be the only commercial growers of this fruit anywhere in the world today.

Loganberry. Our conserve is made from loganberries grown on the Tiptree farm and picked at the peak of ripeness to produce something with a flavour similar to blackberry, although a little sharper in taste. Loganberries were found growing in California and brought back to England at the turn of the century by C.J. Wilkin where they were cultivated and continue to be grown to this day.

Marmalade. A curiously British term, marmalade means a jam made with citrus fruit. The term was fought over in the European Community as other countries wanted to do away with it or change its meaning. Marmalade contains citrus fruit (sometimes with something else like ginger or whisky) and is usually characterised by the cut of the peel - Tiptree marmalades are available as fine, medium or thick cut and no peel. We also make marmalades by the jelly process (qv). Marmalade is thought to have originated in Portugal, where quinces (marmelo) were cooked with sugar to make a preserve. The British were the first to add the peel back to orange marmalade, to make the preserve set instead of using apple juice, hence the British tradition of orange marmalade. See also under individual varieties of marmalade.

Medlar. Medlars (Mespilus germanica) grow on trees in small orchards dotted around the Tiptree estate. The fruit has a rough brown-yellow skin, can be as large as a Victoria Plum and has the shape of a rose hip. It is not picked until November and is therefore the last crop for us at Tiptree. Medlars have been grown in England for centuries now and were common in Victorian times when well-to-do families would have a medlar tree in the garden, pick the fruit and store it in bran, to be eaten as a sweet at Christmas. The fruit is not ripe until the brown pulp can be squeezed from the skin, yet the resulting jelly is a rich red colour and has the flavour of a spiced apple - ideal for use as a jam or as a condiment to meat.

Mulberry. We make Mulberry Conserve from mulberries grown in a small orchard at the back of the factory. There are less than twenty trees now and they are well over 100 years old. Mulberry trees don't bear fruit for the first twenty to twenty five years so the recent planting of six new trees was seen purely as planning for the future. The size of the trees and their brittle wood make the fruit difficult to pick and the dark purple juice takes days to wash off the skin. The fruit is carried over to the factory and each berry has the hard centre core cut out by hand. Lovers of this unique conserve say that the nutty flavour is well worth the extra effort.

Old Times. Fine cut orange marmalade from bitter Seville oranges.

Organic. We have a range of certified organic products including jam, honey and orange marmalade (organic reduced sugar apricot, black currant, orange, raspberry, and strawberry), chutneys and relishes. Some parts of the estate are farmed organically. We farm sympathetically and have in recent years undertaken tree and hedge planting programmes on our land. In a fascinating experiment, part of the sea defences at Tollesbury were breeched and some of our fields flooded as part of an alternative coastal sea defence project.

Pectin. Where necessary, we use fruit pectin to help make jam set. Not all Tiptree products contain it as we cook in the traditional way and can often create a natural set without the need for this additive. For example, Tiptree Orange Marmalade contains just oranges and sugar - there is enough natural pectin in the peel of the oranges to make it set just by cooking with sugar. The pectin we use is from fruit so all of our jams and marmalades are suitable for vegetarians.

People. It's fashionable right now to talk about how important people are. At Tiptree, they always have been. Shares in the business are gradually being bought back and passed to the employees through a trust. This means that the employees have a stake in the business and are owners in a very real sense. One of the advantages (and there are several) of being a small business is that we all know each other by name. It's easy to get things done and communication is fast and clear.

Questions. If you have any questions that aren't answered by these pages, you are welcome to send them to us by fax, phone or e-mail. We are happy to try to answer questions of a technical nature to do with fruit too. Refer to the "Contact us" section of this site for more details.

Quince. How best to describe this strange fruit? A Quince is a quince. A most unusual fruit, about the size and shape of a large mis-shapen pear with yellow fluffy skin, the quince has an astringent taste that might put anyone off from eating it raw. When cooked with sugar (either as a conserve or a jelly), it takes on a character all of its own. Quinces grow on trees on the Tiptree estate and are picked in the autumn.

Raspberry. There are three different raspberry jams made at Tiptree - Sweet Tip, Tiny Tip and Seedless. Sweet Tip is made from Scottish raspberries and is the best seller. Tiny Tip is slightly more expensive, has a higher fruit content and is made from locally grown fruit, whilst Seedless is simply Sweet Tip without the pips.

Sales. More than one third of sales are to overseas markets, the strongest being Germany, USA, Japan and France. Most five star hotels in Britain serve Tiptree, as do top airlines such as Virgin Atlantic (Upper Class only) and the best known cruise ships. Wilkin & Sons are unique in holding Royal Warrants for both jam and marmalade. Tiptree often crops up in the most unexpected places - we have been told of it being on sale in Katmandu and offered for breakfast in remote Pacific islands. Why not tell us where you were most surprised to find it?

Savoury Range. One of Britain's best kept secrets? Tiptree have been making chutneys since Victorian times. Today, the range includes Barbecue Relish, Tomato Ketchup and Hot Gooseberry Chutney, all made from the very best ingredients. Better still, most of the range is organic too.

Seasonality. Many Tiptree products are made using fresh fruit. We have to guess what we’re going to need, pick the fruit, make the jam and then store it for up to a year. There is no doubt that the product tastes better for it. In winter we are busy making fresh fruit marmalades; in summer we make from the fresh fruits grown on the Tiptree estate; in between those busy times, we make jellies, Christmas Puddings, Lemon Curd and anything else that does not benefit from the use of fresh fruit (we have large freeze stores at Tiptree for just that purpose).

Shelf Life. Generally speaking, three years for jam and marmalade. As many consumers will know, jam will keep for much longer and can still be in perfect condition even after ten years. However we should not take chances with food and few Tiptree customers have a jar on their shelves for long anyway.

Strawberry. The fruit that has put Tiptree on the map. In summer, all around the village can be found fields amass with the bright colours of pickers, bending over the rows of plants and surrounded by straw that most assume gives the fruit its name. In fact, it is more likely that strawberry is a derivative of straeberry, meaning that the plants spread their runners and strayed across the fields. Straw is used to keep the fruit clean and to help it to ripen sooner.

The strawberry is in fact a false fruit, that is to say that the seeds are on the outside. Different varieties have different flavours and the more recent varieties are grown for their crop yields as much as for their flavour. Needless to say, we grow the traditional varieties but are continually monitoring progress to see if the new flavours can be as good. Strawberries were first grown at Tiptree because the sandy soil was of little use for anything else. At the height of the season, several hundreds of pickers can be found in the fields on the Tiptree estate, all helping to pick fruit that will be made into jam within hours of being picked - fresh from the fields.

Tawny. This rich dark marmalade is made from Seville oranges that are cooked with sugar and nothing else. The dark colour and spicy flavour come from oranges that have been cooked whole, then cooked with sugar, left to cool overnight and cooked a third time to caramelise the sugar - a quite unique product that is well worth the extra effort in the making.

Tea. The four varieties that make up the Tiptree tea range are prepared and packed to our exact specifications. We use only orthodox leaf so be sure to use freshly boiled water and to leave the tea to brew for at least four minutes. Today's hectic life style has meant that most of us have forgotten how to enjoy a really good cup of tea and resort to a hastily dunked tea bag with milk to take away the bitterness - our teas taste just as good without milk but if you must, just a dash is sufficient. Please note too that our Earl Grey is made with China tea and real oil of bergamot. This gives the strong aroma of bergamot but still allows you to taste the fine tea. Tiptree Earl Grey is a tea for the confirmed non-tea drinker!

Three Fruits Marmalade. Oranges, lemons and grapefruits.

Tiptree. Tiptree is a village in the Essex countryside, between the county town of Chelmsford and Britain's oldest recorded town, Colchester. The Wilkin family have farmed here for centuries and began fruit growing in early Victorian times. The village has a secondary school, primary schools, shops, pubs and other facilities and is a thriving community. London is just an hour away by road or rail, London's third airport is 25 miles distant and the port of Harwich is 40 minutes drive. Wilkin & Sons address is simply Wilkin & Sons Limited, Tiptree, Essex.

Tiptree Marmalade. For many years the most popular in the marmalade range, Tiptree Marmalade is made from just Seville oranges and sugar. Whole, fresh, bitter oranges are brought to Tiptree in January and February, from the orange groves of Seville in Spain. First they are cooked whole and then the peel is removed by hand and cut up into medium thick strips before adding back to cook with sugar. Compare the fruit used figure and ingredients list (Sugar, Oranges) of this and others in the ranges to see why Tiptree marmalades taste so much better.

Vegetarian. All Tiptree jams and marmalades are suitable for vegetarians as are the teas, savoury range, relishes, mustard and Christmas puddings. Lemon Curd contains eggs and butter.

Visitors. Trade visitors are welcome to see the Tiptree factory and farm by prior appointment. The on-site museum, jam shop and tea room is open Monday to Saturday and seven days a week in summer. Visitors can see how jam making has changed yet remained the same over the last century, and afterwards choose from the full range of products that we make or simply take afternoon cream tea with us.

Wilkin. The Wilkin family has been involved in the business right from the very first day. The present chairman, Peter Wilkin, has a degree in horticulture and worked on the farm before taking his place on the board of directors. Today he still works long hours in the business (even longer in fruit season) and his regular form of transport is a Land Rover.

Wilkin & Sons Limited. The business is now well over a hundred years old and the family are still major shareholders. To maintain its staunch independence, the company will one day be owned by the employees, many of whom live in houses on the estate. Whole families can and do work in the business and several of today's workforce are following in the footsteps of their parents and grandparents too. The company policy is to be best at everything it does and nothing less will do.

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