Keswick-based chef and preserve maker Jake Winter is one of the stars of Channel 4’s smash hit documentary about Tebay Services.
A Lake District Farmshop is a four-part series, broadcast on Saturdays at 8pm, and Jake appeared in episode two, broadcast last week and available on catch-up.
Jake was filmed as he picked apples on the Lingholm Estate on Derwentwater to make into a new chutney to impress Tebay’s Farmshop Buyer Alexander Evans.
Jake, 22, runs Wild & Fruitful alongside David Seymour, owner of the Lingholm Estate and Kitchen near Portinscale.
He already supplies Tebay Services’ Farmshop with a wide range of handmade jams, chutneys, jellies and relishes, made wherever possible using locally sourced and foraged ingredients.
He also makes the seasonal fruit compotes served on top of porridge and granola pots in the Kitchen at Tebay and the Cafe at Rheged, Tebay’s sister business.
But this award-winning chef, who started making jams as a teenager to sell to guests at his parents’ Keswick B&B, is determined to keep growing his product range and taking his preserves to a wider audience.
Since becoming the new face of Wild & Fruitful, he has launched several new products featuring local ingredients, including Keswick Ale, Lakes Distillery gin and surplus and foraged fruits from West Cumbrian orchards and hedgerows.
Wild & Fruitful is a West Cumbrian label with a 20-year history.
It was founded by Jane Maggs, a landscape architect and environmentalist, who turned surplus produce, foraged fruits and edible ‘weeds’ into imaginative handmade preserves to prevent them from going to waste.
Tebay Services has been stocking the label since it opened its Farmshop in 2003.
Before selling Wild & Fruitful last year, Jane worked closely with Alexander Evans to create a bespoke range of products under the Farmshop’s own label, which Jake continues to produce.
Having worked for five years as a chef at Lyzzick Hall near Keswick, Jake is in his element when creating new recipes.
In episode two of A Lake District Farmshop, he cooks up a new spiced apple chutney in his production kitchen in Maryport, where everything is made on the stove as he made it in his parents’ kitchen – just with bigger pans.
Viewers see him wait nervously during a taste-off at Lingholm Kitchen for Alex and his colleague, Emily, to give their feedback and decide whether or not to stock Jake’s new chutney in the Farmshop.
The verdict? Watch episode two as part of an All4 box set at www.channel4.com to find out.
Meet the people behind Threlkeld’s The Pie Mill, who star in episode three, here.
The third episode of A Lake District Farmshop is on Channel 4 at 8pm.
