Fiona Audsley’s lifelong love affair with jam began in the back seat of her mother’s car filled with the scent of summer berries.
As a young girl growing up near Glenrothes, she would spend afternoons visiting local fruit farms, returning home with the car piled high with raspberries and strawberries.
Back home in the kitchen, she used a treasured family heirloom jelly pan to stir bubbling pots of jam – some batches set perfectly, others didn’t, but the memory stayed with her.
‘I started making jam around the age of 13, Fiona said.
‘My mum and I used to go to the local fruit farms near Glenrothes and fill the car with delicious raspberries and strawberries.
‘I can still remember the lovely smell of berries coming from the back seat of the car.’
Years later, that childhood passion quietly transformed into something much bigger.
In 2017, Fiona and her husband Michael founded Pittenweem Preserves after a local shop asked whether they could stock her homemade jam.
Customers fell in love with the preserves and the couple realised the little hobby simmering away in their kitchen might just become a real business.
Today, the heart of that business is The Jam Shack – a cosy log cabin kitchen sitting in front of the couple’s cottage at Knightsward Farm, just outside Pittenweem.
Surrounded by sweeping views of the East Neuk countryside and the Firth of Forth, the tiny kitchen produces around 25,000 jars every year.
‘Our Jam Shack is a log cabin with a dedicated kitchen in front of our cottage at Knightsward Farm, Pittenweem with panoramic views of the surrounding countryside and Firth of Forth, Fiona said.
‘It isn’t a huge space but it works really well.’
Using her lifelong love of jam making, Fiona makes all the preserves in maslin pans in batches of no more than 14 jars.
Their collection now includes six jams, three marmalades, chutneys, fruit jellies, and vinegars, alongside seasonal favourites like crab apple jelly gathered straight from the farm.
Fiona sources most of the fruit for farms in East Fife. Knightsward Farm has a cherry and apple orchard as well as a drive full of crab apple trees, so in autumn the pair just have to walk out their front door to gather fruit for preserving.
This spring marks another milestone for the couple with the publication of Fiona’s second cookbook, Recipes from The Jam Shack II: Preserving the Seasons at Knightsward Farm.
More than a recipe collection, the book captures a year of life on the farm -the changing seasons, the animals wandering through the fields, and the comforting rhythm of preserving throughout the year.
Filled with beautiful photography and 36 seasonal recipes, it is also deeply personal: a heartfelt thank you to everyone who supported Fiona through her successful cancer treatment in 2024.
Through every chapter, every recipe, and every jar, the spirit of Pittenweem Preserves remains the same — a love story told through fruit, family, and the simple magic of preserving the seasons.
Read more Producer’s Corner here.
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