"Calina's Conserves"  has grown from a family skill supplying friends and family with delicioushome-made preserves to a busy small business in the space of 2 years.

 Nearly all the recipes used in her jams have been handed down through the generations by skilled women who knew how to make the best use of locally grown and available berries and fruit - some gathered from hedgerows, some cultivated tenderly in selected sheltered areas (to protect them from the harsh climate). Whilst most people have lost the skills of traditional preserve making, Calina has developed those taught to her by her mother, aunts and grandmother into a small, croft based, business, adding her own "twist" to traditional recipes and sometimes re-discovering long forgotten ones, but always using as many ingredients as possible grown on the Isle of Skye.    

Calina has for many years campaigned the cause of local food production and was at the forefront of establishing the first "Food Producer's Market" on the island in the late 1990's. She is a regular contributor and participant in Gaelic (the native language of the Western Highlands and Islands) TV and radio programmes. This includes the much acclaimed series "An Croit" ( The Croft) on BBC 2 and BBC Alba with the latest being a series on gardening and growing in the Scottish Highlands and Island - "Anns a Gharadh" - "In the Garden".

 Although the growing season at this latitude is short, this is more than compensated by the long daylight hours during the growing season, which concentrates the sugars in the fruit ensuring very intense flavours.     "Calina's Conserves" endeavour to capture this flavour to bring you preserves with REAL FRUIT flavour and body with no artificial flavourings or colourings

Scottish food gifts, hampers and boxes from The Isle of Skye