Growing up in Leeds, England, baking and preserving were always a part of life. Some of my earliest memories are of being in the kitchen with Mum, helping with the baking. Whenever she made marmalade, it was my job to put the orange, lemon and grapefruit peel through the hand mincer until it was fine enough for the pot. Years later, I even worked for a hotel that prided itself on its homemade marmalade, so somehow the citrus peel followed me into working life too.

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When I eventually met my husband, Steve, and moved to Virginia, we were lucky enough to find Maple Cottage, with enough land for Steve to indulge his love of gardening - which is fortunate because if it were left to me, I'd have probably paved the whole lot! We had great fun experimenting with corn, pumpkins and melons alongside the more traditional tomatoes and peppers, and over time we added fruit trees — fig, peach, plum and persimmon — as well as blueberries and strawberries.

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As our skills grew, so did the harvest. It made sense for me to dig out my aunt’s old jam pan, which had made the journey with me from Leeds, and put it back to work making industrial quantities of jam. And I do mean industrial — the pan is seriously big enough to bathe a toddler in.

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The only problem is that I enjoy baking and preserving far more than I enjoy eating the results, which means I usually make far more than I could ever use myself. It seemed such a shame for good food, home-grown produce and family recipes to go unshared, and from that simple idea Maple Cottage Market was born.

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In my family, sharing good, simple food with friends and loved ones has always been a way of bringing people together. Maple Cottage Market gives me the chance to continue that tradition, combining a little English soul with Virginia soil — and, hopefully, introducing you to a few English bakes and preserves you may not have tried before.