There's a small orchard in Gloucestershire, tucked between the River Severn and the Forest of Dean, that's seen more harvests than most orchards get the chance to... It's a whopping two hundred years old!
The current caretaker of this beautiful plot of land is Ben Swinley. His family has farmed this corner of Flaxley since before 1567, and today Ben tends 1,600 fruit trees at Hayling's Farm, some of them 20 to 25 feet tall, all grown the old way - no irrigation, no sprays, nothing forced. Just orchard, weather, and time.
Alongside his organic Victorias and Czars, Ben grows plums you won't find in any supermarket: Dymock, Blaisdon Red, Rodley Blackjack, Westbury Rivers Early Prolific, local Gloucestershire varieties with names as distinctive as their flavour, kept alive because people like Ben still bother to grow them.
This year, we asked Ben for greengages!
So, what exactly is a greengage?
If you've never had one, a greengage is a plum, but a plum with a reputation among people who know their fruit. Ripe, it's one of the sweetest things that grows on a tree, almost honeyed. Under-ripe, it’s sharp and tart, and still very delicious in a different way.
The English name has a very English story behind it. The fruit originally came from France, where it's still known as the reine-claude. It was Sir William Gage who first brought the trees over to his Suffolk estate in the 1720s - and, so the story goes, when the labels identifying the French varieties were lost in transit, people simply started calling the greenish ones "Gage's plums." Three hundred years on, we still call them greengages.
Why we chose Ben
The honest first reason we chose Ben is a simple one: he had some of the only greengages we could actually find. This isn't a fruit many growers bother with any more, and Ben is one of a handful of people left growing it properly.
But scarcity isn't the only reason to keep buying from him. Every jar we make from this harvest is a small vote for orchards like his - biodiverse, traditional, doing things the slow way, staying exactly as they are, in the hope that fruit like this finds its way back into fashion.
A very small batch
We were only able to get our hands on a small harvest of these delicious plums for 2026, so small in fact that Ross was able to go and collect them in the car! No lorries required.
The variety we're using is the Old English Greengage. They're very small, but full of flavour, and the preserve they've made is incredible. It's very fruity, a little tart, and has flavours reminiscent of an apple crumble.
Update: Our quickest-selling jam!
Wow, well we knew it was a small batch but we didn't expect it to be gone in just 3 hours. Thanks to everyone who got a jar, and sorry to anybody who missed out. We'll do our best to source more fruit next year, but in the meantime, sign up to be notified when this gorgeous green jam is back in season.
