In 2012, shortly after the publication of First Preserves, I started to share my knowledge of marmalade, especially Seville orange at cookery schools and at our home in Somerset. Over the years, a growing number of those students have entered the annual Marmalade Awards in Penrith. In 2025 the organisers announced that they had received in excess of 3,200 entries. At a time when the traditional craft of making authentic marmalade is being challenged by very different products labelled as marmalade, this post celebrates some outstanding achievements
Artisan Awards
Melissa’s Preserves
I tasted Melissa Graeme’s exceptional preserves whilst judging at Taunton Flower Show in 2011. Melissa makes the full range of preserves brilliantly and small batches are sold at markets in Somerset. When Melissa won Gold for an exquisite Seville and Ginger Marmalade at Taste of the West in 2017, I encouraged her to enter the Marmalade Awards. In 2017 as a first time entrant she won Gold for her Medium Cut Seville orange Marmalade. In 2023, Melissa won Gold and the British Double Gold Award for her Seville orange and Stem Ginger Marmalade.
English Kitchen
Atsuko Hayashi is no stranger to success at the Marmalade Awards. In 2015 and 2016 she won the Homemade Any Citrus category for a marmalade made with Yuzu. Atsuko launched the English Kitchen label and started to enter the Artisan classes at the Marmalade Awards. Given her ability to make marmalade I was surprised to see her name on my student list for a course I taught at Denman College in 2018. I was flattered Atsuko had travelled from Japan with an interpreter to attend one of my courses. Since then Atsuko has won multiple Gold Awards and in 2026 she won Gold and the International Double Gold Award for her Yuzu and TenYear Old Umeshu Marmalade.
Hotel, Restaurant and B & B
As an Air B&B host, I value the importance of providing my guests with the best homemade marmalade for breakfast. I’ve taken a keen interest in this category at the Marmalade Awards. In 2013, I started teaching B & B owners in Somerset, Shropshire and Scotland, encouraging them to enter the Awards.
Clavelshay Barn Restaurant
Sue Milverton has been making marmalade for years, but learning some new methods and developing her recipe was all that was necessary for her Seville and Amaretto Marmalade to win Gold and the Restaurant Double Gold Award in 2017.
Woodford House B&B
Anna Thomas had already won a Gold and Double Gold in 2014 for her Seville & Kentucky Bourbon Marmalade. When she joined one of my classes in 2015 we focussed on different cooking methods for making marmalade, the importance of using organic Sevilles and buying new jars and lids. In 2018 Anna won Gold and a Double Gold B&B Award for her medium cut Seville orange Marmalade.
Rosebank House
I met Jim and Aoife in 2014 when they were renovating a property in Blairgowrie in Perthshire. They were perfect B & B hosts, nothing was too much to ask and their local knowledge of where to eat and places to visit enhanced my stay with them. Mindful of the interest I take in preserves for breakfast, I shared my jam and marmalade knowledge and jars of deliciousness started to appear on their tables for breakfast. We kept in touch by email and I was delighted when as first time entrants in 2018, Rosebank House won Gold for a Thin Cut Seville orange Marmalade.
All Hallows Farmhouse
This Aga approved cookery school with B & B accommodation in Dorset, is owned by Lisa Osman. Lisa invited me to teach a Seville orange Marmalade workshop in her well equipped and stylish kitchen in January 2016. Lisa was clearly happy with the marmalade on the day and in 2018 she entered the Bed and Breakfast category for the first time and won Gold for a Fine Cut Seville Marmalade.
Homemade Individual Winners
I’ve taught a number of men and Robert Walster, the designer and photographer of my book First Preserves took to marmalade with a forensic passion. His Seville orange Marmalade was given full marks and Gold in 2012. The WI Judges declared it ” Excellent in every way.”
Quite often I make connections with preservers via social media that lead to me teaching them at one of my workshops. In 2013, Susan Mackenzie a first time entrant was given full marks and Gold in the Novice category for her Seville orange Marmalade. The judges described the entry as “wonderful”. My social media friend @Messy_Baker has a standard of marmalade making similar to her bread. In 2014, I took my preserving pan to her home in London and within a day she caught the marmalade bug. In 2016 her Seville and Bourbon Marmalade won Gold and a savoury Cumberland Seville won Gold in 2017.
Homemade Category Winners
I first met Angela Hickman when I was judging at the Taunton Flower Show in 2012. Angela was training to be a WI Cookery Judge, but was also interested in Preserves and shadowed me that year. This was mutually beneficial, as I realised Angela strived to make the range of preserves to a standard similar to mine. Angela is a regular winner of multiple Gold Awards and overall winner of Homemade Categories at the Marmalade Awards.
2014 Special Women’s Institute Category winner
2017 Dark & Chunky Category winner
2019 Campanologist Category winner
2021 Citrus ( including Seville) Category winner
2022 Any Citrus (excluding Seville orange) Category winner
2023 Campanologist Category winner
In the past, my daughters have not expressed interest in making marmalade. Some years ago, the youngest remarked it might be something she would do in retirement. In 2018, a Legal Marmalade category renewed my desire to get my eldest daughter into marmalade.
As a solicitor in Bristol, Lydia was eligible to enter the competition. Finding a time for me to teach her was a challenge, with her work, singing with the Exultate Singers, training for the Brighton Marathon and planning a wedding in June, she was busy. We had just one day, the marmalade was made and the entry, a Creditors’ Seville Marmalade won the Legal Category. How satisfying for me to know that ten years after I won the Homemade Seville orange Marmalade Category and crowned the overall winner of the competition, my daughter won the Legal Marmalade Category with the same recipe.
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