Wildside Preserves

In November / December the C&RT will be holding an election to select 9 Council members out of a total of 40 seats, and two of these seats are for Boating Businesses.
Since the last election the Trust has created the Roving Trader license class which has increased the number of boat based businesses, and today there are several hundred boating orientated businesses which depend on Canal and River Trust for their continued existence. This collection boating businesses support the infrastructure of the canal system and bring life and vitality to the network.
It is important that the needs of boating businesses are heard at the highest level of the Trust and it would be good to see a Roving Trader on the Council.
I have spent my entire professional career working with small businesses and for the last three years have, along with my wife Helen, been a Roving Trader selling preserves on a part time basis from The Jam Butty. In 2016 we will be concentrating on the preserve business and I would like to use the combination of my business background and Roving Trader experience to serve on the Council – but only with your support!
About Andy Tidy
You could say that I have canal water in my blood, having been boating pretty much continuously since I was seven, nearly 50 years ago. I am passionate about the inland waterways, owing a boat and butty pair which are moored on the northern reaches of the BCN. Not content with boating and foraging for our preserve business, you will often find me writing up accounts of my exploration of the lost canals for one of the main Waterways magazines.
I think it’s fair to say that my operating style is collective rather than confrontational, taking into account the needs of the various groups with an interest in the future of the canals. The world of canals has changed immensely over the last few decades and we need to be engaged in the process to ensure the commercial side of boating is catered for and developed appropriately alongside the needs of the other user groups.
What can you do to help?

First and foremost, please vote for me in the November election
Also please spread the word among the Roving Trader community during the summer / autumn gatherings. We are a spread out community and if we wait till the official campaign launch on the 23rd October most of us will have shut up shop for the winter.
If you want to contact me my e-mail address is 

Let’s all pull together and give the Roving Traders a voice on the C&RT Council.

Getting involved in the Floating Business seminar at Crick this year, was something Sarah Henshaw of The Book Barge first asked us back in March. Her new role as Assistant Editor of Waterways World meant that she had been asked to put together a panel for a new seminar aimed at those interested in starting up boat based businesses. The final line up was: Sandra Walsh, Barry Teutenberg, Andy Tidy, Helen Tidy, Paul O’Leary and Sarah Henshaw. It was important to show different aspects of trading and between us we had experience as liveaboards; seasonal traders; multiple businesses on one boat; trading from a static mooring; continuous cruising; trading on land; towpath trading; business banking; food production; customers boarding boats.

As the seminar had never run before, no one had any idea of what to expect. At best, we were hopeful of about half the seats being taken. We greatly underestimated the interest and the overall organisers at Waterways World were delighted with the response. On Saturday, at least 3/4s were filled and on Sunday it was standing room only with people sitting on floor and propping up the marquee sides. The format was simple: we each had 5-10mins to introduce ourselves and then we took questions from the floor. All our experience was drawn on with the questions being fairly evenly distributed. Of course we gave lots of plugs for the Roving Canal Traders’ Association and mentioned several other floating businesses to demonstrate the diversity available. Questions flowed naturally for the full hour we were timetabled and spilled over afterwards as we were individually approached too. Hopefully all this interest means that these seminars will be repeated each year at Crick.

All in all, it was an excellent experience and quite possibly the best way to be involved in Crick – all the fun, all the camaraderie with very little of the hard work!

Congratulations to Wildside Preserves on their success in the World’s Original Marmalade Awards: http://www.dalemainmarmaladeawards.co.uk every jar they entered gained an award. We achieved Silvers for Three Fruits Marmalade; Sloe Whisky Seville Marmalade and Singleton’s Marmalade (the Macmillan fundraising in honour of my Dad). For Sloe Gin Fizz Marmalade & Mortimer’s Marmalade (made for a friend who can’t eat oranges so it’s a 3 fruits with grapefruit, lemon & lime) we were awarded Bronzes.

Helen Tidy’s father, John Singleton, died shortly before Christmas and her family received a lot of help and support from Macmillan during this difficult time. Helen decided to raise some money for Macmillan and how better to do this than by merging her marmalade making skills with her fathers liking for Singleton Whisky, which also happens to be her fathers surname! The end result was a limited edition batch of 53 jars of Singleton Marmalade from which all profits were donated to the charity. The marmalade was advertised via the Wild Side Facebook page and the entire run was sold in 24 hours, raising £275. Helen plans to repeat this special edition marmalade once each year when the Seville Oranges are available, with all profits going to the ongoing work of Macmillan.

After a bad accident in 2010 Helen was left with impaired vision and chronic neuralgia, making her unable to continue her academic career. As part of her convalescence she spent a lot of time aboard their narrowboat Wand’ring Bark, taking things easy and watching the world go by. As her strength returned she began collecting fruit and making small quantities of jam. Then word got around and people began asking for her preserves, and within a few months the Wild Side brand was born. The business maintains strong ties with the canals as many of the ingredients are picked from the towpaths (with the blessing of the Canal & River Trust) and the end results are mainly sold at canal festivals in and around the Midlands. THE CONCEPT initially operating from a table at the stern of our 42ft boat, the limitations of this space soon became apparent. We toyed with the idea of buying a larger boat or stretching our current one, but then we thought why not operate from a second towed boat which would, of course, be called ‘The Jam Butty’? The Jam Butty was successfully launched at the floating market at Birmingham in 2014 where Andy & Helen kindly invited those traders present to a wonderful evening of Pimms, beer & preserves which we all thoroughly enjoyed.
In few years’ time they plan to cruise extensively in the summer months, picking wild fruit, making preserves and selling our wares as we go. For the time being, however, the small matter of Andy’s day job limits their  reach to about a week’s cruising from our Staffs & Worcs base. If you see us out on the cut do give us a wave, or better still buy some delicious jam!
For more information about Wild Side Handmade Preserves visit https://www.wildsidepreserves.co.uk
or check them out on facebook https://www.facebook.com/wildsidepreserves