Lotamore Farm Harvest is producing delicious homemade products for the region

That's the meaning behind the name 'Lotamore Farm Harvest' which produces several relishes, chutneys, jams and sauces.

Suzanne Coleman runs the Portland farm with her husband Tony and for the last nine years the couple have been creating delicious products with homegrown, hearty goodness.

"It started off as a hobby. I love to cook. I love to garden and grow my own things.

"I started off feeding the kids and when they'd had enough I started off with secondhand jars and went to little markets and sold them and then it progressed, now I buy the jars by the pallet load," Mrs Coleman said.

"We make hot chilli relish, tomato relish, beetroot chutney, zucchini pickles, spaghetti pickles, choko pickles, Worcestershire sauce and we've also got raspberry, ginger and cinnamon, blackberry [jams]... the list goes on.

"People just love the old fashioned food," she said.

She said her favourite thing to make were relishes because they came from an old family recipe.

"It's an old grandmother's recipe, I make tomato relish from that recipe and I also make chilli relish using the same recipe and just put chillies in it. I'm also making an eggplant chutney and that's still the old fashioned based recipe," she said.

She said she also dried out vegetables, chillies and onions to add flavour into her products.

Mrs Coleman said there was a specific process for chutneys and relishes.

"You've got to cut the vegetables up the night before, sprinkle salt on top of the product and then all depends whether it's pickles or relish...

"If it's pickles, you wash the salt off the next day, if it's relish you leave the salt on it, and then you add vinegar, and cook it and when it's cooked you add spices and whatever else," she said.

She said for the jams she didn't put any water in them, only fruit and sugar.

"You cook your fruit up, add sugar, and you keep cooking it until it gels. Then heat the jars up in the oven and pour the jam in while the jars are still hot and then it becomes a vacuum and seals the jar," she said.

Mrs Coleman said she loved to cook and she wasn't one to follow step by step recipes.

"I just have got a passion for cooking and I don't sort of follow recipes. I just throw things in and see if it works."

She said it was a rewarding business and it was nice to grow her own things.

"We grow everything here but if we can't grow here we try and source it locally.

"I grow the little seedlings and start from scratch and then I put them outside on the deck in the sun and transfer them into big pots and into the garden, it's so much fun," she said.

Mrs Coleman said at Lotamore they plant their own tomatoes, chillies and fruit trees.

"Virtually everything here goes into the products.

"We've started preparing some of the garden because now we turn it over during the winter and we keep fertilising it with whatever the animals produce.

"We don't use any chemicals, it's all naturally based and then when it's grown we turn it into a product or sometimes I freeze the product," she said.

She said due the coronavirus pandemic she hasn't been able to attend markets which has caused her to freeze a lot of product.

"Before the virus, we probably were making a thousand jars a month maybe a little bit more but things will pick up again," she said.

Mrs Coleman said Lotamore attends markets around the region and there were also local stockists.

"We've been to the markets in Lithgow and Bathurst and we go to Mudgee Farmers' Markets and we do the wine festivals at Mudgee.

"Lithgow Tourist Centre also sell our products and we also go to the Sydney markets," she said.

"We've got a couple shops in Mudgee that sell our products too," she said.

She said from selling at markets, Lotamore products had travelled wide and far.

"A lot of tourists come to the Mudgee markets and my jams have gone overseas. I now even get to post things away," she said.

"It makes me feel wonderful."

Mrs Coleman said her and her husband would continue making products as long as they enjoy it.

"I think I'll be doing it a little bit longer, while we get pleasure out of doing it, we'll keep doing it.

"When it becomes a chore and we don't enjoy it that's when we will give it up," she said.

"But right now, I love doing it, it's nice just living on the farm and making product and I just love giving the veggies away to neighbours and friends."

Lotamore Farm Harvest is located at 376 Portland Cullen Bullen Road, Portland and can be found on Facebook.

The hobby farm will be attending the next Mudgee Farmers' Market on Saturday, June 20 between 8.30am and 12.30pm.

Subscribing means more than just website access. Read the print paper online, enter giveaways and more for just $2 a week, cheaper than a coffee. What are you waiting for?