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18 The Cheese Guide starving the civilian population living on an island surrounded by waters patrolled by the German navy. Chutneys used ingredients that could be harvested from home gardens, and their vinegar content meant that they could be canned in a water bath to preserve them. "The Ministry of Food educated people with leaflets, radio programs and community demonstrations on the latest and greatest food preserving techniques, to ensure that no food went to waste," Williamson said. Williamson has updated her chutney recipes to create flavors that combine a respect for the traditional chutneys with the adventurous tastes of today's consumers. "I think that people will cook with it on a different level, whether in pastry or on lamb. It allows people to go outside their comfort zone, to play with their food, and expand their repertoire, to take something that they're comfortable with and go from there," she said. "Cheese, chutney and wine should be a trio that everyone knows, but often they don't. Once they have the jar in their refrigerator, they can put it on chicken or a piece of salmon. Our chutney, unlike many others, has a sugar content that's less than anyone else's .... It isn't just for your wine and cheese parties. It's actually pretty beneficial on your turkey sandwich or to put on your pork tenderloin to make a dinner for your family." The Holmsted Fines products are packed in Georgia. Williamson is handling the distribution herself, primarily through grocery stores in the South, but shipping nationwide to Amazon. "Almost every state has gotten an order for us at some point," she says. "We give 10 percent of the proceeds from each jar to International Justice Mission, an organization based in Washington, D.C." International Justice Mission works on human trafficking prevention around the world, and it's an organization that Williamson became familiar with through its work in Europe. When she first learned about the organization, she assumed it was based in Europe, and it was only after she began donating that she realized that it's actually based in the U.S., she says. "Modern-day slavery or human trafficking happens to poor people in areas where they're not protected by the police," she says. "IJM goes to places to train police forces to protect women and children and to prosecute traffickers." For further information, visit www.holmstedfines.com. BY LORRIE BAUMANN Rebecca Williamson learned to make chutneys while she was a culinary student at London's Le Cordon Bleu in the earliest years of the 21st century. Now she's back in the United States making updated versions of some of those chutneys for sale under her Holmsted Fines brand, which was created four years ago. "When I first moved to England, I lived in a place called Holmsted Manor, and that was my first taste of tomato chutney," says the Owner and Creator of Holmsted Fines. "We wanted the branding to reflect something that... you feel comfortable with. It's a product that's been around for a really long time, but we're modernizing it." After Williamson finished culinary school, she moved back to the U.S. to pursue her career as a pastry chef, and she started making a green tomato chutney that had been as staple for her when she was living in Britain. "I couldn't find anything like it in the U.S.," she says. "I started making it and giving it as gifts." The friends who received those gifts encouraged her to take her chutney to market, and Williamson responded with a start-up company in 2013 and then her Holmsted Fines Green Tomato Chutney in 2014. Since then, she's expanded the line to include Peach Chutney, Balsamic Red Onion Chutney and, just this past June, Apple Jalapeño Chutney. The Apple Jalapeño is the only one of the range that's spicy. "Balsamic Red Onion is our best seller, but we predict that the Apple Jalapeño will rival it," Williamson says. Chutneys were introduced to England by the imperial officers who returned home after service in India, in those days when the sun never set on the British empire, but they rose to prominence as a feature of English cuisine during World War I, when they were an important source of nutrition in a country subjected to wartime food shortages. "You had to use everything that was in the field, some way. Fruits and veggies were limited. With a short growing season and the need for more – people were eating a lot of bread and butter. They used malt vinegar and green tomatoes as a way to provide some variety," Williamson says. "It was more need-based than it is today." Chutney's prominence in English culinary tradition was reinforced again during World War II, when Britain implemented food rationing to ensure that its troops could be fed without meets east west Holmsted Fines Chutneys

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