golden raspberries are back as well, white lady and hibiscus, yellow peach and ginger, peach + lavender, peach + lime, all the late-season favorites.

get excited about the heritage harvest festival on september 11, at monticello, where i will join an all-star cast of local food heroes to vend my humble jam. hope to see you there!

and, as always, i’ll be at the market tomorrow, on the hill by the taco stand.

last week i got methley plums, a japanese variety that jams up very similar to damson, this week i got shiro (a yellow, sour japanese plum, similar to the english greengage plum), santa rosa (a sweet dark purple californian variety), and even a few imperial epineuse (a mild french type).damsons arent even here yet and i’m plum crazy already.

flavors: peach raspberry, peach blackberry + lemon, yellow peach, yellow peach + lavender, white peach + hibiscus, methley plum, peach + plum, apricot, apricot + lemon, shiro plum, santa rosa plum, double plum, shiro plum + blackberry, peach + lime…

flavors: peach raspberry, peach blackberry + lemon, yellow peach, early prince (peach), yellow peach + lavender, white peach + hibiscus, methley plum, peach + red plum, yellow peach + golden raspberry, apricot, apricot + lemon, cherry peach + ginger.

see you there (as always i’ll be on the hill, next to the taco stand).

stay tuned for a million more peaches, blackberries, + plums in the next few weeks!

flavors:

raspberry + rhubarb, raspberry + strawberry,  raspberry + cherry, raspberry + blueberry, and:

blueberry, blueberry + lemon, blueberry + lemon basil, blueberry + chocolate mint

sweet cherry, sweet cherry + chocolate mint, sweet cherry + lemon, cherry + strawberry

strawberry + thai basil, strawberry + lavender

so far i’ve made blueberry, blueberry + lemon, blueberry + chocolate mint, and blueberry + lemon basil.

raspberries are coming in!

but now, in addition to 2 or 3 more weeks of strawberries, we’re into central VA’s short but sweet cherry season, and it looks fabulous!

strawberries are exciting, now, but i’m much more enthusiastic about what’s to come. late frosts damaged the stone fruit trees in the spring of 09, and ‘08 (when there was a hail storm too), which peaches weathered well, but plum trees suffered a reduced yield and most apricots didn’t yield at all. thanks to the mild spring, we’re going to be overwhelmed by plums and apricots in late june and july, which i’m really looking forward too. plums are a fabulous fruit for jam, as the sweet flesh dissolves and takes on the bright flavor of the sour skin, but nothing compares to apricots. the texture, just a little bit thicker than plum, lets the deep sweetness of the fruit drape over a subtle sourness, cloaking the bright spark of acidity in a luxuriously soft, almost narcotic sweetness. needless to say, i’m pretty excited for that. i’ve used imported california apricots for jam in the past (before i went into business for myself), but found them to be mealy and tasteless; also it was disconcerting when the skins turned brown in the jam. thankfully, local apricots do not have these problems, which is why i’m so excited.

i will be back at the market this saturday, with the same flavors as last week with a few additions: strawberry thyme and rhubarb ginger (and anything else i can think of).

i’m back at work with my all-star team of jam commandos, and i’m looking for new talent. i’ll post a full description later, but suffice it to say that i’m looking for a new apprentice jam maker or two, for part-time (with full-time potential), through the end of jam season (sometime in september or october). obviously, i’m looking for someone who has an interest in jam and local food systems, and maybe even some experience in the kitchen. everything is negotiable except for the part about loving jam.

potential applicants should email me immediately at accordingtodaniel@gmail.com if they don’t want to wait for the full jam apprentice job posting.

now back to the jam: i’ll be at my permanent spot, on the hill, next to the taco stand, with many flavors, but be forewarned: last saturday i arrived with 7 flavors, and had sold out of 4 by 10:30. the remaining 3 flavors (plain strawberry, strawberry rhubarb, and strawberry chocolate mint) are among my most popular, so i made the most jars of these flavors, and in turn sold the most, but if you’re in search of variety and want to exercise your freedom of choice, get up early and come on down for some jam.

i brought back about 150 pounds of fruit, which translates to about 150 jars, which i’ll be bringing out for my 2010 debut at the Farmers Market this Saturday (May 1).

i expect to have plain strawberry jam, of course, but also strawberry chocolate mint, strawberry thai basi, strawberry lime, strawberry lime +caraway, strawberry rhubarb (if i can find some rhubarb this week), strawberry lavender, and whatever else i can think of.

i hope to see you at the market saturday; i will be about halfway up the hill, where i was last year, next to the relocated taco stand. if you can’t make, jam should be back at my local retailers (ABC, Feast!, Greenwood Gourmet Grocery, & the Happy Cook) and expanding to some new ones by the end of next week.

Example: “Daniel was always a different sort of child, but who could have imagined he’d grow up into such a pozzy-wallah?!”

there are still a few jars of my jam on the shelf at the Greenwood Gourmet Grocery, at least there were the other day when i bought some. i don’t think there is any more jam anywhere closer than 3 months in the future.