Produce is so amazing during summer — the strawberries and rhubarb of late spring, the blueberries and raspberries of early summer, the peaches and tomatoes (yes, tomatoes are fruits) and peppers of later summer, the quinces of fall. Happily, we can enjoy these flavors year round! Our jams are made from local produce, picked fresh during the best part of their season. We use only fruits that are farmed sustainably without added nasty chemicals, and we choose them for their flavor. That’s just not true of commercially-produced jarred goods, which depend on large-scale commercial farming. Who knows where they get their produce and how it is farmed? And they add enough salt, sugar, and preservatives to make them taste like, well, salt, sugar, and whatever.
We don’t use commercial pectin. Our pectin is grown in the fruit or we make pectin from local apples or quinces. We also use lemon as a thickener which, of course, tastes nice, too!
Most of these products are available through Gilmanton’s Own Market or you can purchase direct through us by emailing vsapiro@gmail.com .
JAMS & SWEET SAUCES
APPLE BUTTER: When was the last time you had a really good apple butter? Well, here it is. A mix of local apples slow cooked to their deliciousness. It will be hard for you not just to eat it from a spoon.
BLOOD ORANGEMARMALADE: Blood oranges are nice, sweet oranges with skins tinged with red, and flesh deep red. This is a traditional marmalade — sweet enough to keep you from puckering, but definitely not as sweet as most jams. Thick, with its chopped skin detectable. Just orange, sugar, water, and a little lemon, made just when citrus fruits are ripe early in the calendar year. By the way, this is actually winter in jars because that’s when citrus is harvested.
HOT PEPPER JAM: One of our great favorites. Local sweet red peppers and a mix of our heirloom hot peppers, cooked in a sugar and apple solution that makes it delicious — hot, sweet, and beautiful. Great with cheese or on roasts or lick it off the spoon.
LEMON LAVENDER BLUEBERRY JAM: Local blueberries scented with lavender from our garden and made more zesty with lemon. Not a strong lavender taste, but gives it an added richness.
PEACH LIME SALSA JAM: Start with beautiful local peaches and a classic peach jam. Then hit it with a good blast of lime, chili peppers from our garden, and ginger. Magic. Use it like a salsa or with cheeses. A great addition to a charcuterie board.
QUINCE JAM: An old-fashioned flavor that never should have gone out of style. Quinces taste like a beautiful aromatic cross between an apple and a pear. We took seeds from very old local bushes, grew our own, and now they are bearing fruit. So delicious to use on toast, on a charcuterie board, in a pie.
RASPBERRY JAM: Classic, made from local raspberries.
SICILIAN PEACH JAM: This is a version of a wonderful Sicilian preserve — more like a marmalade because it has slivers of sliced peach in it. Local peaches, sugar, lemon, and orange flower water. Use on toast or with cheese or roast meats.
STRAWBERRY JAM: Classic strawberry jam from local strawberries.
SWEET TOMATO JAM: Ok, so they tell us tomatoes are fruits. Well, they really are. And that fruitiness develops beautifully when it is made into a jam in the classic way. It’s a lovely color and has a light elegant flavor. We put it on toast, but it’s also a great addition to a charcuterie board.
SWEET & GINGERY YELLOW TOMATO JAM: Beautiful yellow tomatoes from our garden made into a sweet jam with a good hit of fresh ginger to give it a zing. A nice accompaniment to cheese, roast meat, roasted veggies.
PICKLES, CHUTNEYS, SALSAS, & SAUCES
This is where we wander around our garden and wonder what to do with all of this bounty to enjoy it throughout the year. And here are our answers!
HEIRLOOM TOMATO SAUCE: Each jar contains a mix of different tomatoes, either reds, blacks, purples, and other dark colors, or yellows, oranges, and whites to create two different color sauces. This sauce is slowly cooked down until it is concentrated to about 1 pound of tomatoes per cup of sauce. Just a little salt (and citric acid for preservation), means it can be used any way you want. Spice and herb it up for spaghetti sauce, use it in a stew, make tomato soup out of it — anything you want. You choose, not us. But unlike supermarket canned tomatoes, these are amazing heirlooms, farmed sustainably and without chemicals, no weird chemicals or preservatives, and no taste of metal cans. Taste the difference!
MOROCCAN SPICES SWEET & HOT CHERRY TOMATO PRESERVES: Cherry tomatoes simmered whole in middle eastern spices and sugar
BREAD & BUTTER PICKLES: We grow 8 different varieties of cucumbers from seeds originating around the world. None of them have names like “picklers” or “slicers” because in the cucumber world there are so many different kinds with different qualities that can be used all sorts of ways. We like the ones that have more taste than most American-style cucumbers. We select from our varieties and use a classic bread and butter pickle recipe using our home-grown onions.
SWEET PICKLE RELISH: A recipe much like our bread & butter pickles using a mix of our international cucumbers, but we start with grated cucumbers and create a relish you can use anywhere you like sweet relish. Are you sure about what’s in commercial relish sold in supermarkets? Neither are we.
PUNCHY BREAD & BUTTER PICKLES: Start making our bread & butter pickles but chop in some of our hot heirloom peppers from the garden. Hot and sweet all at once.
SWEET & HOT PICKLE RELISH: We use the recipe for Punchy Bread & Butter Pickles, but grate the cucumbers to create a tasty relish.
ZUCCHINI TOMATO SALSA: Our heirloom Italian Zucchini mixed with our onions, heirloom tomatoes, and hot peppers cooked with brown sugar, a mix of spices, and cider vinegar. We love it.
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Jones Mill House 