the crew at roberta's sunday market

Come get your veggies, fresh wood-fired bread and jam this Sunday at Roberta’s in Bushwick. This will be Emma the apprentice’s last day, so come by and visit! We’ll have peach preserves with lemon verbena, blueberry preserves with maple syrup, pear ginger jam, apple preserves with vanilla bean, and lime marmalade with pandan leaf — yum!

There will also be a BBQ, games, face painting, fresh juice from Red Jacket Orchards (with cocktails too), and live music from Rachel Lipson and the Tip Top Band. Bring your kids, bring your friends, bring your groove.

Ben sells his vegetables with some love at Roberta's in Bushwick, Brooklyn

the first heirloom tomatoes!

rainbow of jamz

We’ve been having a great time selling veggies, bread and jam at Roberta’s on Sunday from 11-5. We’ll be there all summer and early Autumn, with an ever-changing array of veggies and jam. Next Sunday we’ll have a bluegrass band playing in the yard and some popsicles for sale to keep you cool while you shop. Added bonus is brunch at Roberta’s or a beer on the back patio.

rooftop veggies for sale

the backyard at roberta's (261 moore st, brooklyn, new york)

farm market at roberta's

It’s the perfect storm of a farm market: a delicious convergence of vegetables, bread and jam every Sunday! We’re selling jam alongside the crew of the Brooklyn Grange Farm every Sunday in the backyard at Roberta’s in Bushwick, Brooklyn from 11-5. There are veggies from the farm (gorgeous greens, herbs, basil, fennel, zucchini, heirloom, plum & cherry tomatoes in 2 weeks, peppers, cucumbers, and much more), fresh bread from Roberta’s new wood-fired bread oven (in a shipping container in the backyard), and jam. Each week more folks come by and stock up on goods for Sunday night dinner and the week ahead. Plus there’s the usual fabulous pizza, salads, fried chicken, beer, fresh fruity spritzers and all that other awesome stuff for offer at Roberta’s. You can spend your whole Sunday with us and walk away happy, fed, drunk and prepped for a week of good eating. Summer’s bounty is here!

Remember when we lay in thick of winter–cold, sickly, pale and bored with the endless-seeming, drab and insipid city–eating tasteless grocery store veggies from South America or nibbling on an old mealy apple and dreaming of the far-off magical time of year when we would wander through the warm, delectable and ambrosian city of summer, eating amazing food in backyards or rooftops or the welcoming living rooms of wonderful, glowing, tanned friends? That time is now. The farm is overflowing with delicious vegetables and the jars are being steadily filled with mouthwatering local fruits to sustain you through the dark winter that will inevitably cycle round once again–stock up on jam, sun, joy, experiences and great food!

What jam can you get at the market? Stores around town tend to sell our regular flavors that we produce year-round, but there are the special small batch flavors that are only available until they sell out (sometimes fast!). These are what we’ll be selling on Sundays at Roberta’s, including a bunch with herbs from the farm. I’ve been helping cultivate some jammin herbs up on the roof, nurturing them with love until they’re ready to be put in a jar. What flavors can you expect to find over the next few weeks? Morello Black Sour Cherry Preserves; Apricot with vanilla, Gewürztraminer and thyme; White Peach with lemon verbena; Blueberry with lavendar; Golden Sugar Plum with sweet Eiswein.

Hungry yet? Come visit us! Every Sunday will be a new and exciting adventure. There will be something extra special each week: a bluegrass band, a BBQ, a jazz trio and more. Check back here or follow us on Twitter or Facebook to see what’s happening each week.

lovely little apricots

morello cherries about to be picked at Fix Brothers Fruit Farm

Apricots and Morello cherries are two of my favorite fruits to jam. My pops helped me pick them this weekend at Fix Brothers Fruit Farm in Hudson, New York. Morello cherries are hard to find, but this farm has great ones. Morello cherries are lovely, with a dark skin and juice, and rich, complex flavor. The advent of industrial agriculture led to a decline in crop diversity among sour cherries, and the morello was one of the few cultivars left behind. Although too sour to eat alone, the flavor of Morellos is much more complex than sweet cherries and therefore ideal for jam or desserts. Unlike naturally sweet fruit like the strawberry, sour cherries allow for more control and a less cloyingly sweet jam.

What will we do with them?

The cherries will remain pure. Morello cherries are a perfect flavor and they don’t need anything added (although a little brandy or bourbon tastes great).

The apricots we got from Fix Brothers are delicious–small and delicate with a huge amount of flavor. I wanted to enhance their vanilla undertones, so I’m adding vanilla bean, a little ice wine (Eiswein, a type of dessert wine produced from grapes that have been frozen while still on the vine), and a small dash of fresh thyme from Brooklyn Grange. I often give my mom props for teaching me to make jam and sharing her wisdom of herbs and flavors. But my pops was the one to suggest vanilla bean with apricots–thanks, Dad!

I’ll be selling it at Roberta‘s on Sundays, come visit us!

this is what our UnFancy table will look like

this is what i'll look like on june 22nd

The UnFancy Food Show is a great party on June 27th with a gazillion local food makers hawking their goods. It’s at the Bell House this year (inside & out) and should be amazing! I’ll be selling alongside my man Ben, so come say hi. It will be just like a country farm stand with jam and fresh veggies (only in a warehouse in Gowanus with tallboys and hipsters).

Party with the gals of Anarchy! We’ll be at the Brooklyn Based Lillet summer garden party at Huckleberry Bar in Williamsburg on June 22nd. There will be a fabulous group of women foodies (Betsy Devine and Rachel Mark of Salvatore Bklyn fresh ricotta; Melanie Campbell of Asiadog; Dalia Jurgensen, pastry chef at Dressler and author of Spiced; Cathy Erway of Not Eating Out In New York; Diana Yen and Lisel Arroyo, the cooks/food stylists behind the The Jewels of New York; and cocktail maven Stephanie Schneider, co-owner of Huckleberry Bar) dishing out drinks and nosh, so come on by and be dazzled. Extra amusing perk: I’ll be wearing some feathers in my hair, representin’ my girl Lillet. Get your tickets now, there are only a few left!

emma the jam apprentice hard at work in the kitchen

fresh strawberries from the farm

We’re so happy spring came and brought it’s friend summer! It’s finally fruit season and we are actively designing some fun seasonal flavors that you can taste at upcoming markets and events (like the UnFancy Food Show on June 27).

This week? Strawberries of course! I went upstate and got some from the great folks at “Story Farm” in Catskill. They’re a small farm with a little stand on the side of the road, not big enough to truck their wares down to the big city. They have well tended, much loved fruit with great flavor.

What did we make? Strawberry Preserves with Chocolate Mint & Pink Peppercorns.  It’s so delicious that we kept eating the skimmed foam and giggling in the kitchen of Chestnut where I cook alongside Carla the pastry chef and my summer jam apprentice, Emma (you can see her hard at work above). Chocolate mint (mentha piperita cv.) is a variety of mint that neither smells nor tastes like chocolate per se, but is reminiscent of an Andes after-dinner chocolate. It’s awesome in the jam, and the pink peppercorns add a spicy peppery note that comes after the mint flavor and gives the taste-buds that extra awesome jolt.

Also on the menu is Strawberry Preserves with Thai Basil. Thai Basil has a great flavor, a little hit of anise and a little sweeter than regular basil, it’s perfect with strawberries. This stuff is amazing on ice cream.

Fruit is here, the summer has begun, all is well in the jamarchy. Hallelujah! We’ll be jammin’ like crazy for the next few months, and loving it.

Seedlings get ready for the Brooklyn Grange at Roberta's, photo by © Anastasia Cole

Ben elevates the tomatoes to the roof, photo by © Laena McCarthy

Tomatoes are planted at the Brooklyn Grange, photo by © Anastasia Cole

One day soon these little guys will grow bigger and produce beautiful tomatoes, and as Autumn turns colder and the nights begin to freeze, I’ll take the last ones standing and make them into Brooklyn Green Tomato Chutney. Maybe this year it will be Queens Green Tomato Chutney…