We’ve been having lots of fun pickling strawberries! We experimented with a host of flavors and settled on the mildest white vinegar with a host of spices to make it a delicious.

We used perfectly ripe little strawberries from Red Jacket Orchards in upstate New York. We added Thai Basil from my boyfriend Ben’s Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm, hibiscus flowers for tart floral flavor and color, pink peppercorns which are mild and sweet, bay leaves that I got fresh from the San Francisco Ferry Building farmer’s market, star anise, licorice root, cloves, cinnamon bark chips, white vinegar, a little sugar and a pinch of sea salt.

They taste delicious! Eat them with fresh ricotta on a slab of good bread, with roast chicken, or on any sandwich that you need to make more awesome.

We’ll have them for sale at Smorgasburg market in Williamsburg every Saturday starting on the 16th and at New Amsterdam Market on Sundays.

Jam has been a theme in a lot of children’s literature over the years. Jam somehow finds a way into our collective learning as a metaphor for family, community, eating and sharing. As a librarian and jam maker, I’m going to share some of my favorites with you.

The most famous kid’s book about jam is Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban, which is one of my favorites. At aged 6,  my friends and I were such ardent fans, we would bring the exact same lunches to school as Frances and her friends, starting a cult of bread & jam (interesting side note is my bestie at the time was the daughter of Bread Alone’s owner/founder and I have since become a jam maker, proving the deep influence of children’s literature). I also love these other books, which you should pick up especially if you have kids to share them with, but also for adults who are amused by a good picture book.

Jam and Jelly is a sweet story with undertones of strength. Nellie is determined to buy her daughter a good winter coat and boots in order to get to school throughout the northern Michigan winter. She is adamant about coming up with the money because she often had to stay home as a child and feels that her “learning’s got big holes in it” as a result. Nellie is nevertheless a wonderful teacher, showing Holly not only the importance of an education, but also teaching her about the various woodland animals and birds they encounter as they gather berries for jams to sell. Holly’s father shows his love and support by building a roadside stand to display their wares. The lining pages offer recipes for all of the jams so readers may become inspired to do some berry picking of their own.

Our Raspberry Jam is about a girl who feasts on the wonderful raspberry jam that she and her family have made and remembers that she loves it because they made it together.

In Making Plum Jam Jackie is excited about his upcoming annual visit to his mother’s eccentric, elderly aunts. Once there he doesn’t mind the kerosene lamps and he ignores the fact that the three women have an ancient car and that Aunt Alice is a very slow, very bad driver. But he is shocked when the aunts raid the orchard of Farmer Wilson to steal plums. Caught by the farmer, the four barely escape. Jackie enjoys making jam from the stolen fruit but he also has a plan for defusing their neighbor’s anger. During the night, he sneaks several jars of the finished product over to his house with a note. A few days later the aunts are surprised to find a whole basket of fresh plums on their front porch. The text is full of down-home sweetness and the aunts are drawn with an affection that won’t be lost on readers.

Purple Delicious Blackberry Jam is about two upper-crust urchins, Muff and Freddy, discover how challenging jam-making can be when they try to revive an old-fashioned tradition. After talking Grandma into going berry-picking, they learn that preparing the treat involves thorny bushes, swarms of mosquitoes, green inchworms and–messiest of all–cooking blackberry juice and waiting for it to cool.

In Mim’s Christmas Jam, the best part of Christmas is the whole family savoring Mim’s belly-hum jam together. But this Christmas, Pap is far away in New York City, digging a hole for something called the subway, and his family is missing him something awful. Pap aches to be home, but the heartless foremen of his dig site have decided there will be no break, not even for Christmas. It looks like it’s going to be one lonely holiday for everyone . . . until young Saraleen and Royce send their pap a gift that may just inspire a Christmas miracle.

In The Giant Jam Sandwich, four million wasps invade Itching Down, so the villagers make a giant jam sandwich to trap them.

Mary Had a Little Jam is full of silly kid’s rhymes, like “”Mary had a little jam; she spread it on a waffle. And if she hadn’t eaten ten, she wouldn’t feel so awful.”

In Calendar Mysteries #6: June Jam the sixth book of the Calendar Mysteries—a new early chapter book mystery series featuring the younger siblings of the A to Z Mysteries detectives—Bradley, Brian, Nate and Lucy are getting ready for Father’s Day. They’ve decided that strawberry jam from the Pintos’ strawberry patch would be a great gift. But something or someone has been taking bites out of the strawberrys! Polly the Pony, Pal and the dog, and the twins’ brother Josh are all suspects. If the kids can’t protect the strawberry patch from the mystery chomper, they might be in a real jam! Ron Roy’s sixth Calendary Mysteries book has a fan Father’s Day and all the sweetness of summer.

You asked for it and here it is!

Strawberry Preserves with Mint & Pink Peppercorns

This is a recipe for whole strawberries preserved in their juice. Using small, sweet early season strawberries is necessary. You can find these in the farmer’s market for the next few weeks.
4C mashed fruit
2C sugar
2t calcium water (Pomona’s Pectin)
2t pectin (Pomona’s Pectin)
2tbl lemon juice
1/2 tsp chopped mint
1/4 tsp ground peppercorns
Wash and rinse jars; bring to a boil and boil covered for 10 minutes to sanitize. Let stand in hot water. Bring lids and rings to boil; turn down heat; let stand in hot water.

Clean and prepare fruit. Measure fruit into a glass or ceramic bowl with 1 cup of the sugar and the lemon juice. Refrigerate overnight. Before starting to cook the jam, let sit at room temperature for at least one hour.

Measure fruit into a stainless steal or copper pot (DO NOT use aluminum). Add mint, peppercorns and proper amount of calcium water from jar into pan; stir well.

Measure remaining 1 cup sugar into separate bowl and thoroughly mix proper amount of pectin powder sugar. Bring fruit to boil. Skim foam off the top and discard. Add your mixed pectin sugar and stir vigorously 1-2 min. while cooking to dissolve pectin. Return to boil and remove from heat. Skim off all foam that has formed at the top.

Fill jars to 1/4″ of top. Wipe rims clean. Screw on 2-piece lids. Put filled jars in boiling water to cover. Boil 10 min. (add 1 min. more for every 1,000 ft. above sea level). Remove from water. Let jars cool (this may take up to 12 hours), then check seals –lids should be
sucked down.

Jam will last two to four months once open and refrigerated. Unopened, it will last up to a year on the shelf.

Note: The jam will jell completely and reach it’s proper “jam” texture when thoroughly cool — this might take 8 to 10 hours at room temperature.

As noted in previous posts, I’ve been working on a beer jelly all winter and the first batches were ready for the second Smorgasburg Market on May 28th. There was lots of good response, my favorite being a gentleman who took a taste unknowingly and said “what is this jelly and why does it make me crave a beer so bad?”

We’ve been working with Sixpoint Craft Ales — an amazing brewery in Red Hook, Brooklyn — and using their special “Mad Scientist” series of beers. For the first batch we used Mad Scientist #3, which was malty and fruity and awesome. Our current batch uses Mad Scientist #4, which is a hibiscus flavored wheat beer. Here’s the details for all of those that have asked and those who are curious.

Mad Scientist #4
Hibiscus Ale
%5.0 ABV

Appearance is deep strawberry red, with a pinkish white head. Flavor is tart and summery, light and refreshing. Slightly herbal, tart hibiscus blends well with delicate hop flavors, hints of citrus and vanilla in the finish.

Ingredients:
American pale malt
Canadian wheat malt
German munich malt
German crystal malt
Canadian flaked oats

American Citra and German Hallertauer hops

They also added organic hibiscus powder (dried hibiscus flowers in powdered form).

If you would like to taste the beer, head to the Fourth Avenue Pub in Park Slope.

If you would like a taste of the jelly, come to our weekend markets: Smorgasburg (in Williamsburg) and New Amsterdam (at South Street Seaport).

If you would like to buy the jelly immediatly, Bedford Cheese Shop has it for sale.

We’ve been working on a new Spiced Beer Jelly throughout the winter and have settled on a recipe.

We combined Sixpoint Craft Ales Mad Scientist #3 beer, local apples from Terhune Orchards in New Jersey, grains of paradise, black cardamom, Indonesian Cinnamon, lemon juice, sugar, and all natural pectin.

Chris — who owns Eastern District, the beer and cheese shop in Greenpoint and an avid home-brewer and beer expert — suggested I use Grains of Paradise 9Aframomum melegueta) in my jelly. Grains of Paradise come from West Africa and are in the ginger family, although the seeds taste peppery. Medieval spice traders  claimed these peppery seeds grew only in Eden, and had to be collected as they floated down the rivers out of paradise, hence the romantic name. The flavor is zesty and peppery, with  hints of jasmine, hazelnut, cardamom, and citrus. Black cardamom (also called tsao-ko or badhi elaichi) is another of the spices that I used. It’s camphor-like, smoky flavor nicely heightens the slight bitterness of the beer.

My friend Cathy works at Sixpoint Craft Ales, and she chose the new Mad Scientist Series #3 because it’s such a rich, malty beer with hardly any hop flavor.

Spices and ale make this a unique and amazing jelly, perfect with cheese or meat.  The beer is a light amber color and has a somewhat sweet, complex flavor, with notes of caramel and nuts, and a hint of dark fruits and malty magic. The spices work perfectly with this; grains of paradise add peppery notes, black cardamom is nutty and smoky, and Indonesian cinnamon is spicy and delicate. We ate the jelly with cheddar and it was insanely awesome.

perfectly cut by my sous chef, mr. ben flanner

adding the hibiscus

crazy colors as the rhubarb and hibiscus boil!

Spring is here and the first edible jammable produce is starting to pop up on local farms and at the market! On a rainy spring afternoon, I trudged to the market in my rain boots to bargain my first bundle of rhubarb from some nice farmers from Montgomery, New York.

I decided to mix it with dried hibiscus flowers to make it a lovely pink color. Rhubarb when cooked by itself usually turns an unattractive brown color, but with strawberries or hibiscus added it gets a lovely hue. I boiled and seeped the hibiscus overnight and then strained it into the rhubarb the next day. The hibiscus flavor is tart and bright, balancing well with the sour rhubarb. The jam is lovely and delicious, particularly on scones.

We’ll have it at our outdoor markets (secret-as-yet-to-be-revealed-market and New Amsterdam) and a few lucky shops will carry it too!

Happy Spring!

I’ve been getting lots of emails about jam classes this summer, so I finally booked them.

Learn the art of jam making with me!  I’ll show you how to take advantage of your victory garden, local CSA or farmer’s market and make delicious homemade jam in these hands on classes.

You’ll learn the time-honored tools and tricks to preserve summer in a jar with my easy methods. Each participant gets a jar of homemade jam that they’ve helped make!

Classes are for beginner’s, but folks with jam skills are welcome to join and learn some new tricks.

Read about the classes in the New York Times article “We Jammin“.

Private classes are also available in your own home or my jam facility in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Please email for more information: anarchyinajar@gmail.com.

Upcoming Classes

May 25 |  7:00-8:30pm  |  $40/class — Here’s the link to sign up!

June 1 |  7:00-8:30pm  |  $40/class

July 7 |  7:00-8:30pm  |  $40/class

July 20|  7:00-8:30pm  |  $40/class

August 2 |  7:00-8:30pm  |  $40/class

August 10 |  7:00-8:30pm  |  $40/class

Visit the Ted & Amy Supper Club website for more info and to register.

The classes will be held at the wonderful home of Kara Masi, hostess extraordinaire. Kara has an amazing apartment in Fort Greene that is comfortable and great for cooking, eating and sharing. The relaxed home environment is a great place to learn how to preserve! Wine and sparkling water will be served to help loosen up your jam game.

Every spring my family forages for ramps together in the forest near where I grew up in the Hudson Valley. We forage and then go cook a big meal together using our bounty. It’s a wonderful and rewarding tradition, and the food tastes so delicious, as though we can taste the riverbed and the joyous freshness of spring in the spicy oniony bite of the wild leeks. Because it’s a ritual it has all the aspects that make rituals fun, every year is a bit different, the riverbed changes direction, the earth is more compacted after a snowy winter, and we discover new things like wild flowers that we never noticed before.

This year I was aware of the spicebush bedecked in beautiful yellow flowers growing throughout the forest amidst the ramps. The bark tasted like nutmeg and cloves! I did a little research and discovered that the bush produces spiceberries during autumn apple season. They taste a bit like allspice and can be ground and used in a variety of dishes, especially in apple pie. Pioneers called this plant fever bush because a strong bark decoction makes you sweat, activating the immune system and expelling toxins. They used it for typhoid and other fevers. According to lore, Native Americans in the Northeast used a spiceberry infusion for coughs, colds, delayed menstruation, croup, and measles. They used the oil from the berries, externally, for chronic arthritis. Plus it’s very pretty and looks great in a vase on my table!

There was some disparaging talk about foraging for ramps in the NY Times last week, but the rule of thumb for foraging for any wild plants is respect and minimal invasion — take enough to feed your family and friends and maybe pickle for later when spring’s glory has faded and we need to remember that fresh awakening taste.

Foraging can happen throughout the year, and although I tend to not forage for jam ingredients, it helps inspire our love of the earth and local bounty. Anarchy will release a small batch mulberry jam with locally foraged mulberries later this summer, so stay tuned….

muddy laena cleans ramps in the riverbed

ben amidst the ramps and flowering spice bush

The New York Public Library has an amazing archive of 40,000 menus from restaurants in New York and around the world, going back a century or more. They’re in the process of transcribing 10,000 menus in the library’s online gallery to turn it into a fully searchable database that can be browsed by dish, beverage or price as well as name and date. So rad. There’s an article about it in the Times today.

I love these menus below that feature jam and jam desserts!

pickled watermelon -- yum

stewed rhubarb is handwritten

jam tartlets while you sail