Author name: Mark Newman

We’re in the Newspaper! An acquaintance of mine named Samantha Bee writes a monthly article called Sammie’s Shenanigans for Tallahassee’s largest newspaper, the Tallahassee Democrat. In her articles she highlights what she terms Tallahassee “gems,” small businesses in town that are unique and, in her opinion, worthy of mention. In July she contacted me to […]

Introducing Peach Jam! My peach tree finally produced enough peaches to make a few batches of jam. Earlier in the year I had arranged for someone from the local county extension office to come out and help me prune the tree. I also studied about thinning the peaches so I felt like I was all

Citrus, Citrus, and MORE Citrus! With the market closed for the winter I was able to concentrate on turning a variety of citrus fruits into jam. Which was a good thing because winter is when all the citrus trees are bearing their fruit. I made all of the old favorites, orange, Valencia orange, tangelo, and

The Oranges are On! As expected, the orange trees in the neighborhood yielded a massive crop this year. The first fruit I was offered 181 were tangerines (some of them pictured here) from a tree belonging to the recently deceased mother of a friend of mine. Here nickname “Birdie” appears on the tangerine jam label,

Make Way for Agave! Why would anyone want to modify a perfectly good granola recipe? Well, three of my four granloas are all sweetened the same way, with a mixture of wildflower honey and organic brown sugar. I got to thinking that perhaps I should add a little more variety. Granola needs something sticky like

Hurricane Helene. And Milton. Since my last post, Florida and the Carolinas were absolutely hammered by hurricane Helene. Shortly thereafter hurricane Milton tore across the Florida peninsula. Both storms left significant devastation in their wake. Single Tree is in full production but between market cancellations and volunteer cleanup efforts, there hasn’t been a lot of

Go West, Old Man During the kitchen remodel (which is finally finished) I dutifully kept Single Tree production going. But the subsequent trip to the mountains halted everything. It was time to take a long-deserved vacation. Shellie and I flew to Utah and gathered with my six siblings and their spouses in two rented “cabins”

Production Paused The pear jam is made. Much of the fig jam is made. What to do while waiting for the next harvest? Remodel your kitchen! After much research, we finally contracted with a local company to remodel our kitchen. The project began on July 24th and in just a few days, our kitchen was

Jamming What do you do when the figs and the pears ripen at the same time? You get to work We began harvesting figs from our fig tree at the end of June. For two weeks we harvested twice per day until the tree finally decided to call it quits. Even though we competed with

Where’s the Pears? A number of my repeat customers have been asking me when I will have pear jam again. I ran out at Christmas last year and the pears on Lydia’s tree are not yet big enough for harvesting. But it shouldn’t be too long! And it appears that the demand for pear jam

Lucious Loquats I ran out of fig jam. I really didn’t want to go back to the market with only two flavors of jam to choose from, but what fruit ripens in April? The answer: Loquats. If you are like me, I had never tasted a loquat before. But there are a couple of loquat

At the Market Selling at community markets has been a real learning experience, and I am very grateful for those who have helped me. Participation often requires the payment of fees, so it’s important to sell enough product to cover the fees while still turning a profit. That translates into appealing product displays, efficiency in