Best Halloween Ad Ever
The ads I usually release on social media are a series of stills and text, with music behind them. That’s about all I am capable of producing. But for Halloween, I wanted to do some live action with our grandchildren. As things worked out, we were SO fortunate to have our son, Patrick, available to shoot the ad for us. He is very good at anything theatrical. We gathered four of our grandchildren, and Patrick shot the ad. He took the footage home that evening, edited it, and in the morning, I had a new ad to post.
Patrick’s ad is, in a word, adorable. A couple of weeks after posting it, Instagram notified me that it had exceeded 500 views. That may not seem like much to some of you, but I have never had Instagram tell me anything like that before. If you haven’t already seen it, you just have to watch it. You can view it on Instagram here.
Introducing Grapefruit Jam
Sales at the market were going so well, I was running out of jam. A nice problem to have, but a problem, nonetheless. Then I met Kristin, a customer at the market. She was interested in my jam making and offered some grapefruit from her tree. I had tried unsuccessfully before to make jam from white grapefruit, but hers was the pink variety, so I gratefully accepted her offer.
I did some research on how to make grapefruit jam. The technique involves peeling the fruit and then carefully paring away the outside membrane. Then you slice into each section, remove the seeds, and then remove only the pulp for jam making. I made a few test batches and ended up putting the pulp in a food processor for a few seconds and adding just a little filtered water to the recipe. As you can see on the label, it’s nothing but grapefruit, sugar, and water.
It turned out great! The pink color is marvelously preserved in the jam. And what about the flavor? If you are the type of person that likes eating a grapefruit sprinkled with sugar, this jam is for you. It has done really well at the market. Kristin says it is her absolute favorite!
And Introducing Lemon Jam
I was at my annual dermatology appointment and my doctor asked what I had been up to. I spoke about my jam making endeavors and she asked if I would like some of her Myers lemons. I gratefully accepted, planning to juice them and use it for making jam from the spring and summer fruits, But then I thought, “Hmm, I wonder if I could make jam out of lemons?” So I began experimenting.
To make it, I extract the pulp in the same way as grapefruit. It’s a time consuming process, about 10 minutes per lemon. This jam has only two ingredients: lemon pulp and water. Mix them together, cook it, and it makes a really incredible jam.
If you think grapefruit jam is awesome, just wait until you taste lemon jam! Strong and lemony, sweet and tart. It’s powerful stuff. The color is darker than I expected it would be. I always thought that sprinkling lemon juice on sliced fruit would keep it from turning brown. That’s true, but at high temperatures, lemon turns dark. Who knew? And it has to reach at least 220 degrees to become jam. So there you have it. Incredible jam that you would never guess the ingredients by the color.
Memorable Market Moments
The market is such a wonderful place. I get to meet so many nice and interesting people. Allow me to share two memorable moments that occurred since the last newsletter.
- A young woman hurried up to my tent, clearly excited about something. “I want to show you a picture!” she exclaimed. She pulled up a picture on her phone and showed me some bread she had made that was marbled with my fig jam. It was beautiful! I felt honored that she had used my jam to make something she was excited about. I wish I had asked her to send me that picture. I would have loved to have shared it with all of you.
- The day that I debuted my lemon jam, the vendor next to me saw several shoppers taste and purchase it. She asked me for a taste and she loved it so much that she began telling everyone that passed by to taste it. Then Scott walked by, Scott is a large, imposing man, and he is in charge of the market, He declined her invitation to taste my jam by saying, “I only like dark jam. Blueberry or blackberry. I don’t want any yellow stuff.” When he passed by later, I spoke up and asked him myself if he didn’t want to taste my new lemon jam. He begrudgingly agreed and shoved the sample into his mouth. Then the most amazing thing happened. In a very loud, booming voice he bellowed, “DAMN!” Every head turned to see what the matter was. I didn’t know if he was about to punch me, or what. His bellowing words that followed were, “THAT’S GOOD!” I sold a lot of lemon jam that day.
In Other News…
- Kumquat marmalade is back! Glen’s kumquat tree perished in a particularly harsh winter last year, but my friend Cynthia is our new kumquat donor! The marmalade from her tree’s kumquats is a little sweeter and a little less tart than Glen’s. It’s really delicious. Thank you, Cynthia!
- All of the summer jam (fig and pear) is sold out. But, as noted above, grapefruit jam and lemon jam are available now. Two perfect jams for Christmas.
- Orange jam is coming very soon. Be sure to watch the website. If anyone wants to be notified, let me know.
- Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!
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