Preserves and Pickles

We've added a food preservation page to the website because we're doing a lot of it these days.

I'm going to try to keep the page updated with the latest jams and other tasty stuff we're cooking up. If you're interested in tasting some goodness, send us an email.

Here's what we've got currently:

Myrtle Street Plum Butter 7.11.2011

Ingredients: Plums, sugar

Karuna called and told us about the plum tree dropping tons of fruit into their backyard. We went over to check it out, and after an hour or so climbing around, we ended up with 30 pounds of super-ripe plums. We let the fruit cook down overnight and ended up with a deliciously tart and plummy thick butter. We've been eating it with creme fraiche on baguette french toast. Mighty good.

Tilden Wild Blackberry Jam 7.25.2011

Ingredients: Wild blackberries, sugar

Lauren and I went up to Tilden Regional Park to pick the berries for this jam. We collected about 10 pounds, from three different locations, and ended up with 14 jars worth. We'll be back up there later in the summer for another round.

Berkeley Hills Wild Plum Jam 7.25.201

Ingredients: Wild plums, brown sugar, white sugar, vanilla, and lemon

You're wild! Lauren and I found the fruit for this jam while we were looking for blackberries in the hills above the Berkeley campus. I climbed up into a tree and harvested a gallon of cherry-sized plums. We took some to the Berkeley Botanical Garden along with a branch to confirm they weren't poisonous. They told us that the plums had most likely "escaped" and some point, and were now just growing wild on the hills. We made the jam using mostly brown sugar instead of the white stuff, and also added vanilla and lemon juice. The result is a smoother, sweeter plum flavor with hints of caramel and vanilla. We ended up with only 3 jars of this goodness, but we're already planning a return trip to the hills for more plums.

Dirt Foot Farm Homegrown Strawberry Jam

(coming soon)

Dirt Foot Farm Double Berry Jam

(coming soon)