Blueberry Tutti Frutti Hyssop Honey Jam

Back from a five-year hiatus! And it’s still great—somehow straightforward and delicate at the same time. Enjoy!

This flavor is only possible when tutti frutti hyssop (an Agastache) comes through. Every year, Amy and I purchase 20-30 tutti frutti hyssop plants. Most don’t survive the spring, but if V Smiley Preserves has stumbled on any secret ingredients, the tutti fruity hyssop flower blossoms are it! Our annual fumbling for this plant is worth it. The purple-pink blossoms drive two V Smiley Preserves flavors: Black Velvet Gooseberry Summer Flowers and Blueberry Tutti Frutti Hyssop.

We’ve worked with seedlings and/or plants that arrive bare root (the toughest to revive). One year Red Wagon Plants brought in 25 tutti frutti hyssop “plugs” for us. Julie, Red Wagon’s owner, is super focused on herbs and wanted to share the plant with her customers. Aphids consumed those plugs before we could even get them out in the field.

What I’m trying to say is, damn, I feel lucky to say that we have a tutti frutti hyssop harvest this year! Because there was no gooseberry crop and definitely no Black Velvet Gooseberries for Summer Flowers Jam, we channeled all the tutti frutti from this year to Blueberry Tutti Frutti Hyssop Jam. And as you may have guessed, this flavor is certainly a limited run!