Evolution of (Tomato) Flavor
I learned to make jam from Rachel Saunders. In her classes, she passed around a jar of her jam company’s tomato preserves. "This is our bestseller" she'd say. I thought the product was completely novel. I didn’t know that tomato jam is a traditional late harvest preserve. Makes sense! Its proportions haul through fruit -13 lbs whole fruit makes just 9 jars.
Tomatoes are easy to get. In Seattle, it felt like every restaurant worth their beans ordered “Billy’s Tomatoes” from Tonasket, WA. A tomato seller always has seconds and as soon as V Smiley Preserves became an official company in August of 2013, I bought as many boxes of #2 Billy’s tomatoes as I could afford and started cooking my version of Rachel’s tomato jam. I stripped out the spices, honing the recipe down to tomato, honey, salt, and lemon juice. Was it a bestseller at the farmer's market for us? Not at all. Did I make more of it than any flavor? Yes. It did fine but no crazy numbers.
In year 2 of VSP, Seattle's London Plane restaurant/market put us on their shelves. Mentally, I’d started to move “off (cook)book” with flavor development at V Smiley Preserves. I’d developed a little bit of confidence. I added more salt and increased the lemon juice in the tomato jam, pushing the flavor intensity like we would in a restaurant kitchen. I cooked the jam longer, creating a caramel flavor element. The texture thickened. People noticed and started to say the tomato jam was good. People were also asking for something spicy. The phrase “do you have a pepper jam” ties with “I love fig jam” for most uttered questions at the farmers market. I didn’t have a good answer to either question.
VSP’s early days - we started with a big jam party and sale (at our Seattle apartment) where I shared a year of research and development and moved onto the West Seattle Farmers Market (and a very lo-fi display, yeeesh) while starting a couple wholesale accounts like this little collection for sale at The Whale Wins in Fremont.
VSP’s Spicy Jam
Moving to a new climate in VT created the opportunity to develop fresh flavors. I used that time to revisit existing flavors too. Rachel’s words, “tomato jam is a bestseller” still rung. Maybe the tomato jam could become VSP’s spicy jam? By this time, tomato jam was ketchup to me (a no sugar person since 2007 because of a funky tummy). I dabbed hot dogs in tomato jam, dipped bacon, built egg and potato breakfasts. My time cooking in restaurants introduced me to the beautiful chili peppers Urfa and Maras (also sold as Aleppo and Silk). The Urfa lent a black dappling to the tomato jam. Urfa's chocolate and sour tones blended perfectly with the sweet and salty tomato jam.
The Maras pepper gave some heat but I wanted more. My partner Amy had started saving Bulgarian Pepper seed for our yearly Peach Bulgarian Pepper Tomato Jam production and I loved this chili’s heat and fruitiness. All these elements came together in 2016 to be Smoky Spicy Heirloom Tomato Jam and now, living in rural Vermont, we grew all the tomatoes for the jam.
The flavor’s popularity started to rise. A customer bought two cases in the fall “to get them through the year”. That was very exciting.
The Good Food Award Winner
In 2019 Smoky Spicy Heirloom Tomato won a Good Food Award. It was our first win. All the tomatoes and half the peppers came from Amy. And then very quickly we couldn’t grow enough tomatoes for this flavor. Flash forward to now and we process approximately 3,000 lbs of organic tomatoes from 3 different farms between August and October. My yearly goal is to keep tomato flavors in stock into the holidays. That’s our pantry promise.
Thank you so much for loving these flavors and wrapping them into your meals. I love to hear what you have planned for this year’s tomato jam haul.
Create This Spread at Home
Piece together your own set of linens and jams, or pick up our Tomato Jams bundle complete with a 2oz jar each of our popular tomato jams and the sweet tomato linen tea towel from Moontea.
