Could I possibly spend all day thinking about fruit textures? Was this real work? I was a young cook looking for a home in the food world. The work of Jane Grigson (Jane Grigson’s Fruit Book), Pam Corbin (the River Cottage Preserving Handbook) and Christine Ferber (Mes Confitures), their seriousness, the warmth, their success, said yes, you could build a home here.
This year I’m celebrating 10 years of making V Smiley Preserves. 10 years of exploring and stretching what flavors and textures are possible with just fruit, honey and aromatics. Now I also run a restaurant that celebrates preserves in food. Day to day, with both businesses, I think constantly about how I got here.
While I learned to make jam from Rachel Saunders, first came an obsession with preserving and a search for strong voices carving out a food home where I could picture myself living too. I ended up thinking of fruit as this glorious, sweet and bright kingdom where I’d like to stay forever. Why will I never give up on finding forced rhubarb in the spring? How did I end up feeling confident that food is a respectable, serious and professional realm that must include women at every level and that producing and balancing flavors around fruit and vegetables was going to be my specialty? One of the reasons I can do my work today is because of the Grande Dames of Fruit.
While I have a fan relationship to the voices of Grigson, Corbin and Ferber, it also just feels good to remember and honor who lives inside our imagination. Jane Grigson isn’t a household name, but she occupies the same realm as Elizabeth David, trailblazing in a very male food space during the midcentury. Corbin and Ferber have influenced and taught fruit-craft to a generation of jam makers and small-batch companies. Let’s raise our jars to them!
Pam Corbin
Pam Corbin — aka Pam the Jam — got her start more than 30 years ago with the Thursday Cottage preserves company; in the decades since, she's taught a generation of budding preservationists how to approach an entire season of produce. Pam is the voice in my head in July when redcurrants and scented geranium reign.
Raspberry Redcurrant Geranium Jam
A lot of fruit combinations are lovely, but raspberries and currants together are exceptional. I collect raspberries and Redcurrants all summer from places like The Farm Between, our farm and loads of berries from Omar Fugaro's farm on E. Munger St. in Middlebury (the next town over from here). A light infusion of scented rose geranium (grown in our gardens) at the end ignites this flavor into something heady, something special.
This jam is especially good with fresh goat cheese and in baking projects.
A Good Food Award Winner!
Jane Grigson
I found Jane Grigson’s Fruit Book in the Langley Library on Whidbey Island. I felt like I’d met the boss. Grigson’s encyclopedic work — equal parts intimidating and inspiring — taught me fruit's tendencies and qualities, its rules and potential. Grigson made me want to get to work.
Lavender Blackberry Rhubarb Jam
Tangy and sweet with Munstead, Phenemonal, and Elegance lavender blossoms folded into the jam. This flavor lives fully in the traditional jam flavor category so it makes a great gift and it’s going to be very at home on your toast with ricotta or just some salty cultured butter. For cheese pairing, try it with ash-veined goat milk cheese.
Christine Ferber
Christine Ferber's book, Mes Confitures, and specifically her maceration method, gave jam makers the keys to the cupboard. Hers is a world of jewel fruit and juice set into gossamer textures. She writes about fruit from Alsace that I’ll never taste, (like those black cherries) and every pot of our cherry preserves is a little love letter to her work.
Cherry Rosehip Hibiscus Jam
A truly balanced, fruity cherry jam. This jam lives on the sweeter end of the V Smiley Preserves flavor spectrum, which is to say, far less sweet than commercial jam, but sweet enough to always be a best-seller. It's a crowd pleaser and the hibiscus and rosehips keep it real, spotlighting the tart & juicy side of the cherry character.
An all-rounder for eating with cheese, this jam pairs with bloomy rinds (Brie) to alpine styles and washed rinds.
About the Artist: Michael Doyle
Photo by Brooke Fitts
I know Michael from working in Seattle restaurants together.
Three of Michael Doyle’s specialties are portraits of book covers, food still lifes and portraits of iconic women. Nostalgia infuses his work - I was just sure that he would love Jane Grigson and capture the literary, food-fueled spirit of these women.
Exclusive Partnership with Formaggio Kitchen
In the early days of establishing V Smiley Preserves on the East Coast after relocating from Seattle, WA, I sent out box upon box of preserves to any shop that sold a whisper of cheese. Of course, Formaggio Kitchen sells more than a whisper of cheese! They hold a whole cheese cave inside their Cambridge flagship. Securing placement on Formaggio’s shelves felt like one of those “maybe I’m arriving” moments for V Smiley Preserves. This is the kind of shop that you read about as a character inside novels set in Boston. Formaggio is an institution. The shop has an especially impressive and comprehensive preserves selection, carrying small producers from all over the world and approaching this category like they approach cheese, which is rare in a specialty shop. Part of this must have to do with their general manager and now owner, Julia Hallman. Julia has been my buyer and the main point of contact for years. Over time, I learned that Julia is a total jam head and fruit lover, making jam on her days off and sharing that knowledge through classes at Formaggio. She grew up on a farm in Eastern Washington and some of her earliest food memories are picking blackberries and making jam.
When I thought about a retail partner for launching the Grande Dames of Fruit, I immediately thought of Formaggio, a shop staffed with passionate and approachable food nerds. Julia is going to know who Jane Grigson, Pam Corbin and Christine Ferber are, I thought to myself. Julia is going to understand their significance to the craft of preserving fruit.
You can find our limited edition Grande Dames of Fruit Trio at Formaggio in Boston and Cambridge.
