Jam Making: True Confessions of a Locavore
A couple months back, Market Manager Martha and I were invited to teach a cooking class at the Playa Vista Public Library. Our class was scheduled in the after-school bracket, and we were encouraged to make it both engaging for adults and accessible for kids. We settled on strawberry jam with thyme and honey. Strawberries are almost always in season, and jam is easy to make—but the honey and thyme in this recipe lend it sophistication. This jam will do on a PBJ, but it just begs to be paired with a bloomy rind cheese.
We decided to get our strawberries from C&L, thyme from Backyard Organic, our honey from LSG, and a lemon (to balance out the flavor) from Pedro's.
Pectin, a fiber found in the cell walls of many plants, is what gives jams their sticky consistency. Strawberries don't have much—but apples do! We got apples from YNT and practiced simmering their peels until our jam jelled, and the strawberry-honey-thyme balance was something we wanted to show off. We and our jam were set.
And then it started raining, torrentially.
Many foodies (of which, I'm one) will tell you never to wash a strawberry. With a thin, porous skin, they're little fruit sponges. When they get washed, or rained on, they get water logged, go bland. When they stay wet for days on end their flavor wains, drains, and they rot. The purpose of this jam class was to showcase cooling with local produce, but after five days of heavy rains, there wasn’t a fresh pint of strawberries to be found in local markets. But purchasing berries from the supermarket felt like a betrayal. We were beginning to despair, and then we checked our freezers!
Both Martha and I are in the habit of buying extra, and preserving produce. Together, we had enough frozen strawberries to make a large batch of jam! Whats more, having been frozen at their prime, they were bursting with flavor. Eight showed up for our jam making class in the library, and after stirring and chopping, each took home a jar of local jam: all because we planned ahead.
It's April again, and—again—it's easy to be a locavore. The sun is shining, she skies are blue, and artichokes and asparagus are popping up in farmers' markets. This is the time—just weeks out of winter—to think of the future. This week at the farmers’ market, I’m planning to buy an extra pint of strawberries, an extra bunch of asparagus, and an extra bag of fava beans, to pickle or preserve or stick in the freezer for a rainy day. Being a locavore doesn't have to mean going without. You can have your favorite produce all year long (and eat it too), as long as you prepare.
STRAWBERRY THYME JAM
Adapted from thekitchn.com
Makes 1 pint
INGREDIENTS
1 quart organic strawberries (approximately 3 cups)
3/4 cup honey
5 sprigs thyme
Peels from two organic apples
Squeeze of lemon
INSTRUCTIONS
Place a saucer or small plate in the freezer
Wipe strawberries with damp towel (avoid rinsing if possible). De-stem strawberries, halve them and crush them with your fingers.
Peel apples (aim for broad, thick peels that will be easy to remove from the jam later)
Strip thyme leaves from stem
Put strawberries, honey, apple peels, thyme and lemon in copper or stainless steel pot over high heat. Mash with potato masher until strawberries are evenly smashed
Bring to a bubble and cook over high heat for 6-10 minutes, stirring often. If you have a candy thermometer, we are looking for the jam to reach 210ᵒ, if not perform the plate test!
(This trick comes from jam master Jessica Koslow’s cookbook, “Everything I want to Eat, Sqirl and the New California Cooking.”) Spoon a dollop of jam on a frozen saucer and put it back in the freezer for one minute. Swipe your finger through the jam. If the jam parts and does not run back together — it’s ready! If not, keep put the plate back in the freezer, keep cooking the jam, try again in a few minutes.
When the plate test tells you you’re done, pick apple peels out of jam with a fork, and funnel hot jam into a clean pint jar. Your jam will keep for months in the fridge!
Aubrey Yarbrough is the Community Development Manager for Farmer Mark. Before moving to LA she ran her own organic farm and cooked on the garde manger station of the award winning Elements restaurant in Princeton, NJ. She has contributed poetry to New American Writing and prose to Edible Jersey.