About our Marmalades
All of our marmalades and preserves are homemade in the true sense of the word. Most of the fruit we use is grown on our own farm, and it is always fully ripe before we pick it. To achieve the very finest quality, we make our preserves in very small batches without the addition of pectin or any artificial ingredients. The result of our old-fashioned cooking method is a very fresh and richly-flavored product, far superior to any mass-produced preserves.
Where we began
My mother (Mary) blames me (Catherine) for the start of her business, because I was the one that reminded her of the wonderful preserves she made while we were growing up. She will tell you that she grew up in Vermont where her mother taught her at a very early age how to can and make preserves to store for the long cold winters. (I think it is in her bones to do this.)
My mom and dad moved to Santa Barbara in 1980 where they bought one of the early farmhouses in the area which came with a small orchard. After selling fresh fruit from the orchard at the local certified farmers' market for 12 years or so....my mother decided (after a bit of prodding from me) that she wanted to turn some of the fresh fruit into fine homemade preserves and marmalades. So, she set out to develop the best and freshest tasting recipes that would bring out the true flavor of the fruit. This meant there could be no compromise on the very small size of her batches and it meant no pectin or artificial ingredients, just fruit and sugar cooked down the old fashioned way in eight-quart pots.
To meet the standards of the local health department, she rented space in a commercial kitchen, but the hauling of 25# bags of sugar, bushels of fruit, cases of jars, cookpots, and all the rest became old very fast. So she set out to get approval for a commercial kitchen right on the farm behind the main house. How nice it is to run out to the orchard, pick the fruit, take it directly into the kitchen and turn it into preserves. Together, we keep our little kitchen busy.
Where we are today
Today, my mother continues to farm organically, harvesting fruit year round. After 21 years of hauling, setting up and selling at the local farmers' markets (as many as 3 per week) and 9 1/2 years of making and selling preserves she is retiring. (Bless her heart!)
However, many of our customers, since they can no longer buy our preserves, want to learn how to make them the way we do. So...........here we are doing workshops!
We are excited to have the opportunity to keep this old-fashioned preserve making method alive. There is nothing so satisfying as looking at the jars of preserves you have just made.
