Slow Food

Fresh from the pot: Sabjimata Tangerine Strawberry Conserve Hot strawberries perfume the air. Everything is covered with the most pleasurable stickiness of combined fruit and sugar. Measuring spoons and stirring spoons. Big pots with their big lids. The Pyrex measuring cup. Anything involved in the process of jam making is not exempt, including the skin of my wrists and the fine hairs on my knuckles. Thankfully it is all water soluble. Thankfully the smell is lighter than air and permeates my entire house. Unlike the heavy smell of deep frying or the heady smell of pan frying mustard seed, ginger and chili peppers, the ... Read Full Story

Recently I've gotten a few emails from old customers looking to replenish their Sabjimata stock. Sad that I've taken the store offline and living miles upon miles away from my home base, they want to my jam. Whatever I have left. Below is a list of what I still have in stock. Some flavors are rarer than others*. Blueberry Vanilla Bean Conserve*Sweet & Sour Cherry ConserveSaffron Cardamom Peach Conserve*Strawberry Jam*Peach Vanilla Bean Conserve*Heavy Rose Petal SyrupCherry Sauce*Anise Cherry Sauce*Bengali Mild Chili Pickle* Everything is $8. Some of the labels are a little smudgey or otherwise imperfect. For the record, for something to be labelled ... Read Full Story

Tonite was a busy nite at the Hare Krishna Temple. I had new flavors of jam for sale, including Tangerine Persimmon Marmalade, Orange Vanilla Bean Cardamom Jam, astringent Persimmon Jam and Saffron Vanilla Bean Persimmon Jam. Their colorful jars were a welcomed addition to the table, providing an eye catching display. As usual, the gluten kabobs sold out fast. No matter how many I make, they quickly go, leaving latecomers disappointed and vowing to visit me earlier in the nite next week to buy some. This week, in addition to a double quantity of Harriet's (filled with Muscadine Grape Jelly, Gooseberry Jam, Saffron Vanila ... Read Full Story

Okay. So this is pretty cool. Jam runner, Hari  Priya Sunday the jam drop finally went down between me and Hari Priya. Hari Priya is Jahnavi's jam runner (not quite). I know Jahnavi from the blog world and met her in real life this summer when she visited Gita Nagari. Jahnavi, also known as " that British Girl ," greatly appreciated the meager sample sized jar of Rose Petal Jam I gave her to take back home to enjoy. Being a total sweetheart, she picked up a jar of fig conserve for me when she was visiting Radhadesa in Belgium. She visited Alachua at ... Read Full Story

Rose Petal Jam makes me happy. The smell of it cooking. The transformation from fluffy flower to cooked jam. The suspension of petals behind glass. It's all a sort of simple magic--transforming a centerpiece into a condiment. Just add sugar and stir! Before This week I have "tweezers" on my shopping list. While I have a set of kitchen scissors, which I tend to use only when making artichokes, I don't know why kitchen tweezers never caught on. I will use my tweezers to extract any errant greenery floating in my boiling pot of rose petals. Right now I just have to plunge my ... Read Full Story