V Smiley Preserves Strawberry Black Currant Rosemary Jam

This berry-red jam is leaps and bounds better than the sickly-sweet jams populating grocery store shelves these days. It’s complex in flavor—expertly balancing herbs and flowers to enhance the fresh, Vermont-grown fruit packed into every jar. Not too thick or too runny, it’s studded with generous pieces of berry, for a jam that tastes like a summer evening: sophisticated, with the gentle botanical nuance of rosemary. Rather than overpowering the strawberries and currants, it creates a feeling of nibbling fresh berries while sitting on a porch next to an herb garden or pine tree. Never too sweet, the tart fruits are rich and juicy thanks to the black currant. Although it’s much more challenging than incorporating standard sugar, honey adds a special complexity you won’t find in nearly any other jam.

​ [/description-break] Ingredients [/title]Ingredients: Organic/no spray strawberry, blackcurrant, honey, lemon juice, rosemary[/accordion] Specifications [/title]​Net Weight: 6 ounces
Place of Origin: Vermont, U.S.A.[/accordions-break]While most jam makers might think honey is too strong a flavor to use in fruit preserves, V Smiley uses the natural sweetener expertly—honoring its intrinsic link to the fruit-growing process.[/banner_heading]And just like the fruit and herbs that are the base for her lovely preserves (which she and her partner cultivate on her Vermont family farm), Smiley insists that the honey she uses be local, too. It’s made by bees that pollinate only within the state. Her elegant, well-balanced flavors feature a judicious use of interesting ingredients like wild herbs and flowers. The result? The most complex, uncommon, deeply flavorful fruit preserves that capture the taste of spring and summer days.[/banner-text-break]Spread this jam on buttered toast, halved biscuits and warmed scones—it’s especially lovely when paired with whipped cream or clotted cream. It’s wonderful on pound cake and as a filling for crêpes and cookies like our Coconut-Almond Macaroons with Cherry Preserves—just replace the preserves with the jam—and slathered on our Portuguese Cornbread (Broa), as the rosemary brings out the nuttiness of the flours. Smear it on hunks of soft cheeses like brie or aged ones like gouda. It’s also fantastic in cocktails: Adding a spoonful to your shaker imparts both sweetness and flavor. Try this in a gin-based early-summer cocktail, as the rosemary and juniper play nicely together.[/how-to-use-break]