It Starts with Fruit

Description

Jam-making gets a bad rap for being highly technical, complicated, messy, hot, and sticky. Most jam cookbooks are perceived as pretty, but too hard. This book challenges that assumption. It Starts With Fruit is an approachable preserving book from a great NorCal brand with a charming, encouraging name: Happy Girl Kitchen. Cofounder/author Jordan Champagne learned how to make jam while working on a farm, trying to use up fruits and vegetables that would otherwise go to waste. A freethinker who follows her own path and questions the status quo, she also challenged traditional preservation methods, developing techniques that are less complicated, fun rather than stressful, and more flavourful, with less sugar than many traditional methods. In this book are 5 master 'workshops' (jam, marmalade, drinks, pie fillings, and sauces & butters) and 70+ recipes for various fruit preserves, juices, syrups, shrubs, butters, fillings, chutneys, and dried and candied fruits, plus recipes for baked goods like thumbprint cookies, pocket tarts, and fruit cobbler. This package presents revolutionary techniques with a soft touch, but it's not a myth-busting book; rather, it's a technique-forward, beautiful, personality-driven preserving book.

Jordan Champagne is the cofounder and owner of Happy Girl Kitchen. Founded in 2002, Happy Girl started alongside Tartine and Miette at one of the Marin farmers' markets, selling salsa and pickles. It has since grown to offer a wide range of jams, pickles, and fermented products, is a weekly presence at the Saturday Ferry Building farmers' market, and has 3 retail shops.

"The sheer amount of the information in this book is astounding: Author Jordan Champagne breaks down the seasonality and uses of 28 different kinds of fruit-and provides tips on buying and storing. While jams and marmalades make up a big portion of the book, don't flip past the shrubs: These are the key to refreshingly tangy zero-proof drinks come summer. -Epicurious