• May 28th, 2015
• Comments Off on Behind the Jar – Our Red Pepper Jelly

We’ve noticed only our ‘winning’ preserves garner most of the limelight, but we do a whole slew of canned goods that deserve a few words written about them just as much as those with special stickers. This, then, is the first of those; a bit about it, its origins, and why it deserves its spot on our production calendar.

Our Red Pepper Jelly, as it stands now, came to be through tireless work and frustration. To make sense of the story – we must say that we aren’t firm believers in store bought pectin and most of that has to do with our preservationist‘s animosity toward the thickening agent. It was during her time in Tennessee she first tried making a pectin-free pepper jelly, but it never came out right. The problem with many pepper jellies is that they are quite clunky – too much vinegar and sugar, usually much too much pectin and just ‘some’ peppers. Our pepper jelly, in its infancy, was made with the same packaged pectin, but Melaine made it her mission to make it better. Nay, perfect. In 2013, when summer apples were available from Mick Klug Farms at the same time hot peppers – it clicked. The timing could not have been better – the sweet and tart apples provide a balanced acidity, the natural apple pectin allows for an even jelly that isn’t too firm. The structure, acidity, and sweetness then become part of the overall chemistry of the Pepper Jelly and not simply filler.

So that means our Pepper Jelly isn’t just a blob of mildly spicy goo, but a nice spreadable amalgamation of local ingredients with a focus on making an end product that heightens all the best parts of the jelly. It’s a nice dance of sweet, spicy, and acid – it’s a delicate flavor depth that is impossible to ignore. We spread it on our breakfast sandwiches in the café, mixed into vinaigrettes, and used it in just about every meal of the day. Get your jar, eat out of season, and get a taste of what honestly made preserves are like.

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