Jordan Champagne - It Starts with Fruit: Simple Techniques and Delicious Recipes for Jams, Marmalades, and Preserves

Text copyright 2020 by JORDAN CHAMPAGNE.
Photographs copyright 2020 by ERIN SCOTT.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 978-1-4521-7741-0 (epub, mobi)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available.

ISBN 978-1-4521-7358-0 (hardcover)

Prop styling by ERIN SCOTT.

Food styling by LILLIAN KANG.

Illustrations by GARY MARICICH.

Design by LIZZIE VAUGHAN.

Typset by KATY BROWN.

Typset in Circular, Mocha Mattari, and Typewriter Roman Code.

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People like to use the phrase master preserver. Master seems so final. Like one has the final say and has mastered something. But me? I am more of a student, a student who happens to be the teacher. I learn something in every workshop I teach and every question I answer. My work with fruit is a lifelong journey, not a static destination.

It all began one summer in Norway. I was there with my then-boyfriend, now-husband living on a small family farm. It was run by a homesteading couple with three young children striving to maintain their farm with their own hands and embrace a simpler lifestylenonelectric washing machine, milking cow, fruit and vegetable garden, hay in that everlasting sunshine of the northern-clime summer. No one was an expert at anything, and our evenings were filled with experiments in the kitchen and long philosophical debates. It was in this setting that I made my first batch of jam.

We had harvested a few pounds of vibrant strawberries from the patch earlier that day. The environment in this part of the worldthe air, water, and soilis so pristine that everything that grew there felt especially sacred to me. We brought the berries to the kitchen and combined them with equal parts white sugar. By this time in my life, I thought white sugar was the most horrifying ingredient one could add to food, but especially to these pristine berries. I asked, Do we have to add that much sugar? and the reply was, Yes, that is how you preserve the fruit. So in went the sugar and in went the challenge in my mind that there just has to be another way. A seed of doubt was planted deep in my soul that day.

Our experiments and travels continued, bringing us back to the Central Coast of California the following year. We started interacting with local organic farms by working farmers markets, doing Community Supported Agricultre (CSA) deliveries, harvesting flowers, and making bouquets. We lived on the edge of one of the most remote pieces of farmland in a tepee. It was that summer, when I had ample access to the abundant harvest, that my food preservation experiments became an obsession. I was inspired and overwhelmed by the abundance of amazing fruits and vegetables that would otherwise go to waste; it is the nature of doing anything on a large scale that ultimately something is not sold before the market is over or not harvested before the land needs to be tilled.

I was raised with a profound belief that one should not waste things and one should repair and restore that which is broken. My grandparents gave me a deep sense of gratitude, history, and properly caring for precious things. These local organic fruits and vegetables were the most precious things in my life. And so Happy Girl Kitchen Co. was born from those seeds. I was inspired to make local preserves with local organic apple cider vinegar; with local organic fruits, vegetables, and herbs; and with organic spices: Buy local, spice global. It became my own little local revolution to make the world a better place.

As life developed and I had our second child, I stopped working farmers markets and started teaching workshops. People always had so many questions for me about preserving. There seemed to be a whole world of what abouts and can Is. These questions pushed me to deepen my practice and understanding of preserving. I had come a long way from my initial batch of strawberry jam, from asking, Do I really need to add all that sugar? The answer is no. No, you do not need to add all that sugar, and no, it doesnt have to be white sugar.

I wrote this book in an effort to answer your questions about preserving. But I also have another agenda, and that agenda is to get you to play with your food. Life is just so much more fun if you enjoy yourself and experiment! I have a firm belief that people take cooking way too seriously and take all the fun out of it.

Time in the kitchen can be and should be fun. Eating is a common human experience; we have to do it to survive. It is not an optional activity. So I like to encourage people to use that to their advantage. Have fun with it and feel good about it. Food is such a great way to connect with friends, families, neighbors, and the community at large. Food can also be a way to connect with peoples and cultures youve never met. Harness this rich opportunity to connect, laugh, enjoy, and relax. My goal in writing this book is that you will become empowered to play with your fruit! I want you to be able to make jam while making dinner, or start a shrub experiment while you are cleaning up. Heat up the house with fruit butter in the oven while you are relaxing on the couch reading to your kids. Have a grape juicemaking party when your vine of backyard grapes is booming.

This book is very technique forward and full of my knowledge so that you can be liberated from recipes and understand how to create your own. Knowledge is power. Over the years, so many people have taken my workshops because they are afraid they are going to do something wrong and make unsafe food. Lets get rid of those fears.