Returning from a visit to our son and his family in their new Connecticut home, I carry a prize in my suitcase—a jar of my daughter-in-law’s incomparable homemade jam. After years in Southern California, where the climate provided an endless supply of fresh fruit and produce, it’s a big adjustment for her to move to New England. So with her two toddler sons in tow, she’s been exploring the autumn harvests of the region, looking for local fruits to jam and can. The family has already gone apple picking, an activity that tired the boys and provided lots of apples for homemade applesauce and pies. She transformed local pears into a jam flavored with cardamon—an unusual combination that enhanced the essential “pearness” of the fruit. As the stores stock up for Thanksgiving, her attention has turned to cranberries, and she’s been experimenting with variations on cranberry jam. Coming from a French family, I never developed a taste for traditional canned cranberry sauce—it tasted of too much sugar and acid with no subtlety at all. As an adult, I learned to make a decent cranberry-orange sauce to satisfy the turkey dinner requirement, but I wouldn’t list cranberries among my favorite foods or connect them with buttered toast in the morning. Sampling her first batch of cranberry jam was a revelation. It was so unlike any cranberry I’ve ever tasted that, if I had been blindfolded, I would not have known what fruit I was tasting. It was subtly sweet with a slight acid bite and a rich, dark berry flavor enhanced by the compliment of star anise. The color was not red but deep, dark purple. I was smitten. Now, as I get back into my morning routine, I just can’t resist opening my precious jar. I’m so grateful my daughter-in-law is willing to share her jam!
I should add that under her pseudonym, Libby Waterford, she creates witty and sexy romance novels. She continues to write and publish, despite the energy it takes to raise two lively boys and make luscious jam. I really don’t know how she does it!