jgarbee

Re-CAP Plastic Mason Jar Lids

If you're a fervent canner and preserver, twiddling your thumbs until that next Master Food Preservers class begins, the plastic Re-CAP Mason jar lid (a pour cap lid for your Mason jars) might be just the diversion you need.

Bonus: While you're waiting for your lids to arrive, the website is filled with "wide mouth" jar lid updates and FAQs to get the ideas flowing ("My spout lid is tight, what can I do?") as well as a brief history of the mason jar. And -- Are you ready for this? -- a link to the original patent documents for the Mason jar (inventor Karen Rzepecki is currently awaiting patent approval).

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J. Ritz

Jessica Koslow of Sqirl behind the revamped counter

If there was ever a moment in which L.A.'s community of small-scale artisanal food and coffee makers located east of Vermont spontaneously coalesced, it would be hard to rival the soft opening at Sqirl café featuring G&B coffee service this morning. If someone looked vaguely familiar, odds were strong that he/she has been responsible for your morning caffeination and pastry needs at a café, and/or operates some sort of food business within a few miles.

With a team of expert pros including sous chef Ria Wilson, formerly of Canelé, jam maker/food preserver extraordinaire Jessica Koslow has stylishly refashioned her production space at the corner of Virgil and Marathon in East Hollywood (some call it Silver Lake, whatever) to accommodate a coffee bar and compact kitchen serving breakfast and lunch items. Meanwhile, the exceptional sweet and savory preserves she's known for will continue to come from the same facility.

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JGarbee

Coldwater Canyon Provisions Jams

In today's era of trendy compotes and 10-ingredient jellies, Coldwater Canyon Provisions takes a refreshingly old-school approach to their preserves and pickles that hint at simpler jam and jelly times. Flavors include watermelon jelly, raspberry and strawberry-rhubarb jam, and pickled okra, beets and dilled green tomatoes.

All the more endearing: Co-owners Rondo Mieczkowski and Danny Barillaro seem truly tickled by their 2010 California State Fair blue ribbon for that strawberry-rhubarb jam (it's usually front and center at events like the Renegade Craft Fair, where we caught up with them recently). They also donate a portion of their sales to Under the Bridges and On the Streets (@Lunch4Homeless), a nonprofit that provides food, clothing, and services for L.A.'s homeless.

Get more on their jams, and suggestions for using up those last spoonfuls (Cocktails! Salad dressing!), after the jump.

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JGarbee

Box of Blenheim Apricots From See Canyon Farm

If you haven't tasted this year's stone fruit crop -- peaches, apricots, any of them -- you must. It really is some of the best we've tasted in years. And an open invitation to make jam. A requirement, actually, when you finally resign yourself to the reality that you cannot possibly eat your way through a 25-pound box of Blenheim apricots before they spoil.

Jam isn't particularly difficult to make: Combine the fruit with some sugar, cook it, can it. You can add citrus juices for tang, herbs, whatever you want, really. And if you're more interested in the cooking than canning side, jam freezes quite well in small portions, a 6-month supply of tart filling, ice cream and fruit sauce inspiration. But even the simplest recipes are layered with subtleties. "How 'jammy' do you want your stone fruit?" asked Mike Cirone of See Canyon farm in San Luis Obispo when we picked up our discounted "jam box" of apricots at the Santa Monica Farmers Market. "A little jammy, more jammy?"

Well, we weren't sure. So we asked Amy Deaver of Lemon Bird Handmade Jams, who was up to her elbows in stone fruit jam making recently (and makes some pretty fantastic jams -- if you find yourself in a flavor inspiration rut, try her apricot-sage honey-pistachio jam). Get Deaver's tips after the jump.

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amazon

The publisher's description of The Art of Fermentation: An In-Depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes from Around the World is about as boastful in the book world as it gets: "The Art of Fermentation is the most comprehensive guide to do-it-yourself home fermentation ever published."

Here, it is spot-on.

This 500-page, prose-heavy manual is more an encyclopedia than an actual cookbook, meaning you won't find pretty photographs of homemade yogurt hanging out with beautiful cherry jams inside.

What you will find is a forward by Michael Pollan. And the only resource guide you will ever need for all of your soy sauce, sorghum beer, tempeh and hamanatto (whole fermented soybean "nuggets") weekend fermenting dreams. A Master Food Preservers-worthy guide to fermenting everything edible -- and some things that are not.

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jgarbee

Marmalade at the Huntington Library

The Huntington Library may be best known for its botanical gardens and art collection, but in the museum's kitchen, the citrus trees on the property are the main draw for the onsite chefs, who make some pretty fantastic marmalade from the fruit.

If you're a Huntington regular, you probably already know that the San Marino property was originally a working ranch with citrus groves, fruit orchards and various other crops. Which gets us to that really great marmalade.

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A. Scattergood

Short Order's fried dill pickle chips

What is a fried dill pickle chip supposed to taste like? If you have been to The Penguin Drive-In, a circa-1950s roadhouse in the Plaza-Midwood district in Charlotte, N.C., you know there are four steps that elevate this crispy, Southern-style snack food with zero nutritional value to total greatness: The slices of brined cucumber must be immersed in a buttermilk bath (some say the pickle chips must receive a good soaking while others insist they should take only the briefest of dips in a pool of clabbered milk batter); the chips must not hit the deep-fat fryer until the second the server can be heard screeching out your ticket item to the hulking fry cook; the crust must be light, crunchy and almost tempura-like; and, lastly, your order must come with a side of Ranch dressing.

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Flickr/comeundone

Jam, Toast or Confiture?

Bill Manning of High Desert Foods is the epitome of the organic apples-to-applesauce businessman. He's the sort of guy who cares about the broader societal and environmental impact of what he produces, yet he also appreciates that increasing the market value of a food product (heritage turkeys, bison, grass-fed beef and, sure, fruit-forward jams) is the quickest way to bring it back from near extinction.

Shortly after the Michigan-born ecologist bought a Durango, Colo., produce farm in 1999, he realized that simply selling his organic fruit the old-fashioned way wasn't going to make ends meet with the low profit margins. As he says on his website, "For small-scale farmers who are trying to compete in an economy that values food for how cheaply it can be produced, the principle of 'in diversity there is stability' translates into two strategies: first, having a diverse crop mix; and second, turning some portion of our harvest into 'shelf-stable' products."

For that shelf-stable side, he launched High Desert Foods with the help of Deborah Madison (yes, that Deborah Madison). Technically, Manning makes jams, only legally he can't call them jams because the jars are packed so full of fresh fruit. Ah, the red-tape breakfast table fun. Still thinking about starting an artisan food business? Manning (and Madison) both have plenty of advice.

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Felicia Friesema

Farmers markets and the vendors who populate them with table-bending piles of bumper crops and hard-to-find seasonal produce rarely sell every last item before it's time to collapse the pop-up tents and head home. Portlandian pickle jokes aside, what do farmers do with all those extra berries, tomatoes and apples?

Before you immediately let loose the cry of "Donate!" (and many farmers do exactly that), remember this food is their livelihood. A few have cleverly extended the sellable period of their produce by making their own preserves, butters and salsas and offering them for sale. Aching for a taste of summer Blenheim apricots? In January? Want a quick foodie gift of California-grown orange marmalade for the snowbound aunt in New England? Or maybe the idea of grinding your own almond butter seems about as rewarding as data entry? Your local farmers have some great products on the tables, and a lot of it is in jars. We've zeroed in on five of them who offer some outstanding jarred preserves made from what they grow.

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With the resurgence in pickling and preserving, Los Angeles County's revived Master Food Preserver (MFP) program is all the rage. The MFP, which we first reported on back in January, is taking applications for the spring 2012 class. Open to L.A. County residents, the 12-week session covers canning, pressure canning, freezing, drying and fermenting.

This isn't for the casual jam-maker. This is a serious course of study that requires a serious commitment. The class runs Tuesday nights (5:30 - 9:30 p.m.) from March 20 to June 5. After completing the class, graduates are expected to perform at least 30 hours of volunteer work a year. Apply online by February 10 at 5 p.m.

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