510 Fruits: Fall Fruits

Welcome to 510 Fruits

510 Fruits came into existence because I love fruit and foraging and jam making. I love the bounty of seasonal produce and I came to love canning and jam making when I learned how hard it is to actually use all the fruit from a tree when it ripens. After processing my own backyard fruit, I began to see fruit everywhere I went. Thus the initiation into forage. Foraging in my neighborhood has taught me about the often overlooked bounty of our streets and backyards and has been a great way to meet neighbors, build community, and more efficiently share in the season's offerings.

As my love of fruit and jam has become an obsession, the stack of jam in my house has grown to waist high and wobbly. I realized I needed a way to get the jam out of my house as fast as I seem to be making it. Thus 510 Fruits and this attempt to share the variety of locally foraged and harvested fruits I have made into jams, marmalades, fruit butters and canned. Selling is not about making money, but just about covering the cost of jars and ingredients so that I can go on making more jam.

On the label, the byline "local forage" means the fruit is foraged from my yard, friends' and neighbors' yards, and streetside. The byline "local harvest" means I picked the produce at a local u-pick farm. Names also include more specific information, usually the street name of where the fruit originated.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Fall Fruits

Well it's been a quiet fall for me in terms of foraging and jam making. I've been on the road for work and pleasure more than ever before and sadly missed many a forage opportunity in my usual fall haunts. (I've currently got my eye out for olives, if anyone has a good spot!) It's a rather belated thought to offer up some fall harvest in a jar to all of you--but I do currently have some yummy persimmon, apple, pear and cherry offerings (see current flavors). These little jars would love a cozy stocking stuff, gift offering, or other excuse to relocate to your house and out of my cupboards. I'm hoping to do more forage and jam making (and less travel) in the spring, so keep your eyes out for new fabulous flavors coming soon. Happy End of 2011 and Welcome 2012!