Celebrate spring with seasonal confections

By Brook Larios

We’re on the cusp of the spring equinox, says Mother Nature who’s boldly making it known with this gorgeous weather. We may have lost a fleeting hour of sleep, but we gained precious daylight — important for the desk-strapped worker bees most of us are. With all the good that comes with the turning of the season, I like to think of it as a fertile period for rebirth.

Vow now to be good to yourself and your body by consuming the delicious fruits and vegetables that come with the spring territory and support local companies like Jackie’s Jams, which uses this bounty in an assortment of jams available at the Mission Hills and Hillcrest Farmers Markets and served at Jimmy Carter’s and Café 21. It’s also available at Hanna’s Gourmet and Twiggs, the latter of which serves the blackberry on French toast and places a dollop of the raspberry on its peanut butter and jelly cupcakes. Additionally, Mariposa Ice Cream serves a special Jackie’s Jams sauce and Green Butterfly Florist on Adams Avenue now sells jars of Jackie’s Jams. The jam is also available at Whole Foods Hillcrest.

Launched by social worker turned jam-maker Jackie Anderson and her business partner Robert Shay, Jackie’s Jams produces freshly made jams in small batches. Anderson later sold her company to valued customer Dave Baron, most of whose fruit comes from local growers who employ organic practices. Anderson, who moved to the Midwest last year, used to say it was the good fruit God gave her via local growers that inspired her delicious confections. In fact, the ingredients list is little more than that.

Each jar of Jackie’s Jams contains fresh fruit, sugar and fruit pectin. Compare that to the high fructose corn syrup and regular corn syrup a jar of Smucker’s contains, among other ingredients.

When en route to the local farmers market consider standouts like apricot, mango, strawberry, strawberry-rhubarb, strawberry-chocolate, pineapple, guava and Triple Citrus Marmalade (Meyer lemon, orange and blood orange), produced by the rugged fruit that grows nearly year-round, with exception of a summer hiatus. Baron’s newest flavor is lavender plum lemon and one of his favorites is the decadent truffle fig. Pining for an off-season flavor? You could be in luck. Baron freezes some of his fruits for off-season use.

Learn more about Jackie’s Jams by visiting jackiesjams.com.