Prepping for a Produce Show

The other week one of the lovely builders working on a project at the farm right now informed me that in a neighbouring village they would be holding a little competition and that of course I should enter a jam.

I have never entered a produce show but my feed has been full of American blue ribbon winners ( these are generally baking competitions at state fairs across the US), which has got me in a competitive spirit. Now this produce show had many different categories you could enter such as floral decorations, arts and crafts, vegetable and home economics. Immediately I started thinking about what jams I could submit and maybe also a marmalade. I have also decided to enter one of the Italian variety of cucumbers we've been growing, they've been excellent this year so crisp and delicious but I don't know what they will be judged on. 

When it came to the jams and marmalades I was allowed to submit two different types per category, they wanted them with no visible names or logos so I knew I couldn't rely on pretty packaging and branding to give me the edge. So I've got to concentrate on the flavour profiles, now do I do something traditional or something a bit out there? Or maybe I should do both options. I went through the jams I had already made to date to see if there were any I wanted to use or tweak.

One of these was a good simple fig jam. I went to make my fig jam with fresh purple figs from the trees at the farm, except this time I steeped some earl grey tea and left the fruit and tea sit overnight. My intension was to give the same a subtle floral dimension and not for it to taste strongly of tea. It cooked up perfectly and I'm so happy with the results, so this jam has been selected for the judges.

Next I was thinking a marmalade, not something I have done before. I decided on a lemon marmalade to be ✨ different✨. I saw online the idea of rooibos and lemon marmalade so I went through my vast tea collection and found a warm floral red tea which I thought would work perfectly. Red teas are very low in tannins so you avoid that unpleasant bitter aftertaste. 

Lastly, I wanted to make a blackberry jam while the hedgerows were heaving with them. I went to make my first batch of blackberries and lemon balm jam but of course the door rang and I went to grab a delivery and the jam caught and burnt. Once there is the smallest amount of burnt sugar the whole jam tastes like it. So I went back to the hedges and started picking again, this time I saw a bramble growing in an elder tree. If you have watched the last season of The Bear on Disney+, there was a lot of "what grows together goes together" so in that spirit I thought that I would combine them.

I'm looking forward to the upcoming competition next weekend and however it goes it will be a great experience and lesson for next year.

If you wanted to come and check it out it's:

Redmarley Village Hall, GL19 3HS
Saturday 14th September, 2024