With all of our seasonal bounty of produce from our garden, I've been making jams like a mad woman in the kitchen. I've been experimenting with different recipes to use up whatever excess produce we've have on hand from turning into compost waste. After several weeks of jamming, we had enough jam varieties for our first sales event.
Cautious, but optimistic, I set up a table in a tent in my friend's backyard in Warrensburg for the "World's Largest Garage Sale". This is an annual town-wide event where the town is inundated with tourists, antique dealers, vendors, junk collectors, and hoarders all looking to either sell or score their unique items. Granted, it was downright miserable weather for a garage sale. It was cold and rainy the whole weekend. Straight from Friday through Sunday, it was socked right in. I was wearing thermals and plenty of layers to stay warm! Given the poor weather, the event wasn't as well attended as years past.
We offered free tastings to see what folks liked or didn't like, to obtain general feed back. I was most impressed with the warm reception of the volunteer tasters with their honesty, kindness, and helpful suggestions. For instance, this year was the year of the cucumber. Not sure why, but we've been overrun with them. Burnt on pickling, I found a cucumber lime jam recipe to try. I have to say, it's a highly unique taste. My husband Bob loves it because it's not so sweet, it has more of a tangy limey bite to it instead. Some of the friendly taste testers offered suggestions to serve it with Caronas (fab idea!) or with tortilla chips (another fab idea!). I personally was ready to scrap it all together, but after receiving the helpful feedback, I'm going to assume that it just takes someone with a discerning palate to enjoy.
More surprisingly, the best selling flavors at the event were the Garlic and Onion Jam, followed by the Cantaloupe Jam, and then the Bluebarb Jam! Who knew! I would have guessed the Raspberry or Blueberry Jams would have been the winners. Needless to say, I am so grateful to my friends and the generous taste testers and buyers who made A & B Farm's first sales event a huge success! I am so happy with the results, that I'm going to get jammin and crank out some more and new recipes to gear up for another event in the next few weeks!
