When we started our jam making, it was purely a means to use up all the fruit from an old backyard Blenheim apricot tree we had. Never in those early days did it ever occur to us that it could become a full-fledged business.

There are so many people around the world who are intimately obsessed with some sort of food or alcohol production that is a sideline, seasonal, or simply (as in our case) necessary hobby.

And yet, if you make something that causes friends and strangers who taste your creation to swoon, the question always is: what next?

While there are some like us who have devoted tremendous time, money and resources into transforming a hobby into a profession, there are others who deliberately avoid this path.

For them, their secret passions are deliberately underground.

We will be focusing on the coming months on underground specialist producers. To meet the criteria, these people have to give away what they make and yet spend a significant amount of time and money on this passion. In terms of alcohol production, which if unregulated, is illegal, we will be very careful to shield their identities. For less innocuous pleasures, such as baking, pickling, etc. we can be a little more forthright about who they are if they so choose.

The line drawn is sales. If you make something unregulated and sell it you are a sitting duck to get in trouble with the law. If you make something unregulated and give it away to friends and family, it is OK. All the government cares about is the transfer of money associated with what you can eat or drink. If you are selling something, they want to regulate it and make some money off it.

One of the interesting aspects of specialized food production is how these individuals found their calling. For many it is carrying on a family tradition, or perhaps learning a skill from a friend that somehow compelled them to master it.

Unregulated food and alcohol production makes state health department inspectors, and FDA, USDA inspectors very nervous. They have been entrusted with the power to protect public health from food-borne illness resultant from poor sanitation practices.

But what if these underground food producers adhere to all the food safety guidelines? What if the only crime they are committing is simply not registering their business, and yes, this is the clincher, paying permit fees.

Are these people cheating the system? Are they endangering public health? Or are they providing a service to the public that has a long tradition among communities around the world for individuals to supply hand-made, small-batch, top quality foods and drink to their neighbors without a care for government interference?

If you know of someone who falls into the category of making a food or beverage with the utmost care and skill for perfection, and yet, they shun it as a money-making venture, and refuse to register their passion with the proper government agencies, drop us a line so we can interview them. Again, the utmost confidentiality will be kept to protect their identities.

At the end of the day we want to learn more about the people and artisanal food and beverage products off the grid, that is unregulated, and yet, delicious. healthy and loved.

drop us a line: contact@welovejam.com

Apparently ancient Romans toasted bread before fire to preserve it. They also would drop it in their wine thinking the charcoal would lessen the acidity. The Latin word tostum means to burn and apparently the idea to give a toast with wine originates from this concept.

There is an interesting article about toast and its evolution over time here.

I once had a roommate who swore his favorite food was toast. At that time this puzzled me. How could toast be that big of a deal?

Of course toasting or roasting things always makes them more flavorful. Think of toasting coffee beans, toasting meats, making caramel is the same concept, and bread always tastes better when it has been toasted. Even the worst tasting, mass-produced bread is more palatable once toasted.

As owners of a jam company we have to love toast. But usually when we sample our efforts it is just with a spoon so there are no other flavors to affect it. And at farmers’ markets we don’t offer any bread for people to taste our jams since it would require wearing disposable gloves and we think that is environmentally bad until a biodegradable disposable glove is invented.

However, at home toast is king. My favorite is our extremely limited feijoa jam on toast. And to be honest, even though we can be sort of elitist about food sometimes, when it comes to bread for toast we don’t make much of a fuss. Whatever is on hand will do.

My eureka moment for toast happened recently to be quite honest. We were at a diner having a massive breakfast before a long day of making apricot jam. It had been quite a while since we were out for breakfast and the ubiquitous plate of artificially buttered toast appeared next to my egg scramble with the equally ubiquitous single servings of jelly.

At first I scoffed at the idea to eat any of it, but for some reason I was still hungry after breakfast and sampled a nibble. I selected the concord grape jelly since I do love these grapes (we have a vine of them we make syrup from each summer for making sodas). And despite the humble bread and jelly it was downright delicious.

So the next morning I toasted up some Anna’s Daughters Sourdough bread we had (this stuff is amazing) and put on my beloved feijoa jam and I nearly had an orgasm. Since then I have become a toast fanatic. I would like to preface this pronouncement by saying when it comes to toast I am partial to very rich breads to toast such as brioche, pain de mie or croissants since you don’t need to add any butter – just jam.

This toast relevation led me naturally to think of toasters – specifically vintage toasters. We have a newish one that works just fine, but what exotic treasures are lurking out there I mused? A quick survey on Ebay revealed so many fabulous toasters picking out just one would be difficult. I immediately worried I could become some crazy toaster collector.

First off, I could get one for making toast in the fireplace which is a neat idea except:

lighting anything in your fireplace in San Francisco these days is illegal.

Or I could spring for a Universal Electric from 1906 that looks like a bridge and would probably burn our house down:

These open toasters while no longer in vogue due to safety issues, are quite brilliant since they allow you to constantly watch your toast and stop the machine once it gets to that perfect toasty moment you crave. New toasters hide everything up and it is trial and error to find the right setting.

Here is another open toaster made by Pan Electric with an iridescent finish that must be pretty rare since it was for sale for $1600:

Another from this period is by a company called Pelouze in a glamorous gold finish what was probably designed by someone who had fantasies of toasters in Versailles:

After enough houses burned down and fingers were disfigured, toasters closed up. The first style allowed the sides to open up where you inserted your bread seen here with an erotic Knapp-Monarch:

Apparently the first automatic toaster was by Toastmaster and from then on most toasters were top loaded and had a timer for popping up your toast:

Around this time, the 1930s, toasted sandwiches must have been all the rage because I found several sandwich toasters from this period. Check out this beautiful sandwich toaster by Hostess:

And then there was an unusual open top toaster which is quite fetching and was made by Armstrong. Heck, you could cook up a meal on that thing – albeit just for one person.

Here is a cute one from Kenmore with red bakelite that is in the traditional open top design we still have today:

Some toasters had grills you could insert so you could toast sandwiches such as with this sleek, pink gold and chrome early 1960s Burg-O-Matic:

And in the 1960s you got the popular daisy motif which makes an appearance on this flirtatious little Toastmaster:

Toastmaster even made one with a handle! Why? So you could carry it into the bedroom for breakfast in bed?

Then moving up to modern times there is a wonderful toaster designed by Russell Hobbs – a company famous for making kitchen appliances since 1952 which cost around $300 (they are only 70 pounds in the UK where they are made):

Of course I refrained from buying anything, but I have a fantasy of having a toaster on the table when I do farmers’ markets so I can offer complimentary toast with the jam. Or who knows, sell a slice with jam for a buck. Of course that would require a few car batteries or a solar panel. Hey that is a good idea… But wait, the biodegradable glove problem…

But if I did pull this toasty extravaganza off, I would need to get a new commercial grade machine that could stand up to lots of abuse. The two industry leaders are Waring for around $500 which is my choice (it is dishwasher safe too):

And of course, Toastmaster in the same price range:

Are you intrigued? Even mildly? Perhaps estatically?

To read more on toasters you can always turn to Wikipedia.
For some innovative toaster designs today, check out Top 10 Toaster Designs.
You know there just has to be an association for toaster collectors!
And a museum just devoted to toasters located in Seattle! This site has an online gallery of all kinds of beautiful toasters, but I am afraid to even look since it surely would lead to my downfall.
Here is a page of a guy in NY who specializes in selling vintage toasters.

Anyhow, I hope you now will reconsider the importance of toast, and will choose your next toaster armed knowing there are so many styles and periods to match your every mood and aesthetic. And when you need jam for your beloved toast, you know where to buy it. I still haven’t developed a taste for plain toast – though I know that just might be the next step toward toastmania.

Most food grown with the help of pesticides are completely uninhabitable to insects. They won’t even go near it or they will drop dead. We have all grown up with perfectly unblemished fruits and vegetables thanks to the big chemical companies. Marketing campaigns between big farmers and these chemical companies have over time led people to expect perfect-looking produce. To make matters worse, farmers and grocery stores sort fruit and vegetables and toss out anything that doesn’t look pristine.

I used to know someone who worked at a fancy natural food store here in San Francisco and was the produce manager. He told me they would open up crates of apples, oranges, lettuce and only display those that looked perfect. Anything with a mark or blemish was taken home by the employees or put in the garbage. This is still common practice today – everywhere.

So when more organic produce is becoming available why does it still look so perfect? I mean no pesticides are used but the fruit generally looks great. Why are there still no worms in the apples like the olden days?

Blenheim apricots being sorted

Sorting. Yes, people still sort. And those who do it are very good at identifying the signs of possible entry by a worm. Small holes, dark spots by the stem (an easy entry) etc. Keep in mind by the time you see that apricot or plum in the grocery store, or in a wood crate at the farmers’ market, many eyeballs and hands have inspected the fruit to make sure you are getting the best. Here are the best Blenheim apricots that have been sorted being weighed in containers destined for supermarkets.

pristine apricots being weighed

Now if you grow your own fruit and vegetables you know there are always the ugly ducklings so to speak. And there always is fruit that looks weird and that has been nibbled on, and worse yet, penetrated by hungry insects. That is life. And we just cut out the bad part and that is that. For example the Blenheim apricots we use are famous for being ugly. This is why traditionally they are sun dried. They get big black spots on them and for us we have to remove them which is time consuming. Why? Because when cooked into jam, the fruit gets translucent but the black spots get darker and look horrible in the jar. We can’t catch them all but we try. So for Blenheim apricots there are the good, the bad and the ugly. Here are the good and the ugly:

good apricots

ugly apricots

But what about organic prepared food? The company that makes that organic frozen pizza, or tomato sauce or yikes – jam – do they sort? Not as much.

Yes, the sad fact is far less sorting is done on an industrial scale of produce that is processed compared to raw produce presented to the buying public. I will never forget when I was in high school I was reading some magazine in the library and there were some statistics published about gross things you normally don’t know about. One that was burned into my mind was the FDA allowed a certain number of maggots – yes maggots – in a certain amount of canned mushrooms. Then there was a certain amount of rat poop allowed in cereal. To this day I refuse to eat canned mushrooms or cereal. And what really bothers me is I have a fondness for hot and sour soup and all Chinese restaurants always use canned mushrooms. Why? What is the matter with fresh?

Anyhow, flash forward 20-something years and I know the reality of this. The organic apricots we use to make our jam have worms in them. I would say 1 out of every 30 apricots has one this summer – more than normal for some reason. We can generally tell since we hand inspect and cut open each apricot. There are tell tale signs, but now and then a perfect looking apricot is split open with a huge fat worm inside – and all these brown bits – yeah, their poop. Talk about gross! And yes, we toss these apricots in the compost bin. These are the bad apricots. Very bad!

bad apricot

But when you get organic food that is produced on an industrial scale, where you can’t have people inspect every piece of fruit like we do, the FDA has created allowances for the worms, maggots, spiders, bits of rat poo that can be in the food. Why, because once you start manufacturing at a high enough volume, it is impossible to keep everything bad out. Even our jam, that is done so meticulously by the two of us, we are sure a few worms must slip by.

Of course, if it is cooked there is no harm. If you ever find a worm in our jam, first it is an organic worm and second it was cooked at such a high temperature it is just as safe to eat as the bits of apricot. Yeah we know, it still is gross. But we know our food has far less bad things in it than stuff made by bigger companies.

So when you are eating any type of prepared organic food you have to keep in mind you will unknowingly ingest worms and other bugs. But look on the bright side. If the fruit or vegetables were safe for these bugs to live on or in, it is much safer for you to eat than produce that is saturated with chemicals that would kill those insects.

Ugly apples, lettuce with nibble holes and spiders between the leaves, apricots with big black freckles, worm holes, worms inside, ants swarming over banana blossoms – this is all perfectly natural with natural fruit and vegetables. These insects know a good thing too – and love to eat just as well as we do. Today, we have to rethink our priorities on what is normal again. And normal is a worm in your apple – or apricot now and then.

We just got an email today from Rockport Publishing that their new book: Packaging Essentials: 100 Design Principles for Creating Packages is for sale. The good news is our product packaging was selected to be featured in the book (principles 24 and 54). So if you are like us, and are in love with design, this might be a good book to get. We just ordered our copy, and you can to.

We stopped into a local supermarket called Nob Hill. Now I am not too fond of this chain of stores since about two years ago when I ventured into one and inquired about how to present our jam and bbq sauce for review to be sold in the store I got a curt reply: “Forget it – you gotta pay.” What this meant is like most big chains, you have to pay for shelf space. Yeah, forget that.

Anyhow, wandering around I saw on one of the signs listing what was in the aisle, “Canning Supplies” which I had never seen in a market before. My respect for the store immediately went up a few points. And sure enough, there was a whole section of jam-making supplies!

First I saw the Kerr jars and lids we used in the old days canning our stuff at home. Then there was the evil pectin which I have no idea why people use. There were all sorts. There were freezer containers for jam as well. But what they were missing, and what I was looking for, was the tongs for lifting up canning jars. Where were they?

Disappointed and dying of thirst from hours in our hot kitchen making jam, I set out for the cold beverages.

There I found a dizzying array of unusual sodas. Now neither of us drink soda often. I probably have maybe 20 a year, but I do appreciate small companies. First I had to buy a bottle of Empire Cola. Yes, I should have taken pictures… It is made in Rhode Island and that was where I was born. Any soda with high fructose corn syrup was immediately eliminated and this met the criteria. Then I got an interesting bottle called Kikapoo Joy Juice with grapefruit flavor. Yes, less than 1% fruit juice! The clincher was it had caffine in it. And finally, a Hawaiian Soda called Waialua Soda Works that was the only one that was 100 percent natural. I should have gotten the exotic sounding Lilikoi, but opted for the root beer instead. Of course we haven’t tasted any of them yet…

An hour later I was standing at the ice cream counter of a Thrifty, um Rite-Aid. Yes, they were acquired years ago but I still think of them as Thrifty Ice cream. If you aren’t from California you will be immune to the lure of Thrifty ice cream. First, it is dirt cheap, or used to be. In 1991 when I moved to SF, I paid 40 cents for a scoop at the one on Mission Street. This was a high point of my summers, along with the instant photo booth outside I always had to take pictures in. My favorite flavors were/are black cherry and Chocolate Malted Crunch.

This Rite-Aid is a very sad store where I saw a depressed-looking BMW mechanic covered in grease walk out with a huge box of pink wine – and you guessed right – drove off in a Toyota. But when I saw the ice cream I cheered right up. Apparently the 4th of July weekend decimated their ice cream inventory, so the black cherry was gone, but I did get my Chocolate Malted Crunch on a cake cone. Yes, they taste like paper, but as a kid I was banned from eating them. My parents thought the sugar cones were better tasting (and they are) but I always liked the low brow appeal of these.

Oh, it was heaven. The ice cream was soft, the malt flavor (artificial I am sure) was dominant, and then there were the weird small white balls of crunchy something – almost like tiny styrofoam balls. But you know what, as much of a purist as I am, I can appreciate something like this now and then. I devoured it and was lured back to the ice cream case. Yes, I was tempted to get another scoop, but what I really wanted to see was the scooper they use.

I love mechanical things and this definitely appealed to me. It looks like a small, shiny caulk gun. It is completely made of metal and is very industrial in strength. I had to have one! I asked the girl working there and she said they are made just for Rite-Aid. “Do people ever try to steal them?” I inquired, (immediately giving away my thoughts) and she looked at me like I was crazy. “No,” she replied and followed my eyes looking at the scoop and moved her hand holding it out of sight.

When we returned home later that night I went onto ebay looking for one. Funny considering I don’t eat much ice cream. And my worst fears came true. First, you cannot buy them anywhere. Secondly, the almost never come up for sale on ebay. There is another company that makes a similar ice cream stacker – as they are called but apparently it is no where near the quality.

And this is when I realized that the ice cream you get at Rite-Aid is visually so different. The ice cream is not in balls, but in a cylinder shape. Somehow this hits on us subconsciously since it never occurred to me it looked different before. Or me at least. By now I have given up hope of getting one.

But on my search for these scoops or stackers I encountered a new phenomena I had forgotten: ice cream molds. Now I am sure there are people of a certain age who had grandmothers who made ice cream molds, but I have a feeling this is a lost art. These molds usually follow the seasons and are event-themed. There are Santa Claus molds, Halloween cats, wedding bells, but then there are some weird ones like the shoe I saw.

For the life of me I cannot imagine why you would want a mold of a high heeled shoe. What type of occasion does this go well with? Maybe the opening of a shoe store? A shoe fetish convention? But just the oddity of it made me want to buy it.

But all my money goes to jam making this month. So forget it. And like all good obsessions, the fun has passed and I no longer am craving that Rite-Aid scoooper/stacker, or seeking out new sodas or even a high heel ice cream mold I would never use. Maybe what all I want is another scoop of Chocolate Malted Crunch…

And while hard work is rewarding and we enjoy doing it, downtime is essential – even if it is just taking a shower or checking email, or as I wait for Phineas to wake up, typing up a few words like this.

So yesterday as I was taking a hot shower, washing out spattered apricot jam from my hair, I thought it would be fun to share some of the simple things that are nice to come home to when our free time is so scarce in July and August.

One thing we really like is the soap made by our neighbors at two farmers markets we do. Pamela and Dirk make it themselves in their home kitchen from top quality ingredients – with an emphasis on shea butter! There is always a swarm of people buying their soap and we know why: it is amazing!

We are big soap fanatics and their soap is very moisturizing compared to stuff we have tried. Everything they make is terrific but our favorites are the Lavender Shea Butter and the Sweet Citrus Shea. Check out their site and order some!

Another soap we like is an olive oil with laurel that we originally discovered in Nice. When we returned to the U.S. an internet search led us to a site that sells a Syrian version we now buy regularly. It is a style of soap called Aleppo. We order it from this website. It is badly designed so you have to search for it under the Olive Oil Soaps of the World section. It is the one from Syria. You can read how it is made here.

When it comes to moisturizing Phineas gets products from Shea Terra Organics.

This pure shea butter works miracles for dried out hands. It is very stiff in the jar but once you start rubbing it on your hands it liquifies from the heat. A little goes a long way! We also have their insanely, amazing mint vanilla lotion that smells just like Girl Scout Mint cookies.

We wished they put it in a squeeze bottle since the lotion is so thick it doesn’t pump out of the dispenser it is it. We just have to dig it out with the pump dispenser stem…but it is worth it. Trust us. Phineas swears by their oil face moisturizers, but I don’t like anything oily so don’t use them.

You can see how bathing and staying clean is the dominant theme here!

Continuing on that topic, I absolutely love the PHYTO Phytoneutre Rebalancing Cream Shampoo 3.3 fl oz (100 ml). I used to buy this stuff years ago at Nieman Marcus when it came in glass bottles and have had many favorites, but this is the best. The smell is so fresh and invigorating and it makes my hair look better than any other product. The Phytolactum+ Shampoo is my second choice.

Phineas is obsessed with Shampoo Sweet Orange 8 Ounces

This is a local Bay Area company and is all organic. The smell of this shampoo is great and it is almost as good as the Phyto stuff in my opinion and way cheaper!

When it comes to lounge wear we are partial to pajamas.

I slept nude most of my adult life until I moved to San Francisco 20 years ago and immediately had to have a layer for warmth. For years I got pjs from Brooks Brothers. The fabric is excellent quality and there are some cool stripped and plaid patterns. They also have flannel which is imperative for San Francisco nights. However, their sizing is a little roomy. Did I say I love stripes? Anyhow, when it comes to stripes, nothing beats the pajamas from the French company Coton Doux. They also make shirts and boxer shorts that you can buy in a little store in the Marais but they aren’t that nice. What is the best are their pajamas. Everything, though, you can buy online. I am wearing some as I type these words. As soon as I come home I immediately change into pajamas. I am also seen driving in my car in them sometimes. They do run a little small compared to American sizing. So keep that in mind since the sleeves can be short. But who cares. You are sleeping or driving in them!

Finally, when it comes to taking care of your skin, nothing in my opinion beats SKII. This is an expensive Japanese skin care line I have been using for over 12 years now, and I have to skimp and save to afford it these days. In fact I am very low and not sure if I can afford to buy more now so I am feeling a twinge of panic. I buy it from a website in Hong Kong that is way cheaper than any other place. Don’t buy it in the store since it is overpriced. If you are going to buy two things get the facial treatment essence pictured above and then the signs treatment. Their eye concentrate is also killer, as is the aqua physics which is new and I love it. They used to make a C Repair which was great but not sure what happened to it. Can you see my addiction?

OK, off to make apricot jam…

It started on Friday at 5 a.m., after only four hours of sleep, labeling 650 jars of bbq we had spent the prior day making. While we make the jam, we don’t do anything else and since bbq sauce is so popular in the summer, we spend a lot of time just before jam season to make enough to last the month of July. In years past we were always busy getting ready for jam and would forget to make any bbq sauce and then stores would run out. Our customers who like the bbq sauce get very mad when they can’t get their fix so now we are more organized and considerate!

In total we had to make about 300 gallons in a week since like usual everything happens at the last minute. Several stores paid us late and since we needed the money to buy the ingredients and glass and labels for the bbq, by the time we got paid we just had a few days to make everything. Welcome to our world…

By 6:30 the labels were on and all the cases of bbq had been packed and ready for pickup by our distributor later in the day. We used to deliver direct to stores with our car but we opted for a distributor so we have more time to make stuff. We never know when they will come. So our reasoning was if we get back from the farm with the apricots by 11 a.m. we should be there for them to pick up. Hopefully…

An hour later we are on the road in a rental van en route to Gilroy to pick up our first batch of apricots. We get our fruit exclusively from Van Dyke Ranch. A few days before we had visited the farm to talk about the fruit and how we wanted it picked. In prior years we would get the fruit picked straight from the trees and put in 40 lb wood crates. However the past few years we got a lot of fruit that either was too ripe or not ripe enough and a lot was wasted. This year we did what we did our first year, had them sort the fruit that was picked and put into 20 lb cardboard flats. This way we get fruit just the way we want it with less time sorting. It cost more money but it saves time. And when you have thousands of pounds of apricots that last only a few weeks in the refrigerator, and it is basically just the two of us washing and pitting the fruit, time is of essence. The lighter boxes also save our backs somewhat.

Gilroy is known as the garlic capitol, but we know of it just for apricots. As we approach the farm we see people with ladders picking apricots. This is a brutal job climbing trees and risking punctures and cuts from branches. The sun is intense so workers cover up for protection making this a very hot job. Temperatures this time of year can be in the high 90s.

When we arrive,  farm it was buzzing with activity. There is a large open shed where the freshly picked apricots are being sorted and some are being pitted and cut and put on wooden trays to be sun dried. In recent years more of the fresh apricots are being sold to local supermarkets. In prior years they were either sun dried to sold to packers who canned the fruit.

Due to more rain than normal and cooler temperatures, there was less fruit this year. Our own little backyard tree had about half the fruit it normally does. But the fruit this year is beautiful. As we get out of the van the air is rich with the intoxicating smell of fresh apricots.

Roberto the foreman pulled the initial 1500 lbs of apricots we ordered from a large cooler which is basically a refrigerated truck container set right on the ground. They are perfect!  Luckily the van was big enough for the pallet to be loaded in. In years past we used our car and would load up about 400 lbs every other day. It was a lot of driving and lifting and every summer we hurt our backs. We are getting smarter. Here are our apricots being loaded into the van and is the only picture we took explaining why there are no others…

Just our luck halfway back to San Francisco we get a call from our distributor wondering where we are. We ask if they can come back in 30 minutes and they promise they will. Sometimes they cannot and we have to reschedule for another day. But 4th of July weekend is popular for bbq and we want to make sure they can pick up.

We have a customer from one of the farmers’ markets we do who makes sun jam. This is an old fashioned style of partially heating fruit and sugar in a pot, but then pouring it into jars and letting it sit and continue to cook slowly in the sun. For months she has been asking us if we can get her some fruit. Luckily we remembered and have 35 lbs of very ripe fruit for her. She agreed to meet us for a pickup – just like a drug deal!

As we pull into the driveway we see her anxiously waiting. A quick exchange of cash for cots and she hurries home to make her jam and we begin unloading all our fruit. Our distributor is no where to be seen. We don’t have the luxury of a forklift so we have to case-by-case unload all the fruit from the van and carry it to our tiny refrigerator that hopefully it will just fit into. An hour later it is full and we are exhausted.

Then our distributor shows up finally and takes away the bbq sauce.  Dead tried with just four hours of sleep and all the manual labor, we go home and rest.

The following morning which was yesterday, was the first day of making jam. The fruit was late this year, so normally we start June 27-30, so this is the latest we have ever started, July 3.

We dump a few boxes of fruit into a big sink and wash the fruit several times. We drain the water and then standing over the sink pick out an apricot, inspect to see if it is OK, and then give it a good twist to split it in half. We remove the pit and toss the two pieces of fruit into a bucket. It takes the two of us about an hour to do about 6 boxes, or 120 lbs if we work fast enough.

A few hours into doing this your feet start to ache, your back starts to hurt, your fingers and arms get tired and your eyes get bleary. The repetitive bending over the sink picking out apricots is probably the equivalent of doing about several thousand stomach crunches. After a few days our hands will be stained orange. But like starting to work out after a long absence, with the initial soreness, within a week our bodies will be primed and conditioned and we will be able to ignore the pain somewhat.

Once we have enough of the fruit we inspect it again to make sure there are no pits we missed. Then we weigh the fruit, dump it in the pot with the correct amount of sugar and start making jam. Usually in a day if all goes well we do two batches, but with less sorting we hope to do three batches. From beginning to end, from bulk fruit in the boxes to it in the jars,  it takes us 3-4 hours per batch. Add in about 30 days of this and we will have made all the jam for the year. Words cannot express the exhaustion we will feel, but also the amazing sense of accomplishment.

Then we have the plum jams to make…

And to make matters worse, we cannot accept help from the legions of customers and people who have offered to help us out for free. Everything we do is special and we are very secretive about our recipes and processes – just like most companies.

A famous local chocolate company, Sees Candy, does not allow anyone to see how they make their candy. A friend of ours, David Lebovitz, when he was working on his The Great Book of Chocolate, called and asked if he could visit them and talk about chocolate. They said he could not see the chocolate making operations. And while being rejected like this is painful and annoying, on the flip side, companies, whether they are Sees or a tiny little setup like us, have invested a lot of money into their business and are careful to protect it. This is not to say we don’t trust people, but it is much easier to keep things among a select group of people we know. So, as much as we would simply LOVE to have the help, and trust us, we would LOVE it so much, from a professional perspective, we are sticking to our guns and keeping our secrets to ourselves so you can always enjoy what we make!

This at face value is critical towards keeping the food you buy safe, but on the flip side presents massive obstacles and cost to people entering into the food business for the first time.

A few years ago there was an article about a retired WWII vet who every Christmas would make fruit cake to sell to his neighbors. He loved making it and the extra money helped him out. He made the mistake of placing a sign in the window of his house advertising the fruit cake for sale. Somehow a health inspector found out and they shut him down. There was a huge public outcry about this, but the law is the law and his annual fruit cake sales were immediately halted forever. Here is the story.

Why is food cooked in a home completely banned? Well, we are not sure how this started, but it has been a law for some time. We have heard some cities and towns are considering allowing people to make food in their home kitchens and would inspect them, but as of now this hasn’t happened. Generally a home kitchen presents a higher chance of cross contamination between personal food and food prepared for sale. Also, since the kitchen is in a home with various other people who might not be trained on safe food handling protocol, along with pets, cigarette smoke, dust, bugs etc. there is a higher chance for problems to happen then in a dedicated space just about food made for sale.

Most residential areas are not zoned for business purposes, so even having a home commercial kitchen would be a zoning violation. Commercial kitchens also have elements home kitchens do not. They usually don’t have grease traps that are mandatory for commercial kitchens to prevent excess build up of fats in the sewer lines. They don’t have special fire sprinkler systems over stoves. They don’t have special plumbing that would prevent sewage backup into sinks and dishwashers that commercial kitchens all must have. Then there are the myraid laws such as floor, wall and ceiling surfaces, ventilation, refrigeration, prep areas, the type of sinks (three section sinks are mandatory) etc. The list goes on and on.

Quite simply based on current laws, it is impossible for many reasons to have a commercial kitchen in a home.

So, if you want to break into the food business since your day job is driving you nuts working for a boss that you think is a moron, or you are out of work, it is not easy.

One of the best things to do is to find a commercial kitchen you can rent by the hour. These facilities already have all the health permits and you usually just need to prove you have insurance to cover any accidents that might happen. Since commercial rental kitchens are a rarity, it is easier to approach community centers and churches that have approved kitchens to see if they might want to rent to you. This way you can avoid the costly and nightmarish chore of buying equipment and building a facility, or buying an existing one.

If you decide to go the rental route, the insurance can be fairly inexpensive based on what you will be preparing. For us, with jams and bbq sauce, which are considered very safe, insurance is low. If you are canning tuna fish or making fresh salsa, which are more prone to bacterial growth and contamination, it can be more expensive. We use CNA Insurance, but there are others out there. Your premium will be based on the minimum requirement of coverage by the commercial kitchen you rent, and what you make.

You will also need to pass a safe food handling certification class that will be offered by your local health department. These are usually one day classes with a test at the end. If you pass the test, you are the point person for insuring all food prepared by you our others you hire conforms to health department requirements. These classes are really great. They show you pictures of restaurant kitchens that have serious violations that make you want to be the best, most sanitary food prep person around. Yes, dead rats in refrigerators, neon orange mold growing on stuff – it happens every day.

But what if you are sick of working in a commercial kitchen? They do have their disadvantages. Sometimes you show up, but they are full of other people so you have to go home. This could be a big problem if you have a deadline. Then there is the issue of them not having the proper equipment. For us, who can stuff, a basic commercial kitchen does not have the proper, specialized equipment, which made us do about 10 times the amount of work then we needed to when we first used one. There is also the aspect of theft, which can happen. Finally there is a cost factor. A commercial kitchen can range from $1o per hour per person to $50 per hour per person. It can get expensive. If you think you want to make a future out of professionally making food, at some point you will need to get your own facility. It is kinda like the advantage of renting vs. owing your own home. In the long run, owning is cheaper and a better option.

Another avenue you can go is to approach a food manufacturing company and pay them to do all the work. This is called co-packing. These are established companies that specialize in certain foods, such as baked, canned, juices etc. They do all the work and you sit back and hopefully collect enough money after their costs that it is worth your while. However, if you want to be actively involved in manufacturing and quality control, you don’t want to use a co-packer. And, just like the rental kitchen, in the long run, it will be cheaper for you to have complete control and your own facility.

Using a rental kitchen or a co-packer is a wise choice in the early phases of your business.

But what about when you are ready to have your own kitchen? What is involved?

First,  you need to meet two very important requirements. You should not be prone to nervous breakdowns and you need to have a lot of money. The process of designing and building a facility is daunting and can take years. There are millions of details that require a lot of thought and experience to work out. For us, just trying to find a company to make a small machine to fill our jars took months. There are consultants who will take your money in exchange for giving you expert advice, but out of all the people we talked with none of them seemed knowledgeable. Even experts in their field could not answer many of our questions. Basically, you will need to figure out everything yourself and become an expert on very esoteric subjects no schooling could ever teach. For example, what are the advantages/disadvantages of pneumatic equipment vs. electric? Yes, that is gobbleygook to just about everyone, but you will have to learn all about it yourself from talking to all kinds of people. That is just the tip of the iceburg.

Then there is the issue of what equipment to buy. Sure, we all know when we buy a car or a refrigerator the major brands. There are Hondas, Fords, BMWs, VWs for cars; Kenmore, Subzero, GE for refrigerators. There are tons of websites with customer and expert reviews to help you make a decision. Or you can just ask friends. But what about when you need to buy a commercial dishwasher and you never heard of any of the companies that make them, or you need to find a machine that can screw on caps, or a labeling machine? There are no resources available with reviews for commecial equipment like there is for consumer equipment. You are basically stuck looking at technical data or calling up similar companies that make what you make for advice. And generally companies are tight lipped about their equipment. No one wants to tell anyone what they are using for some reason.

Then there is the cost. Commercial equipment is always many times more expensive than consumer stuff. That dishwasher you see at Home Depot for $200 seems affordable, but when the cheapest commercial dishwasher you can find is $3000 that is a big jump. And yes, you cannot use that Home Depot dishwasher in a commercial facility since commercial dishwahsers must have special sterilizing features that absolutely no comsumer dishwashers have. Same goes for refrigerators. Commercial refrigerators are designed to always maintain a constant temperature, whereas consumers ones do not. For food inspectors, and for certain foods a constant temperature is critical. Can you see what a hassle it is to learn this stuff? Can you see how it gets so expensive?

Then there is the issue of construction. For your house you can get the local handyman to do work, but what about when you need to have special duct work custom fabricated for your ventilation which is required (you must have exhaust and fresh air). Sheet metal workers, commercial electricians, plumbers etc. are all union shops and their rates are substantially higher than the residential contractor. Don’t get me wrong. We support unions, but this is another factor you have to take into consideration. What you might think would cost $800 to do in your home is more like $3000 in a commercial building. A good general rule is to multiply by 4 what you think it will cost. $50,000? No, more like $200,000.

Welcome to the world of owning a business. Spend big money and hope some day to make big money. Hope, that is the key word. All businesses are expensive to start, but manufacturing is the most expensive. Do you have what it takes?

So, if you are considering jumping into the food business drop us an email. We are always willing to help. We have learned everything from trial and error. And we are learning every day, and spending lots of money. So buy our jam and stuff. We got a lot of bills to pay!

For most people who start shopping at farmers’ markets there usually is sticker shock to some degree. Yes, you can find food vendors where you can get more potatoes than you can shake a stick at for $2, or a bag of oranges half the price of anywhere else. But on the flip side, there are farmers who charge several dollars a pound for pristine peaches and apples. And these price whoppers are what everyone complains about but no one has ever explained.

First off I want to examine the mentality of shoppers at farmers’ markets. When we used to rise early Saturday mornings to visit the Embarcadero farmers’ market, which was originally in a parking lot, and many years ago moved to the now glamorous digs of the restored Ferry Plaza, we would load up on cash from the ATM trembling with excitement on what amazing things we would find.

This eagerness to spend is a completely different mind set from most people in grocery stores. When you are at the grocery store you usually have a list of things to buy, or just ran out of eggs for a cake you need to bake for a birthday party and have rushed to buy them. Shopping in the grocery store, while still exciting is much more a routine activity like going to work or brushing your teeth. Farmers’ markets are like gong on vacation – something you don’t do as often,where you feel much more spontaneous and is a place usually full of surprises. We can personally attest that our spending habits are much more frenzied and carefree at farmers’ markets than in the grocery store. So, pointer number one: people are usually in an amplified spending mode at farmers’ markets.

Back in the day, we would usually pull out about $40-$60 in cash from an ATM and would usually run out of money in the first 10 minutes at the market. It always amazed us how fast the money went. I am sure for most of you reading this you are familiar with this experience. And, for most people going to a farmers’ market they know this will happen and somehow justify this immediate lack of funds as a sign it is wise to leave otherwise you will blow an equal amount almost instantly if you visit an ATM again.

The upside of draining your bank account and pockets of cash in record-breaking time, is the amazing things you have purchased that have an air of rarity to them. Where else can you buy pumpkin blossom honey, uncured olives, strange heirloom melons, or miners’ lettuce? And this is the primary reason people shop at farmers’ markets: to buy things they can get no where else and that are not found in their grocery store. Pointer number two: rarity.

Another advantage of farmers’ markets is freshness. The basil you just bought a massive pile of for $2 was just cut early that morning instead of the tiny wilted pile at the grocery store that looks a week old, or the carrots and radishes still coated with wet clumps of black, rich soil that are more crunchy than any you have purchased in the store. Pointer number three: freshness.

So are rarity and freshness worth a high price? To people like us we think so and we are willing to pay. But we still can complain how fast we drained our allocated farmers’ market funds which leads me to believe it isn’t the price so much but the amazing selection of products that tempt us to spend more than in the grocery store with the usual suspects we have been seeing displayed since we were kids.

But how about the farmers who charge a fortune for an apple or peach? Isn’t that robbery? Isn’t that taking advantage of the poor schmucks pulling up in their new fancy cars, with their special farmers’ market hand-woven baskets they never seem to use in the grocery store, who as I said are trembling with excitement on spending their cash? Not really.

On the flip side the people selling at the markets have priced their products according to a wide range of criteria. First, many of the farmers who sell at markets are smaller operations than those who sell to grocery stores. Maybe they have 10 acres of land compared to 60 or 100 or 200 acres and rely almost exclusively on markets for income. And when you are a farmer who has a small lot of land, you grow less and therefore make less money. The only alternative when you have limited product is to raise the price to increase revenue. It is just common sense. Compare this to the farmer who has 10 times as much land and it is obvious how they can get away with charging less since they have much more product to sell. It is the same economics behind the pricing at Costco compared to your corner store.

Also, for farmers and small food producers, selling at the farmers’ market is a rare chance to sell direct. Most farmers rely on selling to stores, or as is usually the case, a distributor who resells it for a small profit to stores. When you sell wholesale, you usually make 50 percent less then when you sell direct. So farmers are excited for the opportunity to sell direct to the public and get full price for a way of living which is usually in stark contrast to those shopping at farmers’ markets. How many farmers do you see driving around in a new BMW or Mercedes, who own a well appointed house in a desirable neighborhood, and can afford to take a few weeks off each summer for a trip to Europe with their family? Being a farmer, and a small crop farmer especially, has a completely different income than being in the corporate world. Also farming income varies year after year depending on crop yield, what crops they planted and what they can sell it for. A long period of rain, snow or cold weather can decimate a crop that when picked supplies most of their yearly income. What do you do when you were expecting to sell $100,000 of oranges and you only picked $30,000? How do you pay your farm equipment loans, your line of credit for supplies, your mortgage?

So right off the bat you should never moan and groan about the price you pay direct to someone who grows or makes something because usually they earn less than you do and usually this is a rare chance for them to make some extra money – cash even.

Another factor at farmers’ markets is farmers have to pay a fee each day for selling at the market. Sometimes that is a percentage of what they sell and sometimes it is a flat fee. Among all the factors that go into pricing you have to remember some of the money farmers make that day at the market have to be paid to the association that gives them the opportunity to be there. And when there is a rainy day when no one shows up, or maybe a big event nearby that keeps the usual crowds from coming to the market, the $400 they were expecting to earn in 5 hours of selling is now $150. And usually they still have to pay the fee to be there meaning somedays after paying gas to travel from the farm and the rental fee for that day to sell, they have almost enough to buy movie tickets for a night of escape and that is it. Days like that are very depressing – especially if you were relying on a certain amount of money you desperately needed for an upcoming bill.

We know. Since we started doing farmers’ markets we have seen the ups and downs of income that simply never happen when you have a job with a regular pay check. This past winter and spring California had an unusual excess of rain. Since we were in a drought that was much needed. But for selling at farmers’ markets, when it seemed to rain every day, almost no one would show up and we made hardly any money. And just like farmers we started doing markets since selling wholesale to stores was not making enough money to pay all the bills on time. We were hopeful this extra income would make up the difference, but the only thing we got out of it was standing in the rain and wind hours on end for month after month for nothing.

Next time you are wandering around the farmers’ market keep in mind that those standing in the booths, with their feet killing them, and in the colder months, freezing to death, are not getting rich doing this. The extra money they charge for their extra fresh, extra rare and delicious products is truly a bargain if you think about all the work and sacrifice that went into it. And the one thing  you probably don’t know is the cash you hand over, trembling with excitement, or maybe begrudgingly after finding out the price, is more appreciated than you could ever imagine.

Here is a good example. About two years ago, Whole Foods approached us about selling our apricot jam and bbq sauce and we said yes since we shop in their stores. However, for California, Whole Foods breaks the state into two regions, north and south and has northern and southern offices that deal with these areas. We were invited to the northern region and it has been a great experience. However, we have lots of customers in southern California who have been asking us for years to buy our stuff in Whole Foods. So, we did what we were told and applied to the southern CA Whole Foods to sell our products. Their grocery buyer rejected us – twice – and she offered no explanation. Luckily, we are sold in four amazing, independent stores in the Los Angeles area: The Cheesestore of Silverlake, Monsieur Marcel, Surfas and Thyme Cafe. But really, four stores in two years of trying? In Northern California we are in about 20 times that many stores.

We have spent a lot of time driving down south, visiting stores, offering samples and store owners and grocery buyers are enthusiastic about what we make. But there is one big problem: distribution. How do we get our stuff from San Francisco to a store in Los Angeles?

We have two distributors in northern California (Tonys Fine Foods and Cheeseworks), but have been unable to find anyone in southern California to distribute our stuff to stores. There are two types of distributors: regional and national. The regional distributors like the two we have concentrate on a small territory and are very competitive among each other. The national distributors have massive reach, but generally only do business with vary large food manufacturers.  We have asked stores down south which distributors they recommend and generally they are national ones that have ignored us. We haven’t had any luck finding a distributor in southern California for some reason – as if none exist.

So how do we get the jam and bbq to our four LA stores? We either drive the jam and bbq sauce down by car, have friends who are up here visiting from LA drive it down and drop it off for us, or we ship via UPS. In fact, we just shipped 216 lbs of jam and bbq sauce to one of our LA stores via UPS  – just because we don’t have a distributor down there. It took us half a day to pack things up.

If you are reading this and live in California, especially the southern region, and are wondering why welovejam, a California-based company, that buys almost all our ingredients and supplies from California farms and manufacturing companies, is not in your local store, keep in mind we don’t have an answer for you. Maybe someone does? Until the future day when we are in more southern California stores, you will have to do what most customers do, buy it from our website.