Dirty Secret of the Jam World

Yes, this surely is a sensational headline. If there were an equivalent food publication to the Star or National Enquirer, this little ditty would be right at home.

When we made about 100 jars of jam from a backyard tree it made perfect sense. I mean, we had more apricots than we could eat or bake, so why not pick them off the tree, wash them, pit them and toss them in a pot with some sugar, cook them up and add them to clean jars? Sounds pretty easy and it is. On a small scale.

So what is the dirty secret? Frozen fruit.

In the years since we turned a backyard summer hobby into a full-time business we have learned a lot about food manufacturing and it isn’t very pretty.

When we transitioned from making jam for friends and family to trying to meet demand from customers, we did only what we knew how to do. We made more. Instead of 100 lbs of apricots from our tree, we would buy from a local orchard 6000 lbs and do the exact same thing. We would wash the fresh fruit, pit it and toss it in a pot with sugar, cook and can it. But the massive jump in the number of apricots and jars created extreme stress. Fresh fruit, we all know, only lasts so long in a refrigerator, and Blenheim apricots last about 3 weeks if you are lucky. What that means is we have about a month at most to make all the jam we can for the entire year.

For us, who don’t have the funds to pay legions of minimum wage employees to do the work for us as we sit beside the pool at some far flung vacation home, or even in an office, we do all the work ourselves and get some friends and family to help. And quite honestly, we would never have it otherwise. There is a zen in simple things and making jam for us is a blast now that the initial growing pains have subsided. Every tiny detail makes a tremendous difference. It is like saying if you kill that butterfly something bad will happen 20 years from now. Well for us, how we make our jam is an intense passion that we hate to admit, we could never trust anyone else to do as well.

So here comes the ton of bricks. Since we have learned from every mistake imaginable how to run a food business, we have also learned jam making around the world is virtually and exclusively from frozen fruit. And it makes perfect sense. Why limit yourself to a few weeks to make a product that has to last you all year? Twinkies are made every day of the year all year round. So is Wonder Bread, and probably most stuff you buy in the grocery store – even gourmet things. In in the jam word, it is always made from frozen fruit so they can make jam 7 days a week 365 days a year to supply global demand.

On top of that many people don’t actually make the jam themselves, let alone other food brands. They rely on copackers – companies that specialize in making a certain type of food. All you do is give them your recipe and they take care of everything. We know some local jam makers who rely on copackers. But as we said, we don’t trust anyone to do it as well as we do. That is why we took the leap to build our own small manufacturing facility so we have complete control. Sure it cost a fortune and we have been broke ever since, but in the long run it is worth it, just like owning your own house in the long run is better than renting.

But face it. Businesses have to grow. And to grow you have to sell more product each year. And if you happen to be a jam maker you are extremely limited in growth if you can only work a few weeks out of the year no matter how many employees you can hire, or fancy machines to automate hand work.

So you see we entered a business we had no idea had a frozen ceiling. To make big bucks you need to transition from home made style jam making in a short period of time using fresh fruit to frozen fruit that can be thawed and cooked into jam virtually 365 days a year.

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The coin toss for any budding business owner is whether to stay true to flavor or stay true to growth and profits. We are contrarians. We believe there are people who are willing to pay more than bottom dollar to avoid eating garbage. How many times did you rave about a frozen dinner? Sure it is cheap and easy. But in the scheme of pleasure, and health, freshly prepared ingredients taste better, and maybe we are idealists, but they make for a better life.

We have learned from experience that quality of life in the long run is better than shortcuts just to make a quick profit. Quality has a pace of its own and has far richer rewards in more ways than one. The cheap way out will never produce rich results.

Some of our local jam makers have confessed to us they use frozen fruit. It is so much cheaper, so much easier they say and it tastes the same. They don’t have to stress out making everything over a small amount of time and spending tons of money up front to buy all their yearly supplies (jars, labels, sugar, fruit etc. add up to a monthly cost of around $20,000).

Even some farmers have said we should freeze the fruit but we haven’t even done a test. As experienced food experimenters and cooks, we know already there is no mistaking the elegance and transient sensation of fresh over dulled frozen. Whoever thinks frozen is just as good as fresh have no good sense of taste or they are deluding themselves that the easier way out tastes better to them.

The people who started Smuckers jam probably like us started in a home kitchen and used fresh fruit. Somewhere along the way it transitioned to frozen fruit and rock bottom prices that would entice anyone to buy it no matter how poor they might be.

We don’t make any excuses. Our stuff is expensive. And it costs us a fortune to make it every summer. In fact, the cost essentially ruins us for the entire year. Yes, any MBA grad would say that is a mistake. On paper it probably is, but on your tongue it will make you swoon. A blind taste test will make us come out first anytime over frozen stuff.

We all know a hamburger on a backyard grill made by a friend tastes better than any McDonalds burger. And we know the birthday cake made by your mom tastes better than anything you can buy for $9.95 at Costco or the supermarket. Why? Because the ingredients in mass manufactured food are the worst tasting, least healthy, cheapest garbage. For big companies profits come first, taste second.

They say James Joyce would spend an entire day to write a few hundred words until he was satisfied. The world is divided between those who understand this and to whom it makes no sense.

Anyhow, for what it is worth, we will never use frozen fruit, and our jam will always be made by us. Nothing will change. Our stuff is the closest to home made that you will ever buy. Yes, we are fools to some, but we have our standards and they set the bar for everything else.