Dining Features Article |
Pump Up the Jam
Bonnie Shershow preserves the flavors of summer.
By Jane Black
- Bonnie Shershow stirs up a batch of blueberry jam. Photo by Carl Tremblay.
Some people run. Some eat chocolate. When Bonnie Shershow gets stressed, she makes jam. “I find it meditative, even sensual,” the Cantabrigian says as she stirs pears, ginger, lemon zest, and sugar in a shiny copper pot for her latest concoction, a jam designed to pair with a rich Toma cheese from northern Italy.
Indeed, stress—the end of a love affair, to be specific—is what propelled Shershow to launch her line of gourmet jams in 1999. That year, she made so much of the stuff, she was forced to give away dozens of jars. Friends encouraged her to sell at a local farmers’ market. Two years later, Shershow struck a deal with gourmet mecca Formaggio Kitchen: She uses their kitchen on Sundays, and sells her jams in their stores.
Bonnie’s Jams change with the seasons. In fall, there’s fig-almond; in winter, Valencia and Seville orange marmalade. Summer is when Shershow is busiest, turning out batches of blueberry-lemon (for recipe, click here), raspberry–lime rickey, and strawberry-rhubarb, among others. She cooks with whatever fruits are sweet and ripe—a tall order in New England, even in high summer. “Half the job is networking,” she says with a wink. “I have sources all over the state. Sometimes I even drive up to Vermont, hauling back my catch like some kind of victory hunter.”
Shershow wants her jams to reignite our lust for fruit, which, thanks to big agriculture, now pales in comparison with the intensely sweet peaches, oranges, and guavas she grew up eating in the family orchard in Orange County, California. “Fruit no longer has that sensual bite that makes your whole body quiver,” she says. “On a cold winter day, jam can connect you to a beautiful, fragrant summer afternoon.”
>> Bonnie’s Jams, $12.95 per 18-oz. jar, available at Formaggio Kitchen, 244 Huron Ave., Cambridge, 617- 354-4750, and South End Formaggio, 268 Shawmut Ave., Boston, 617-350-6996; www.formaggiokitchen.com.
Indeed, stress—the end of a love affair, to be specific—is what propelled Shershow to launch her line of gourmet jams in 1999. That year, she made so much of the stuff, she was forced to give away dozens of jars. Friends encouraged her to sell at a local farmers’ market. Two years later, Shershow struck a deal with gourmet mecca Formaggio Kitchen: She uses their kitchen on Sundays, and sells her jams in their stores.
Bonnie’s Jams change with the seasons. In fall, there’s fig-almond; in winter, Valencia and Seville orange marmalade. Summer is when Shershow is busiest, turning out batches of blueberry-lemon (for recipe, click here), raspberry–lime rickey, and strawberry-rhubarb, among others. She cooks with whatever fruits are sweet and ripe—a tall order in New England, even in high summer. “Half the job is networking,” she says with a wink. “I have sources all over the state. Sometimes I even drive up to Vermont, hauling back my catch like some kind of victory hunter.”
Shershow wants her jams to reignite our lust for fruit, which, thanks to big agriculture, now pales in comparison with the intensely sweet peaches, oranges, and guavas she grew up eating in the family orchard in Orange County, California. “Fruit no longer has that sensual bite that makes your whole body quiver,” she says. “On a cold winter day, jam can connect you to a beautiful, fragrant summer afternoon.”
>> Bonnie’s Jams, $12.95 per 18-oz. jar, available at Formaggio Kitchen, 244 Huron Ave., Cambridge, 617- 354-4750, and South End Formaggio, 268 Shawmut Ave., Boston, 617-350-6996; www.formaggiokitchen.com.
Originally published in Boston magazine, July 2006
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