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Raspberries' Sweet Taste Takes You Back to Summer
December 5, 2008
Raspberries' Sweet Taste Takes You Back to Summer
Farmers' Markets DENISE MILLER For the Journal
Editor's note: Through the winter growers' market season, Denise Miller of the New Mexico Farmers' Marketing Association will spotlight local growers and their crops once a month, on the first Wednesday.
My colorful jars of canned fruit from mid-summer are still untouched on the shelf, but I'm sure it won't be long before they start to disappear. So what do we do when the thermometer drops and we long for a taste of fresh summer fruit?
Locally produced high-quality jams like Heidi's Raspberry Jam, made in Corrales, are one way to satisfy our craving for sweet fruit while continuing to support local farmers in the off season.
Jam gets used regularly in my house, where the kids' daily peanut butter and jelly sandwiches demand a slather, and I always feel good about including this tasty, low-sugar jam in their lunch.
But Doug Findley and Heidi Eleftheriou's organic jam is so flavorful and packed with fruit that it cries out to be used beyond the usual sandwiches, toast, bagels and muffins. Findley suggests pouring it over a block of cream cheese as a holiday spread, putting it on cottage cheese or in yogurt, baking it on salmon, or making it into a barbecue sauce that adds sparkle to spare ribs, chicken or wings (see Findley's quick and easy recipe at the end of this column).
Morning glory
My favorite way to enjoy it during winter is lobbed on morning oatmeal where the heat from the oats seems to puff up the raspberries almost back to their original, fresh state.
Is that a wishful exaggeration? Well, maybe a bit, but according to Findley, whole berries are often found in their jams because its most abundant ingredient is organic raspberries. "There is more fruit than anything else in there, which is really different than most other products, which usually have sugar or fruit juice as their primary ingredient," he says.
So how does this low-sugar recipe produce such incredibly sweet jam? According to Findley, one reason is his sister's cooking finesse and small batch technique that preserve the fruits' vitamins and beautiful natural color in four flavors -- raspberry, raspberry ginger, raspberry red chile and raspberry red chile ginger.
The jam is also unique because of the extra good fruit, Findley explains. "My goal is to produce the heaviest, sweetest berries possible, and that comes from fertilizing the soil and paying attention to the brix level of the berries."
Brix is the level of sugar in a plant, and Findley's emphasis on soil inputs not only increases the sweetness of the crop, but also goes hand-in-hand with organic farming by creating strong plants that are more naturally resistant to pests and disease.
Expanding the crops
Findley grows four varieties of raspberries on four acres in Corrales, and this year harvested about 20,500 pounds. While most of the haul gets frozen for jam production, selling fresh fruit is also an important part of Findley's business, which includes selling at growers' markets in Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Albuquerque, Corrales and Los Ranchos. "People like you better when you sell fresh fruit," he says.
This year he also started experimenting with 3,000 strawberry plants.
Findley has been growing raspberries and co-producing jam for six years. Previously he was a building contractor. He says that while he has always loved building, he came to realize that every time he built a house -- sometimes in former orchards or alfalfa fields -- he was taking space from the natural world.
As a guy who loves open space and had always grown vegetables, he decided to put together a few family ideas (his mother had sold flowers at a growers' market and a sister grew raspberries and had a great jam recipe) and try farming.
Farming also went well with Findley's inquiry into Zen Buddhism, and he said there is nothing like it for living in the moment, whether he is planting, fertilizing, weeding or hoeing.
DOUG'S BARBECUE SAUCE
- 1 jar of Heidi's Organic Raspberry Jam
- 1 cup of ketchup
- Salt, pepper, chili powder and garlic (oil or powder) to taste
- Mix all ingredients. Thin to desired texture with apple cider vinegar.
- Enjoy on your favorite ribs, meat or chicken wings.
Markets open for the winter are Los Ranchos Growers' Market, second Saturday of each month, 10 a.m.-noon, City Hall, 6718 Rio Grande Blvd. NW; Santa Fe Farmers' Market, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays, November to March, 519 Cerrillos Road (at Sandoval Street next to Sage Bakery); and Los Alamos Farmers' Market, first Thursday of February, March and April, from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Unitarian Church, 1738 N. Sage St.
FEATURED GROWERS: Doug Findley and Heidi Eleftheriou
PRINCIPAL PRODUCT: Heidi's Raspberry Jam
WHERE TO FIND THEM: Findley is at the Santa Fe Winter Growers' Market throughout December. The jam is also available at a variety of area grocers or at heidisraspberryfarm.com.
SEASON: Jams are available all year, with fresh raspberries available at growers' markets in August and September. During the season, the farm is open for customers to pick their own raspberries.
