It Starts with Fruit

Jam-making gets a bad rap for being highly technical, complicated, messy, hot, and sticky. Most jam cookbooks are perceived as pretty, but too hard. This book challenges that assumption. It Starts With Fruit is an approachable preserving book from a great NorCal brand with a charming, encouraging name: Happy Girl Kitchen. Cofounder/author Jordan Champagne learned how to make jam while working on a farm, trying to use up fruits and vegetables that would otherwise go to waste. A freethinker who follows her own path and questions the status quo, she also challenged traditional preservation methods, developing techniques that are less complicated, fun rather than stressful, and more flavourful, with less sugar than many traditional methods. In this book are 5 master ‘workshops’ (jam, marmalade, drinks, pie fillings, and sauces & butters) and 70+ recipes for various fruit preserves, juices, syrups, shrubs, butters, fillings, chutneys, and dried and candied fruits, plus recipes for baked goods like thumbprint cookies, pocket tarts, and fruit cobbler. This package presents revolutionary techniques with a soft touch, but it’s not a myth-busting book; rather, it’s a technique-forward, beautiful, personality-driven preserving book.