Sticky Spoon Summer Days

After long days in the hot kitchen, making hundreds of jars of jam, we often need to put our feet up for a little while. Occasionally, we are able to sit and enjoy an hour of West Coast sun.

 What better way to test our product than to bring a few friends together, a generous portion of cheese and a few samples of jam for feedback. 

If we get the chance, we try mixing business with pleasure and invite a few makers like us to lunch. Is there such a thing as a "business picnic?" We think so. One of the highlights this Summer was meeting up with Jackie Ellis, the lovely lady behind the soon to be open Beaucoup Bakery and Miss Erin Ireland, famous for her It's To Die For banana bread (we tried her seasonal strawberry and banana bread and it was yummy) We each brought some handmade goodies to try and shared business ideas under a shady tree. How very civilized it was and we are so lucky to be surrounded by such talented bakers!

This fantastic little dish is Beaucoup Bakery's milk chocolate rice pudding with hazelnut strudel and the recipe, lucky readers, can be found here .

Sticky Spoon's contribution, in addition to a couple of cheeses from Les Amis du Fromage, was one of our first samples of Summer Strawberry Jam with Balsamic.

We couldn't stop at one jar though. We also brought our Rhubarb Jam with Ginger, our Sweet Onion Jam and a little Red Raspberry Jam because what's better than raspberry jam with Jackie's chocolate scones.

So all Summer long, every time we had five minutes of spare time, we went outside and enjoyed the sun, usually with a jar of jam somewhere in the picnic basket... What can we say, we love what we do!  We just hung out with our fingers and toes in the grass and enjoyed a Kiwi Jam Mojito or a Pimm's Cup by the water.

Surely, you must have noticed that Summer is coming to an end. We have a few more Summer jam flavours coming your way (Fresh Fig Jam, Blackberry Jam with Lemon Geranium and our Persian Peach Jam will be back soon), but we are definitely transitioning into Fall. Morning air is cooler and the sun is setting earlier and earlier. Some people may think that jam season ends with the Summer season, but  Fall is a lovely time on the West Coast and BC gardens have a lot to offer in the months of September, October and even November. We are looking forward to Spiced Autumn Plum jam, Pear and Vanilla jam, Quince Jam and Jelly, and we will need to make many, many jars of our Tomato jam for those of you who have patiently been waiting for the next batch.  We hope you had a great Summer, dear readers. We have been busy bees and hope that you will enjoy each jar we made.