Greetings from the Northern Fruitlands...

Someday soon another Spring will sweep into the Northern Fruitlands all sun and warmth and smiles as if we hadn’t been waiting interminable weeks for its arrival. Immersed in the warming air as it moves through the orchards, we will hear the humming of ten thousand circling bees catching the scent of a million sun struck blooms. Before there is fruit there must be flowers, and, in May, here among the green rolling hills, the land around every bend greets the eyes with such an embarrassment of blossoms that laughter erupting amid gasps of amazement is the most common response. Each tree is an immaculate white or pink popcorn bouquet held up to the sky so that, viewed at the perfect moment, a sunlit orchard climbing a hillside to the horizon can dissolve the differences between the celestial and the earthly heavens and rival the very clouds.

The fruit growers of Michigan who have shaped these orchards are a rare breed practicing a lifestyle that literally roots them to a modest, but typically lovely piece of land for generations and every day they are blessed or beset by the ceaseless vicissitudes of the weather that envelops it. Considering that there are only about 2,400 of them remaining, strung out along a narrow strip of 300 miles of rolling hill land within a few miles of the lakeshore, and that they may each grow several, of a dozen or more fruits, on farms that average less than 60 acres… perhaps the only things they are likely to hold in common are a fierce desire for autonomy, a love of the work, and a passion for their place. We never forget that our ability to make America’s most delicious preserves depends, to a very great degree, on their ability to grow some of America’s most delicious fruits.

And just last summer we discovered another dedicated fruit growing family to provide us with yet another remarkable fruit variety. John and Sue O’Brien started their South Haven Blueberry farm almost 30 years ago. They have endured and continue to grow some of the old high bush cultivars first domesticated from the wild in 1911. Their perseverance has made it possible for us to now make our Fruit Perfect® Blueberries, Blueberry Lime Preserves and Blueberry Spoon Fruit® exclusively with the old Rubel variety treasured for its small, firm fruits that are so packed with authentic blueberry flavor and fragrance that savvy local pie makers refuse to bake with any other.

Our Brandywine Tomato Preserves (perhaps the most labor intensive we’ve ever attempted) sold out in a flash last year. They were so sublime and so scarce that the sole surviving jar hidden away in my cupboard still beckons to me every day. We are hoping that a warmer summer with a longer growing season delivers an abundance of Brandywines so that more of you can experience them.

One of the clearest memories of my boyhood was the discovery that the berry farm my parents acquired in Wildwood, Michigan during the mid-fifties came with the previous owners’ basement cellar fully stocked with gleaming blue/green glass jars of canned berries, fruit preserves and glass jugs of home made fruit wines. Being seven miles from town we soon learned what a great convenience, comfort and delight having our own store of deliciously preserved, locally grown fruit could be and my mother has reverently replenished that cellar for over fifty summers.

This kind of memory that many of us share still inspires our commitment to you. All the care we put into every jar is only intended to make the memorable flavors, textures and aromas of the finest fruits of summer we can find available at your fingertips in your kitchen cupboard. We sincerely hope that our pursuit of wonderful fruits with unforgettable flavors will brighten your day as much as those precious jars my mother brought up from the cellar all those years ago. From our beautiful corner of America to yours, here is the work of our hands, the fruit of our land, may it bring you pleasure.