The Salty Cook attended last weekend’s Public Fruit Jam! The 5th annual ‘jam’ was presented by LACMA and Fallen Fruit, two separate organizations that have joined forces to encourage the use of fresh local fruit in the community.
The Public Fruit Jam invited people to bring homegrown, street-picked or otherwise acquired fruit and participate in a mass jam making session! Working together, participants created unique flavor combinations, swapped fruits, and sampled each others’ jam creations! A great way to spend a sunny afternoon – plus, we got to bring home our jars of fruit jam! We even swapped with some newly-made friends for their jars of jam as well.
Lavender Lemon Fig Jam
We decided to make a batch of fig jam, but we could not decide on what herbs to include! There were so many options to choose from – mint, thyme, and rosemary were some other contenders. After chopping up about 3 pounds of fruit (we used about 15 or 16 medium-sized figs and 3 lemons), we proceeded to the cooking station.
Here, we tossed our fruit into a pot and brought it to a simmer, stirring constantly. We added 1 cup of pectin to help thicken the jam, then covered and let simmer for about 5 minutes. We stirred some more, then added 3 cups of sugar. Stir, stir, stir, simmer, simmer, simmer, and voila! Jam. As a finishing touch, we added 1 tablespoon of fresh lavender. We spooned it into 6 waiting jars, tightened the lids, and turned them upside-down to seal.
This method is great for small batches of jam, or for those of us who do not want to fuss with the wonderful (and time consuming) canning process. The jam we made will stay good in the fridge for 2-3 weeks, but we popped all but one jar into the freezer, where it should stay good for a few months. Don’t forget to label the lids with the kind of jam you made as well as the date concocted!
What is Fallen Fruit
“Fallen Fruit investigates urban space, ideas of neighborhood and new forms of located citizenship and community. From protests to proposals for new urban green spaces, we aim to reconfigure the relation between those who have resources and those who do not, to examine the nature of & in the city, and to investigate new, shared forms of land use and property. Fallen Fruit is an art collaboration that began with creating maps of public fruit: the fruit trees growing on or over public property in Los Angeles.
Over time our interests have expanded from mapping public fruit to include Public Fruit Jams in which we invite the citizens to bring homegrown or public fruit and join in communal jam-making; Nocturnal Fruit Forages, nighttime neighborhood fruit tours; Community Fruit Tree Plantings on the margins of private property and in community gardens; Public Fruit Park proposals in Hollywood, Los Feliz and downtown LA; and Neighborhood Infusions, taking the fruit found on one street and infusing it in alcohol to capture the spirit of the place.”
Over time our interests have expanded from mapping public fruit to include Public Fruit Jams in which we invite the citizens to bring homegrown or public fruit and join in communal jam-making; Nocturnal Fruit Forages, nighttime neighborhood fruit tours; Community Fruit Tree Plantings on the margins of private property and in community gardens; Public Fruit Park proposals in Hollywood, Los Feliz and downtown LA; and Neighborhood Infusions, taking the fruit found on one street and infusing it in alcohol to capture the spirit of the place.”
– According to the Fallen Fruit website: www.fallenfruit.org
Canning and Jamming
For those of your interested in the very rewarding jamming and canning process, here are some helpful resources:
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