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Last fall, we wrote a blog post about Modern Gingham Preserves, a local company that uses surplus fruit and vegetables to make jam and marmalade. With spring here, Modern Gingham owner Kathy Lee is working on securing produce for the coming season. She focuses on unsprayed fruit trees, berry patches, and garden veggies that go unpicked or unclaimed. She also taps CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) that might experience overabundance and waste. You could say that Lee is making lemonade out of lemons.
This year, Lee is offering a jam CSA for the summer/fall harvest. Sign up and nab six jars of gourmet preserves for $45 (the price goes up to $50 after April 30). These aren’t your usual Smuckers spreads: Lee crafts flavors such as raspberry with violet liqueur, plum (made with fruit picked in the Mayfair neighborhood) with ginger and organic citrus, and even carrot-ginger-vanilla.
How best to tap into Lee’s creative and sustainable efforts? Sign up for the CSA and/or give her permission to pick your unwanted fruit and veggies. (She gifts back a portion of the jam to homeowners who donate.)
For more information, call 720-279-4645 or e-mail kathy@moderngingham.com.
Bonus: Shares for more traditional CSAs are also still available. I’ve signed up for Pasture of Plenty’s, which provides weekly drop-offs flush with farm-fresh produce, herbs, and flowers.
Follow Amanda M. Faison on Twitter (@5280Eats), Facebook, and Pinterest.
—Photo via Shutterstock
