Growing up both my grandmother and mother harvested all our homegrown fruit and made jam every year. I never enjoyed the fruits of their labor because I never did like jam. What I did love however were the small but delicious Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes we grew all summer long that you could never find in the stores. My sisters and I ate them like candy and I never forgot these special treats.

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As an adult; college, raising kids and living in an urban area never did lend themselves to gardening or canning. In 2015 I returned back home to my small Eastern Sierra Nevada mountain town to manage an organic market and café.  This experience let me open my mind and my taste buds to new flavors and ideas. During this time, while on vacation in the Seattle area I came across tomato jam at a farmers market.  I purchased a jar with the thought we could use it in the cafe in some way. Little did I know what that would lead to, with my first taste I was hooked and I knew I wanted to make jam. 

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Today my family and I grow as many Sweet 100 plants as we can handle and I spend my nights at the stove coaxing tomatoes to turn into jam and researching and testing new recipes. Things have come full circle as gardening and canning have come back into my life. I hope you enjoy this special treat as much as I do. 

 

- Jennifer Odum, Founder