Well Preserved: A Jam Making Hymnal

This book is about my relationship with jam, my soul, music, and the world in which I live. When I make jam I slow down, my actions become rhythmical, my thinking clear. The repetitive motions of washing, stirring, pouring, and labeling allow me the space to think about my life -- what it means to be starting over and how I can embrace this stage of my life with vitality and joy.
With warmth and love, Joan Hassol takes us on an evocative journey through raspberry patches, in search of beach plums, down memory's lane, and ultimately to her bed-and-breakfast on Cape Cod, where her jam business, Well Preserved, is in full operation. In over seventy easy-to-prepare recipes -- none of which requires special equipment -- she reveals how to create such goodies as blueberry, wild cherry, and concord grape jams, five-fruit marmalade, pear with frangelico jam, and green tomato chutney, as well as breads, muffins, and cakes to complement the preserves or to serve on their own.
Well Preserved is a jam-making hymnal, a vibrant celebration of nature's rich bounty, as much about the soul as cooking. Read more Continue reading Read less AMAZON.COM REVIEW
The subtitle for Joan Hassol's Well Preserved reads, "A Jam-making Hymnal." This is aptly so, since the book is much more than a cookbook. Hassol wants to impart more than the simple knowledge of how to make jams; she wants the reader to understand them. Hassol's own jam business, Well Preserved, was an outgrowth of her lifelong passion for the fruits of her native New England, and what she has learned in life and business is collected in this volume. As a result, the approach is personal--full of great opinions, good advice, and, incidentally, wonderful jam recipes. As in anything with nature and fruit, the approach must be seasonal. The book is divided by season and includes the chutneys and marmalades of winter along with the jams of spring and summer, followed naturally by a section on breads and muffins on which to spread your new creations. Flowing throughout the book are Hassol's reflections on the bounties of the land and the people who have made the journey with her. Hassol is reminiscent of another well-known New England food writer, John Thorne, and for her, food represents a path to the soul--cooking is simply the vehicle that gets you there. Well Preserved is as much a personal story as a cookbook, yet the appeal is universal. She understands that to make something as simple as jam requires an understanding of nature and its seasons. It would not be an exaggeration to say the book is disguised as a metaphor for life--with some really great recipes. --Mark O. Howerton FROM LIBRARY JOURNAL
Hassol, who has a small jam-making business on Cape Cod, writes evocatively about her life there: her friends and family, the guests at her bed-and-breakfast, and the business she started several years ago. She provides 70 recipes for delicious small-batch jams and jellies, along with some breads and muffins to go with them, grouped into chapters with titles like "Nonnie and the Elderberries" and "Chasing the Wild Cranberry." Ziedrich, who might be called a pickle fanatic, offers a detailed and informative guide to pickles of all sorts, including kimchi and others from Asia, chutneys and salsas, and "freezer pickles," along with traditional favorites like Half-Sours by the Quart. She writes readably and knowledgeably about a variety of topics, and her varied and unusual recipes should tempt readers into trying at least a pickle or two, or more. Anyone interested in preserving will welcome both of these books, which are recommended for most collections.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joan Hassol, mother of six and grandmother of nine, started her jam-making business, Well Preserved, in 1990. Read more Continue reading Read less