In the meantime, here's what we'll have to offer this week:

All Markets (Oakland: Grand Lake 9/4, Temescal 9/5; SF: Noe Valley 9/4, Palo Alto 9/5, Marin 9/9): Strawberry Jam with Maraschino & Plum Brandy, Seville Orange Marmalade with Rum & Muscovado, Black Plum Jam with Candied Citrus and Bay Leaf, Silver Three-Fruit Marmalade, Apricot & Dolly Plum Jam, Pink Grapefruit-Blood Orange Marmalade with Campari, Red Raspberry-Strawberry Jam

Looking forward to a fun and sunny weekend!

Phew! It feels like, two days later, we're just recovering from the Eat Real Festival -- but what a great time!

We had so much fun on Saturday and Sunday talking jam with people and sharing our Craft Collaborations.
Saturday brought us a bread, cheese, and jam trio -- three different breads, each with a different cheese and jam. The gorgeous bread (pictured below) was from our new friend Mike, and the cheese was from Bohemian Creamery. Cheese flavors were: Capriago, Boho Bel, and Bodacious; jam flavors were Black Mission Fig Jam, Spiced Bourbon-Tomato Conserve, and Strawberry-Pink Peppercorn Jam.
On Sunday, we had the same cheeses, this time baked into delicious savory cookies by our friend Robyn. It was fun to experience  the same flavors in new ways! Each cookie was a little different: a whole wheat cookie, a graham cookie, and an oat cookie. Yet another way to enjoy cheese and jam together!

Thanks again to everyone who came by to say hello over the weekend. We can't wait until next year's Eat Real Festival!

All Markets (SF: Noe Valley 8/29, Palo Alto 8/30; Oakland: Grand Lake 8/29, Temescal 8/30: Babcock Peach Jam, Lemon Marmalade, Apricot & Dolly Plum Jam, Bitter Orange & Cinnamon Marmalade, Nightfall Blackberry Jam, Blood Orange-Quince Preserves, Children's Strawberry Jam

And just a reminder that we'll be bringing Spiced Tomato-Bourbon Conserve, Black Fig Jam, and Strawberry-Pink Peppercorn Jam with us to the Eat Real Fest -- so you can get your Blue Chair Fruit fix even if you opt to go to ERF instead of your regular market! Eat Real has been kind enough to post a map of all the vendors -- click here for more info (.PDF download).

We are so excited and proud to be participating in Oakland's Eat Real Festival this weekend, August 27-29! The Eat Real Fest is an annual gathering of people in the Bay Area committed to real food -- eating it, educating about it, producing it, growing it. It's an amazing opportunity to scope out the ever-growing Oakland and San Francisco food scene. Plus, we're looking forward to delicious, hand-crafted food and drinks all day!

We'll be involved in a craft collaboration, combining our jam with some fabulous Bohemian Creamery artisan cheese and savory cookies. We don't want to reveal all our secrets, but we're currently making three different jams to offer this weekend: Spiced Bourbon-Tomato Conserve (a customer favorite from last year), our ever-anticipated Black Fig Jam, and Strawberry-Pink Peppercorn Jam. For more information, go to the Craft Collaboration page of Eat Real. While we're certainly excited about our offerings, every collaboration on the list looks utterly delicious!

Our very own Rachel Saunders will also be participating in the Eat Real Lit Fest on Saturday from 4-7 p.m. Rachel's panel will be focusing on "Making, Growing, and Finding Food," and we'd be lying if we didn't admit that we're a little star-struck by some of her fellow panelists. More information on the Lit Fest page; a great run-down of what to expect can be found on SFoodie.

We're looking forward to participating and enjoying the Fest this weekend! Can't wait to see you all there.

There was one thing that got me through my first Bay Area winter: Blue Chair's English Marmalade. Each morning the intensity of this preserve's Seville oranges, bourbon, and brown sugar, along with a cup of tea, shook the cold right out of my bones. Today, summer showed up and I'm too hot for toast and tea! Consequently I am pioneering a new way to get my daily marmalade fix (yes, I am addicted): ice cream.

My inspiration comes from ReadyMade Magazine: last summer they wrote an article on making vanilla ice cream in a coffee can. The process and recipe are so simple that they lend themselves to creative adaptation. To satisfy my craving, I am leaving out the lemongrass and adding 2-3 tablespoons of Seville Orange Marmalade with Vanilla & Muscovado*. In twenty minutes I can turn five ingredients into Vanilla ice cream with a marmalade swirl. I imagine myself doting on the contrast between the bitter orange rinds and sweet vanilla cream daily.

When summer ends I will continue the ritual of marmalade -- on toast -- starting my day. As I suspect the glory of this ice cream won't tire by winter, it looks like marmalade will be ending my day as well.

*For those who insist that marmalade "just isn't my thing," any of our jams or lighter marmalades will dazzle in this recipe: Bing cherries! Olallieberries! Meyer lemons!

We're really excited for the markets this weekend, and starting to look forward to the Eat Real Fest in Oakland next weekend!

All Markets (Oakland: Grand Lake 8/21, Temescal 8/22 and SF: Noe Valley 8/21, Palo Alto 8/22): Strawberry Jam with Plum Brandy and Maraschino, English Marmalade, Mariposa Plum Jam, Meyer Lemon-Pink Grapefruit Marmalade, Early Summer Peach Jam, Strawberry-Blood Orange Marmalade with Rosemary, Blood Orange-Quince Preserves

We love giving out samples of the delicious flavors and chatting about jam and how wonderful summer produce is. Please stop by and say hello!

Last week, Rachel came to me in a flurry of excitement. She had just read Molly Wizenberg's most recent blog post on Orangette, wherein Molly describes her new love of toast. "I love toast!" Rachel said. "I totally understand and agree with everything Molly says in her blog. I love toast. We have to blog about toast."

A few days have passed, and we all talked excitedly about toast: when we like to eat it, what kind of bread we like, what kind of jam or marmalade is best on toast (a heated debate, as you may well imagine). And, well, Rachel's been a little bit busy making jam out of thousands of berries every day, so I thought I'd hop in and share our conclusions about toast. It may not be quite as elegant an articulation as Molly's, but I do think it gives a peek into how fanatical we at Blue Chair are about perfect jam pairings.

Rachel's favorite: Irish brown bread with English Marmalade is right up there. With strong black tea, of course!

Jamie's favorite: English muffin (from Arizmendi, or Lori's at the pop-up market), with lots of butter and East Cost Blueberry Jam. Paired with PG Tips black tea (with honey and milk).

Kate's favorite: Walnut bread, spread with Black Plum Jam with Candied Citrus & Bay. A cup of red chai to drink.

Luz's favorite: Elderberry-Orange Marmalade, with salted butter, on Firebrand bread.

The great toast debate was so much fun that we're thinking it will be a monthly feature for Blue Chair Fruit. What jam and toast (and, apparently, tea) pairings are your favorite? What should we try?

All Markets (SF: Noe Valley 8/14, Palo Alto 8/15; Oakland: Grand Lake 8/14, Temescal 8/15): Babcock Peach Jam, English Marmalade, Nightfall Blackberry Jam, Yellow Grapefruit Marmalade, Red Raspberry-Strawberry Jam, Strawberry-Blood Orange Marmalade with Rosemary (as featured on FoodCrafters!), Black Plum Jam with Candied Citrus and Bay

We'll see you this weekend -- you bring your taste buds, and we'll bring our tiny spoons!

We were lucky enough to have Sara as our photographer for The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook, and every single image in the book is absolutely stunning. Some of her photos are also featured on the postcards we hand out at our farmers' market stands. We can't tell you how frequently people comment on the gorgeous photography and ask to take a card to display in their home!

The whole interview's great, and we especially what Sara has to say about the stories food can tell:

I don’t want my photos to just be another pretty image. I want them to have personality and tell a story.

Take this peach. I want you to think about where it was grown, when it was picked, and how it might taste. And I want it to evoke memories of, say, when you were a child and your mom made peach cobbler, or the feeling of peach juice running down your face, or a summer you loved, or picking fresh fruit from a farm, or whatever the fruit brings to mind.

We couldn't have said it better ourselves! Please click here for more of Sara Remington's beautiful work.

Oakland Markets (Grand Lake 8/7, Temescal 8/8): Black Plum Jam with Candied Citrus & Bay, Blood Orange-Lemon Marmalade, Golden Sweet Apricot Jam, English  Marmalade, Strawberry-Pink Peppercorn Jam, Meyer Lemon-Pink Grapefruit Marmalade

San Francisco Markets (Noe Valley 8/7, Palo Alto 8/8, Haight 8/11): Black Plum Jam with Candied Citrus & Bay, Blood Orange-Lemon Marmalade, Golden Sweet Apricot Jam, English  Marmalade, Strawberry-Pink Peppercorn Jam, Meyer Lemon-Pink Grapefruit Marmalade, Nightfall Blackberry Jam

See you there -- hopefully with our sunglasses on!