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!

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 used this recipe, and the beer of choice was Scrimshaw. Before we knew it, a fresh-baked loaf of delicious (albeit slightly sweet*) bread was in our little hands.

The candidates for perfect match with beer bread: Red Raspberry-Strawberry Jam, Golden Sweet Apricot Jam, Nightfall Blackberry Jam, Lemon-Pink Grapefruit Marmalade, Seville Orange Marmalade with Vanilla and Muscovado, and English Marmalade. We chose the widest flavor variety possible. We're very scientific like that.

Our results indicate that marmalade is an excellent match for beer bread. While the Seville Orange Marmalade was a little too intense for this batch of beer bread, we want to try it with bread made with a stronger beer -- maybe Guinness. The Lemon-Pink Grapefruit was a little too light for the Scrimshaw. If we make a Stella Artois beer bread, Lemon-Pink Grapefruit will be our choice.

Jam, it turns out, is better suited for a lighter bread that does not taste like beer. However, we did think the Nightfall Blackberry jam was pretty delicious with this bread -- it was a close second for the favorite pairing. We'd recommend using Nightfall Blackberry to accentuate a blackberry or other berry ale.

The clear first-place winner was the Seville Orange Marmalade with Vanilla and Muscovado. The strong notes in this marmalade -- molasses-y muscovado sugar, rum, and vanilla -- held up against the beer flavor, while simultaneously accentuating the different notes in the beer. Some of us may have gone back for a second helping. In order to verify our results.

Happy International Beer Day!

*This recipe recommends a bit too much sugar for our taste.

Did you know that Blue Chair Fruit offers jam and marmalade classes? Over the past few months, we've started offering classes at our kitchen, and we're loving the opportunity to connect with fellow jam-lovers. Nothing makes Rachel happier than having one of her students come to the markets to enthusiastically show her their latest jam creation!

These classes have been filling up quickly, especially  now that we're getting into the heart of preserve-making season. We keep the classes at around seven people so that every student gets a lot of hands-on experience and the opportunity to ask Rachel a lot of jam questions. There are still a few spaces left in each of the classes for this weekend: Jam 101 on Friday, August 6th from 4-9 pm, and Flavor Construction: Strawberry Jam on Sunday, August 8th from 4-9 pm. For more information on classes, click through to our Classes page.

See you soon!

Appropriately, we have some great summer-y jams to bring with us to the markets this weekend! Berries, stone fruit... yum.

San Francisco Markets (Noe Valley 7/31, Palo Alto 8/1, Haight 8/4): Apricot & Dolly Plum Jam, Seville Orange Marmalade with  Muscovado & Vanilla, Strawberry-Meyer Lemon Jam, Yellow Grapefruit Marmalade, Red Raspberry-Strawberry Jam, Pink Grapefruit-Blood Orange Marmalade with Campari, Nightfall Blackberry Jam

Oakland Markets (Grand Lake 7/31, Temescal 8/1): Apricot & Dolly Plum Jam, Seville Orange Marmalade with  Muscovado & Vanilla, Strawberry-Meyer Lemon Jam, Yellow Grapefruit Marmalade, Red Raspberry-Strawberry Jam, Blood Orange-Quince Preserves with Rosewater, Nightfall Blackberry Jam

See you there!

We have been having a great time at our farmers' markets these past few weeks, and are busy bringing on some fabulous new staff at our markets (new About Us profiles coming soon)! We are also loving Fall here at the Blue Chair Fruit kitchen, where we are in the process of making our Quince-Rose Geranium Marmalade and a pear and quince marmalade! Also in the works: a pear and dried fig conserve with rosemary and black pepper! We also just posted our phenomenally yummy Concord Grape & Vanilla Jam and our Plummy Meyer Lemon Marmalade - our very last early Fall preserves!

We will also be doing several jam and marmalade tastings around San Francisco and the East Bay over the next several days, in addition to our normal farmers' market schedule. We will be offering our special Thanksgiving and yuletide flavors, in addition to limited-quantity flavors. For details, please see our Where to Find Us page. We hope to see you soon!