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| Mes Confitures: The Jams and Jellies of Christine Ferber. Photo: Kneale Culbreath |
The cherry blossom are in bloom all over Seattle, and the sight is intoxicatingly beautiful: imagine every tree covered with pink petaled confetti. I find myself staring at the pink trees and engaging in conversation with complete strangers about how beautiful they are. The campus on the University of Washington has a quad now in full bloom, as you can see from the pictures below. It is a heady sight. I am greedy for the pink blossoms and have taken many photos of them whenever I leave the house. Spring is here.
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| Cherry blossom in bloom on University of Washington campus. Photo: Kneale Culbreath |
How do you capture a fleeting season? The first thing I thought of was jam. What about a cherry blossom jelly or jam? Sakura is the Japanese word for cherry blossom. If you Google "sakura jelly," you will find many entries all devoted to the sweets. There is even a gorgeous-looking Tumblr devoted to the flowery desserts. Cherry blossom-flavored food is hugely popular in Japan, home of the world's most famous cherry blossom festivals. The sakura is pickled or salted. You can buy salt-cured cherry blossoms and cherry blossom essence to flavor foods like panna cotta and cakes. Sakura jelly has been described as "spring in a jar," and to me this is the ideal of jam, capturing the season in a jar. The blogger She Who Eats wrote a piece on the sakura food available and her thoughtful sakura baking fundraiser to help the victims of the hurricane that hit Japan in 2011.
What does cherry blossom jelly taste like? I imagine something floral and almond with some citrus in there to make everything sing. When I was looking for a recipe for cherry blossom jelly, the first person I thought of was Christine Ferber. Ferber is known around the world as "la fée des confitures," or "the fairy of jams." Ferber is an award-winning pastry chef/chocolatier/jam-maker who lives and works in her home village of Niedermorschwihr, in Alsace, France. Ferber is no ordinary jam maker, but someone who works more like a perfumer, using fruit as her medium. I wanted to feature Ferber because I admire her for doing what she loves and doing it brilliantly, according to her own terms.
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| More University of Washington cherry blossoms in full bloom. Photo: Kneale Culbreath |
I was inspired to make marmalade by Ferber's cookbook I have toted around for years: Mes Confitures: The James and Jellies of Christine Ferber. This past Christmas, my husband J. and I made a version of Seville orange marmalade using regular navel oranges and lemon to mimic the signature bitter taste of the Seville orange. The results were well-received by family and friends and we are still savoring the last jar. I learned about Christine Ferber through Clotilde Dusoulier's excellent food blog, Chocolate and Zucchini. At the time, I was making perfumes and was struck by how much Ferber's jam recipes sounded more like scents in their complexity and composition. I was entranced by the descriptions and names of the jams: Apple Jelly with Acacia Flowers; Nougabricot, an apricot-based jam filled with slivered almonds and pistachio; Raspberry and Litchi with Rosewater; Orange with Earl Grey Tea; Elderberry Jelly.
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| Closeup of cherry blossom tree. Photo: Kneale Culbreath |
Jam-making is a lot like making perfume in that it is a solitary pursuit requiring focus and attention but the end result is something that you share with others. Ferber's cookbook is divided into chapters entitled Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, making for seasonal and mouthwatering reading. Ferber's recipes are not complicated but the instructions are thorough and detailed. Ferber has described her work as a process of understanding the fruit, respecting it, and showing it off to best advantage. I was won over by Ferber's attention to detail and her belief in using the freshest, ripest fruits and vegetables, picked in season. In order to control quality, Ferber makes jam in batches no bigger than eight pounds. Ferber believes there are no shortcuts or cheats to good jam-making. I would urge anyone with an interest in jam to pick up a copy of her book.
I hope to visit Maison Ferber the next time I am in France and imagine I will have to set aside an empty bag just for her jams. In the meantime, I am looking at spring produce with extra care, deciding on which jam to make.
I have always loved Antonio Vivaldi's violin concerti "The Four Seasons," and the Spring movement is the most fitting piece I can think of here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKthRw4KjEg
This version features Itzhak Perlman playing with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in 2006. I think of the bass and cello as representing the steady growth of the earth and the violins as the winds, grasses and trees all beginning to bloom and grow furiously. Bring on spring.
Sources:
http://www.christineferber.com/Christine-Ferber.html
For years, jam fanatics had to trek to France to buy Ferber's jams or ask friends to bring them back to the States. You can now purchase Ferber's goods through www.thesweetpalate.com (http://www.oriol-balaguer.com/CHRISTINEFERBERJAMS.aspx)
If you read French, this interview with Ferber is a fascinating portrait in which she discusses her history and philosophy: http://cuisine.journaldesfemmes.com/magazine/itvw/it_ferber.shtml
Saveur magazine was one of the first American publications to discuss Christine Ferber and the global obsession with her products: http://www.saveur.com/article/Kitchen/Christine-Ferber-French-Jams
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