...made from local fruit in San Benito County. We use ripe Newton apples for the perfect blend of tart and sweet. Slowly cooked for many days over low heat until the fruit achieves the consistency of butter. We add our secret spices for a delicious taste treat.

...made from a mix of Blenheim and Moorpark varieties. The Moorparks are the most flavorful, but are not grown commercially any longer because the fruit does not ripen all at once. We have planted Moorparks and as our trees mature, we will use higher percentages of them in the jam...the flavor will then become even better that it is today (and it is great today!).

...we blend the apricots with chunks of pineapple to create an old-fashioned favorite jam. A mouth-watering aroma with a sweet flavor. Pineapple plantations are hard to find in San Benito County, ours come from Hawaii.

...the best cherries come from Hollister, straight from the Rajkovich’s Fairhaven Orchards. These are the best tasting cherries in the world. They all ripen within ten days so it becomes hectic about the first of June.

...we use only Black Beauty variety blackberries for their characteristic rich, sweet flavor. Best when grown in a warm summer climate so the berries fully ripen. We get ours fresh from the vine in Watsonville, CA.

...the classic flavor is retained in our fine jam. Made from blueberries from Sonoma, CA, this jam is just like eating them fresh in the field. Great spread on pancakes or waffles!

...the famous berry hybridized by Rudolph Boysen back in the 1920s and improved upon by Walter Knott of Knott’s Berry Farm fame. Delicious raspberry-blackberry flavor. We get ours from a small ranch in Watsonville, CA. A perennial favorite.

...picked fresh from a very tall Mission fig tree in our neighbor’s backyard in Hollister. The jam tastes like the inside of a Fig Newton cookie.

...the famous fruit developed by Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge James Logan in the 1890s. The Judge never did reveal how he hybridized the fruit, but some suspect it was a wild dewberry crossed with a red raspberry. Very hard to find this delicious fruit now. Occasionally we find a small crop on a lonely ranch in the hills above Las Lomas near the California coast.

...we make very tasty marmalades from lemon and oranges picked fresh from our backyard trees. The Lemon Marmalade is the most tart and the Orange Marmalade is more sweet than tart, reminiscent of the English Bitter Orange Marmalade. The Lemon Marmalade won Best-of-Fair at the California State Fair when we entered it a few years back!

...looks something like a peach but with a much different flavor. We leave the skins on when we cook this fruit. This makes for a very tasty jam and gives it the pretty rosy-orange color. We find the nectarines from a few trees in San Benito County.

...best grown in the Santa Cruz County area with the cool foggy mornings and mild afternoons. A cross between a Youngberry and a Loganberry. Considered the "Cadillac of Blackberries." Used to be our best seller. The drought wiped out almost all the vines. Pronounced as OH LOLLY BERRY.

...we use the ripest fruit on the trees by hand-selecting all the peaches here in Hollister. Commercial picking mixes ripe and immature fruit together, diluting the classic taste. We cannot use the skins like in nectarine jam because of the fuzz, but the flavor is still great. Try a tablespoon on top of good French vanilla ice cream!

...a very tasty hors d’oeuvre when spread over a block of cream cheese. Eat with crackers or tortilla chips. Made from Jalapeno Peppers. Picked fresh in San Benito County. The red or green tint comes from food coloring. Same flavor in both colors. Cooking hint: use as a glaze on roast meat. Yummy!

...these come from a very "fruitful" plum tree in a friend’s backyard in Hollister. This tree is a one-tree plum factory. The plums make a very good jam with just the hint of tartness.

...the most difficult to make jelly. Each tasty seed has to be plucked from the skin (which is bitter) before cooking can begin. Almost non-existent as a commercial jelly because of this. A slightly tangy, tart flavor as a jelly. Comes from our backyard trees.

...made from local pumpkins. This is for those people who don't want any pie crust on their pumpkin pies. Outstanding on a cold, frosty morning.

...we get them from Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties where they grow slow and delicious. The berries are sweet with the classic raspberry tartness. Makes great jam and jelly. We get ours from small farms in the hills of Watsonville, CA.

...we use the bright red stalks of the rhubarb plant. It does not stay cool long enough in San Benito County for the redness to develop fully. We get ours from Monterey County. The jam is very, very tart with a capital T.

...very select sun-ripened berries from San Benito County. We use the large jam berries which are very ripe and very sweet and make absolutely the best jam and jelly.

...a great mixture of the sweet strawberry and the tart rhubarb. If you like this flavor in a pie, you’ll love it as a jam.

...a cross between a red raspberry and a black brambleberry. Originated in Scotland along the banks of the Tay River. Probably even better than Olallieberry, the Cadillac of Blackberries. Unfortunately most growers in the area have stopped growing this fruit and we have not found it in the last few years.

...JAM contains large pieces of fruit (with seeds, but no pits). JELLY is a jam mixture that is strained to remove all solid chunks of fruit and seeds (it should be clear and sparkling). MARMALADES are clear jellies in which pieces of fruit and rind are evenly suspended. BUTTER is a product that has been slow-cooked with spices until it reaches a thick consistency that spreads easily.