There’s something special about opening a jar of homemade jam or pickles in the middle of winter and being instantly transported back to the flavors of summer.
That was the idea behind “Capturing Summer in Jars – Jams and Pickling” another installment of Folks Farm & Market’s Seed to Supper series, held on Friday, July 24.
This time, Amanda Newman of Spotted Horse Provisions pulled back the curtain and shared some of her techniques behind the preserves and pickled vegetables that have become a hallmark of Spotted Horse.
The hands-on seminar focused on one of the oldest and most practical traditions in seasonal cooking: taking fruits and vegetables when they’re at their absolute peak and preserving them for another day.
Attendees learned how to transform fresh summer produce into jams and pickled vegetables, extending the harvest well beyond the growing season. It’s a practice that feels especially meaningful when you consider how fleeting New Jersey’s growing season can be. Tomatoes, berries, peaches, peppers, cucumbers, and other summer favorites arrive in abundance, but seemingly disappear almost as quickly.
Food preservation lets you hold onto them a little longer.
More than simply following recipes, Newman shared the knowledge and techniques behind the process, giving participants a better understanding of how to treat seasonal ingredients with care and transform them into something to enjoy months later.
That connection between the farm, the kitchen, and the table is exactly what Folks Farm hoped to cultivate when creating Seed to Supper.
The ambitious agritourism program brings together farmers, chefs, makers, growers, and other food and agriculture experts for a series of intimate educational experiences throughout the summer. Rather than simply talking about where food comes from, participants are getting opportunities to see, taste, learn, and experience it firsthand.
“Capturing Summer in Jars” was another perfect example.
There is something deeply satisfying about taking what is abundant right now and finding a way to save it. Long before grocery stores made nearly every ingredient available year-round, preserving was simply part of the rhythm of eating seasonally. When the garden or farm gave you more than you could use right away, you canned it, pickled it, fermented it, or turned it into something you could tuck away for later.
Seed to Supper is helping introduce—or reintroduce—those skills while connecting participants with the talented people in our region who still practice them.
To learn more about Spotted Horse Provisions, follow on Instagram.
To learn more about Folks Farm Seed to Supper series, click here or follow on Instagram.
Special thanks to Brianna Lee Photography for permission to use the photos.
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