Ultimate Foodie

Now, I normally am not a jam or jelly buyer. So many of them are full of preservatives and chemicals that I don’t even bother. I prefer to make my own for the most part, but this past week we ran out of my last jar of homemade and I just didn’t have time to make any, so I broke down and bought a jar of Kozlowski Farms Blackberry Spread at our local Bel-Air.

Let me tell you, I am glad I did! The spread is absolutely exquisite. It contains no added sugar, which is great, and the whole list of ingredients is five things, four of which are fruit and the last which is fruit pectin. (Pectin is what makes jams and jellies gel.) One really interesting thing about this spread is it is made entirely with USA grown fruit which I find completely refreshing.

Quick, simplistic lesson in jams and jellies:

•Jams are made from cooked, mashed up fruit mixed with sugar and pectin.

•Jellies are made from cooked, mashed up fruit that is then strained and mixed with sugar and pectin. The fruit bits are not included so the jelly is clear and the color of the fruit.

• Marmalades are made from cooked citrus fruit rind, sugar and sometimes pectin.

• Spreads are jams with no added sugar.

There’s a lot of other variations, like fruit curds and fruit butters, but essentially most products are going to fall into these four categories.

Back to the taste…it spreads very nicely, even straight from the cold refrigerator. There’s no clumping or having to work it into the toast. The taste is straight from the vine blackberries, sweet with just that hint of tartiness at the finish. How great to find a blackberry spread that tastes like blackberries and not some oversweetened, metallic tasting facsimile.

Kozlowski Farms Blackberry Spread is a bit expensive at $4.99 for a 10 oz jar, but overall it was quite delicious and a great alternative to breaking out my canning stuff and doing it myself. You can also purchase a variety of jams, jellies, spreads and marmalades online at http://www.kozlowskifarms.com