Well, this spring, we took our annual pilgrimage to Central Coast, California to hike all the things, drink all the wine, eat all the tapas, and yes, buy all the mustard, oil, dips, and jellies. We brought home two jellies for our Jelly of the Month Club, and the first one we’re featuring is from Santa Barbara County, the southernmost point of our yearly travels.
You may remember Fess Parker from our Sideways Tour in 2015, or perhaps as Frass Canyon from the movie itself, where Miles had that phone call with his agent and then debased himself by guzzling wine from the spit bucket. It’s a regular stop on our Santa Barbara County stretch of the trip. The property is beautiful, the wines are tasty, and there are always a handful of unique jams, jellies, and dips for sale. This year, we brought home a jar of the Apricot, Riesling & Vanilla Jam (made with Fess Parker Riesling).
This jam is light but lovely, almost like a sleepy morning sunrise. The texture is soft and pliable, almost floppy on the knife, so it’s an easy spreader for your muffins, toast, or crackers.
“Seriously, MommyDaddy. Less talk about the jelly; more EATS the jelly.”
“Mmm yes. Layla is a member of the clean spoon club now!”
Since it was Easter, we subbed in some of my mum’s delightful homemade paska bread instead of our traditional English muffin, and it was quite a good swap. Some months, we have jellies that only go with the peanut butter crackers, or only with the English muffin, but this jam was great in both applications.
color: 4.5. Lovely pale yellow like a morning sunrise.
flavor: 5. You can taste all of the parts, but they blend together perfectly.
jelly-ness: 4.5. It was so floppy and spreadable!
jar presentation: 3.5. Very simple, nice font.
awesomeness: 4.75. Yeah girl. I mean, it’s no spit bucket after you found out no one wants to buy your book BUT, as far as jelly goes, it’s really freaking good.