Blue Cottage News

Wow! It has been quite a while since I have had a chance to sit down and update our page, which just means I have been in the kitchen too much cooking up more jams and syrups to bring to markets. Summer is technically here, though it feels more like early spring as we spend our days staying warm over large batches of syrup cooking on the stove. Thanks to all our wonderful friends who have come out to welcome us back to our farmer's markets. It has been a great joy to see so many familiar faces and to meet so many new people at our stand. As you may have noticed, it has not been terribly warm which means all our berries will be late this year. At this point we are cooking Rhubarb Jam trying to get ahead of the berry season, but we are just as impatient as you are for the first fresh Strawberries, Cherries and Raspberries. Well, it is off to the kitchen again, so if you have not been down to say hi at our stand at one of our many farmer's markets, please come down for a chat and a taste! We would love to see you! In the meantime, stay warm and stay happy!

October 2007

Thank you to all our friends at our many market for making this year our most successful yet.  We are entering the season of holiday markets, so please check our market/show page to find us in your area.  We still cannot believe just how welcome you have made us in your community markets, so THANK YOU again.  If we don't see you till next spring, have a warm and safe winter. Christina

Wow - Time flies and market season is almost over.  We are just getting in our pears and are waiting to receive our Concord Grapes, but other than that we are busy cooking up our fruit everyday preparing for the remaining markets and holiday shows.  Thank you all for making this market season so enjoyable for us - your visits at our markets have made our business a wonderful experience for us.  Please check out our "find us" list to continue to visiting and shopping with us this holiday season.  If you have special requests, please don't forget to email us so we can accommodate you if possible.  Till next we see you - take care and keep smiling!  Christina

August 2007

We have seen many changes this season in our business.  As more and more people discover our jams we are running around busily trying to keep up with the demand.  Due to our wrestling with time management (big words for not enough time), we have been forced to quit the Juanita Beach Market on Fridays.  Instead, you can find us in Seattle at the Madrona Market Friday Evenings until the end of the Market Season.

As we head to July - we want to thank the management of Crossroads Market.  Due to the the demands of our business, we are unable to continue at the great Tuesday Market.  In its place, we will trying out our first Seattle market, Queen Anne's Thursday Night Market so that we can cook mornings are be at market that evening. 

Come on down to the market and sample our Apricot Jam which is just in. We also now have Bing Cherry Jam, Rainier Cherry Jam, fresh Strawberry, Strawberry-Rhubarb, and Rhubarb Jam. 

New Location to Find our Jam:  Visit Garden Treasures in Arlington where you will find our Jam with their label.  You can find their farm stand at 3328 SR 530, stop by and pick up some fresh fruit and veggies.

As May approaches every so quickly, we are busy readying for the upcoming growing/market season.  We have had to eliminate Issaquah Market for now, but if possible, we hope to return later this summer.  Otherwise, we have increased our times at Edmonds Summer Market and hope to join the new Kirkland Juanita Market when it opens Friday evenings later this spring.  We are also looking into joining Woodinville Saturday Market, but for now we are still working out the logistics. 

ANNOUNCING:  Going out to Forks for a weekend on Peninsula - Stop by J & P Produce, Grand Opening May 19th, and pick up some of our jam for your weekend getaway.  J & P also features fruit from Yakima and around Washington, so grab some delicious fresh fruit as well.

Well, we hope to see you at the market in May!  Stop by, say hello, and catch up with us after the long, cold winter season.

THANK YOU for an excellent season.  We have been so busy, it has been wonderful.  Now that the markets and shows are finished for 2006, we are working on revamping our web page, bringing in more information about our farming friends who provide us and these farmer's markets with such a great variety of fruits.  We are also adding a page dedicated to retailers who sell our spreads throughout Washington and Oregon. 

Between cooking and markets, we have been running around town picking up berries and fruit, bringing them home to cook up, and back out again to visit with all our friends at our local markets.  We have started 2 times a month in Edmunds on Saturday, and we love it there.  Look for us to return more often next year!  Most of the fruit have come in or are coming in within the next few weeks, so keep and eye out for your favorite spreads.  If we have not made them yet, we will very soon.  Also, at markets only we are introducing our syrups.  We now have everything from Apricot to Peach to Tayberry Syrup, so stop by and try some.  They are great on ice-cream and on pancakes and waffles.  Also, the Apricot Syrup especially comes recommended for barbequing ribs and chicken.  Well, we are back to the kitchen to start some Ginger-Peach so look for it in the next few weeks at market.  See you at the market.

After months away from the fun of markets, we are happy to say we are back and having a blast at our local markets.  The first Wednesday of May brought the opening of the Kirkland Market.  It has new hours this year, which will take some time to adjust to, but we look forward to another fun season in Kirkland.  Sunday May 14th will mark the opening of the Lake Forest Park Market, open from 11:00 a.m. till 4:00 p.m.  Opening Tuesday May 23rd -- Bellevue Crossroads Farmer's Market!! Open from 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 a.m.  Come and enjoy opening day of this new Bellevue Market!  We will be there with opening specials and many samples open for tasting!  We are also introducing our Rhubarb Jam this month.  So far, the reviews have been very positive.  Stop by and give it a taste, if you dare! 

Come and visit with us at the "Just Us" Crafts 16th Annual Spring Bazaar at Bothell Country Village on April 7th and 8th.  We will be tasting a few of our spreads as well as introducing our new line of syrups - heavy on the fruit, light on the sugar!  The Syrup varieties include Blackberry, Blueberry, Boysenberry, Raspberry and Strawberry.  Soon, we hope to get some fresh Rhubarb so we can try our luck at Strawberry Rhubarb Syrup.  April 22nd has come and gone and we are busy most Saturday's at the Issaquah Market!  Come visit and try some of our new syrups!

Well, we are just back from the Seattle Gift Show where we had a great time and met many wonderful local (and not so local) business people.  If you would like more information about our wholesale pricing, please contact us directly, and we will mail you our information booklet.  Meanwhile, we are still in the kitchen.  We have made some final batches of jam from the fruit in our freezer, and now we are working on some delicious syrups.  With luck, we should be introducing the page on our website next month, so keep watching.  In the meantime, enjoy your winter.  Keep dry and stay healthy.  And Remember, nothing tastes better than warm toast with fresh jam in the morning, or be adventuresome, mix the jam into your oatmeal for a fantastic taste of summer!

Thanks to McPhail's Berry Farm, we have Tayberry and Loganberry Jam again.  Lucky for us, McPhails thought ahead and flash froze some wonderfully ripe berries, which we picked up on the 16th, and promptly made into jam.  Come by Minea Farm and try some fresh jam if you can!  We will be there Thursday, Friday, and part of Saturday with fresh jams and baked goods to sample featuring the jams.

The end of the year is fast approaching and we are busy preparing holiday packages for our customers to ship across the country.  Remember, it is easy to ship a few bottles to anywhere in the United States.  As long as we ship out before the 20th, the package should get there before Christmas. 

As we look back at this past year, we would like to thank all of you who stopped by our stand at our local farmer's markets or at one of the many holiday shows we participated in.  It has been an amazing year for us.  Thank you all for your suggested combinations and varieties.  We will continue to have Raspberry-Cherry, Tayberry and other great jams next year.  We also plan to add Loganberry as a regular variety, as well as Apricot-Loganberry.  With luck we will be able to offer Thimbleberry also, but we have not confirmed them yet.  Please keep your feedback coming to us, it is the best way for us to keep improving our product, and bring you the best jams we can!

Have a wonderful holiday and a spectacular new year!

Sincerely - Christina, Nicholas and Alex Martin

The holiday season is fast approaching and we are busy traveling to shows around our area with baskets and custom orders for all our wonderful friends.  I would like to take a minute to thank all the kind people who have stopped by our stands at markets and shows to sample our jams and jellies.  We have enjoyed meeting so many of our neighbors, getting ideas for new blends for next year or hearing their opinion of the spread they are buying or sampling. 

We recently added a new show over the Thanksgiving Weekend at Country Village in Bothell, please check out our "Find Us" Page to find out more information. 

In December, we plan to be at Minea Farm every weekend sampling and having weekly specials.  Stop by for some fresh pressed Cider or warm spiced Cider and try the spreads.

Fall has arrived, and with it more pears, apples and our first Quince.  As we continue to cook in the kitchen, Nicholas is back to school and not able to attend as many markets as he likes, and we are beginning to plan our holiday fair schedule.  Time has flown by this summer, and we hope all of you who have tried our spreads are continuing to enjoy them. 

Between batches we are trying to simplify the shipping process of our spreads, so check out Ordering Page soon for more information.

It seems like just yesterday we were looking forward to a sunny August, and now it is September.  August was wonderful for us.  We have enjoyed meeting so many wonderful people at the markets, both customers and farmers.  At every market we meet new farmers, sampled new fruit and brought home more fresh produce to cook into our jams and butters.  For example, at the Issaquah Market, we were lucky enough to run into Pam and Melinda from Ennis Farm in E. Wenatchee who provided us with wonderful Italian Prune Plums and Bartlett Pears.  We also have been lucky enough to continue working with Martin Family Orchards  from Orondo  and Bill's Fruits for tree ripened Peaches and Nectarines for jams and butters. 

In addition to our market friends, we were back in Pateros, at Rest Awhile Fruit Stand , for additional Italian Prune Plums and Gravenstein Apples.  Thanks to Tim and Connie for growing and picking such exceptional fruit.  Our friend Roger had a great time visiting your stand, meeting you, and picking up fresh fruit.

After cooking up the Gravensteins from Rest Awhile Fruit Stand, I remembered just how wonderfully these apples are to work with.  The butter we made sold out as quickly as we made it.  Lucky for us, we met Les of Jones Creek Farms from Lyman at the Kirkland Market, and he provided us with some additional Gravenstein's so we are able to make more butter for the market and the holidays.

July has come and almost passed us by!  With strawberries late and raspberries early, we have spent our days busily picking, cooking, or working at the Farmer's Markets.  The last week of June found us driving to the wonderful town of Pateros, WA to the Rest Awhile Fruit Stand where we picked 99 pounds of Montmorency Pie Cherries.  Thank you Bill and Tim for welcoming us and making our harvesting so enjoyable.

Since then we have been very busy in the kitchen, cooking up our regular varieties, and adding additional blends, like Strawberry Rhubarb Jam, Raspberry-Rhubarb Jam, Apricot Raspberry Jam, Raspberry Cherry Jam, Raspberry Red Currant Jam, Raspberry Black Currant Jam, Tayberry Jam, Marion Blackberry Jam, Red Currant Jam, and Black Currant Jam.   We are presently working on a Spiced Apricot Butter and a Peach Butter which we hope will be available soon in limited quantities.  It seems every week we receive requests at the market for new blends which we are trying when we have extra fruit, but it is hard to keep up. 

We have also been asked to combine our fruits with peppers to create some new spiced blends.  We have not decided whether on not this is something that we will follow through on, but we are debating and considering adding this new line for next year, so if you have any suggestions, please contact us through our email with your ideas.

We are also working to simplify the ordering process for our jams, with luck our new ordering and shipping setup will be in place by the beginning of August, so please bear with us!  Thank you in the meantime for all your orders, we are doing the best that we can to follow through and fulfill your requests.

As summer fast approaches, we find ourselves scurrying from markets to the kitchen, working hard to bring you the freshest spreads we can.  We are now regulars at the Kirkland Wednesday Market and the NEW Third Place Commons Farmers Market on Sundays. On the 26th we will venture to Roslyn to help open the Roslyn Sunday Market. 

With Strawberries being the fruit of the month, we have introduced a new Strawberry Rhubarb Jam.  It is low in sugar, like all our spreads, and has a wonderful tangy flavor, thanks to our locally grown Rhubarb mixed with fresh-from-the-farm Strawberries.  If the weather cooperates, we look forward to fresh Montmorency Cherries soon, and maybe Raspberries and Tayberries.  If our experiments work out, look for a Raspberry Rhubarb Jam coming soon, as well as a Tayberry Jam!

April 16th found us setting up at the Issaquah Public Market for the grand opening of the summer season.  Though the day started out a bit wet, we had a great time at the market, and plan to be there most Saturdays throughout the summer.

We are also pleased to announce that we are going to be regulars at the Kirkland Wednesday Market starting May 4th.  The Kirkland Market is located in downtown Kirkland and is open 11:00 - 6:00 Wednesdays from May 4th - October 13th.  We are very excited at this new venture, so stop by for a taste of the day's spread and say "hello".

Spring is in the air here in Redmond, and we are out in the gardens planting more fruit trees and bushes, trimming our vines, and planning our schedule for the upcoming summer.  We have also been busy in the kitchen, trying out new tastes, like Ginger Pear Jam and Spiced Pear-Apple Jam, which we hope to offer as soon as we find the right balance.  

Look for us at Celebrate Woodinville, on March 26th, at the All Fools Day Arts and Crafts Show.  Meanwhile, we are looking forward to returning to the Issaquah Public Market this summer, beginning April 16th.  Come down and visit with us and try our spreads.

December 2004

The holiday season is upon us and we're as busy as ever.  Check out our new gift baskets.

Summer is here in Washington, and the fruit is ripening on the plants.  We are busy cooking new batches of our spreads every week to keep up with all the fruit varieties grown here in Washington.  Our quantities are limited by what fruits we are able to bring home and cook.

Comments or Feedback?

Christina@BlueCottageJams.com

Blue Cottage Jams
P.O. Box 2031
Redmond, WA 98073-2031