Tart Cherry & Apricot Jam from welovejam [+ newsletter Bonus]

The jam is divine, a perfect balance tart and sweet, apricot and cherry. I bought some once as a treat for passing a final. Big mistake, huge: now my favorite jam is one that I have to order online. There is no better start to a morning than toasted sourdough slathered with salted butter and this jam.

The newsletters that Eric, the jam maker, writes are equally good. They feel like a peek into the highs and lows, trials and tribulations of jam making. A snippet on marachino cherries from a March 22nd newsletter contain

During my marmalade madness back in January where I was going through all kinds of vintage cookbooks, one my mom sent me from her home town in Tarrytown, NY had something that caught my eye. A peach maraschino marmalade. When I was a kid I liked to order Shirley Temples when we went to restaurants. I loved the maraschino cherries, and often would walk up to the bar, sit down on a stool and ask the bartender if I could have some more of the cherries. Well, flash forward to when I was an adult and learned that maraschino cherries are really a Frankenstein fruit - so overly processed it defies explanation. But still some braincells deep in my memory banks have some kind of love of this flavor. So, I tried making the recipe. It is peaches, orange (the whole thing, rind and all), and some maraschino cherries. Wow. It was really good. But too sweet. Way too sweet. So I added some lime, and cut back on the sugar a lot. Now it is super good. Yes, I know it has the artificial color, and I never eat this kind of food, but heck. I got four gallons of these cherries, and so this is a one time thing in the name of vintage recipes from the past. Give it a try if you dare because that one jar you might buy - it will never be available ever again.