*We will be rescheduling these on a case by case basis. If you have signed up for one of these classes, please check your email for more information.* 

Fall bearing raspberries haven’t arrived yet and you just finished picking all the currants and gooseberries. Blueberries are at their peak and all throughout the garden are edible flowers and herbs that can add depth to your berry preserves. Join V Smiley to learn how to make flavor-balanced, honey-sweetened, no-added-pectin preserves. We’ll discuss how to prepare berry preserves and how to incorporate herbs and flowers into fruit preserving. As we cook our berries in a beautiful Mauviel copper jam pan, we’ll discuss the often-misunderstood element of pectin. At the end, you’ll go home with a jar of preserves a recipe for honey-sweetened berry jam.

Workshop registration fee is $30; please pre-register below.

V Smiley grew up on a vegetable and beef farm in New Haven, Vt. After graduating with a degree in Art History & English in Maryland, V moved to the west coast, spending almost three years in Los Angeles and seven years in the Pacific Northwest split between Whidbey Island and Seattle. Professionally, V bounced between art fabrication and restaurant kitchens, working and collaborating with artist Andrea Zittel and cooking in the opening kitchen crews behind James Beard Award winning restaurants Sitka & Spruce and The Whale Wins in Seattle. Wishing to one day return home and cultivate the family farm in Vermont, V started V Smiley Preserves in 2013 while working full time as a line cook. Sales and production happened in the “off hours” - mornings and weekends away from the restaurant. In 2015, V and partner Amy moved from Seattle to the New Haven farm. Here in Vermont, a slate of special ingredients (readily available currants and gooseberries and homegrown aromatics) and challenges (radically different sales market from the city) have woven together to create a new version of V Smiley Preserves, which are sold in specialty food and cheese shops around the states, from nearby Healthy Living Market to Murray’s Cheese flagship stores in Manhattan. Locally, you always find the widest selection with V at the weekly Burlington Farmers Market and a complete list of stockists on the company website.