Lucille’s Kitchen Garden was born out of a family tradition of food preservation and a priority of staying connected to the source of our family’s food. My mother, Jean, baked all of our family’s bread and canned the produce from our large family garden. My siblings and I picked raspberries, choke cherries, and black berries from the woods near our home, cleaned them, and enjoyed the jams and jellies that they went into throughout the long Minnesota winter.
My first year out of college, I experimented with my first kitchen garden in a forgotten flower bed at my apartment in Saint Paul. Everything went fine until I decided to plant catnip in the garden itself. The neighborhood cats were thrilled and in their catnip induced ecstasy, managed to tear up all of my vegetable plants. Since learning that valuable lesson, I have always had a kitchen garden, managing to can the tomato soups, sauces, green beans, and of course the jams and jellies that I loved as a child.
Now that we have our own daughter, it has become even more important to us to know that the jams on her pancakes and toast are filled with fresh local berries and sweetened naturally with sugar, as opposed to high fructose corn syrup. We have always made extra for friends and family, and with their encouragement we began our small savory jam company at the Mill City Farmers Market. The name, Lucille’s Kitchen Garden, came from both our daughter’s middle name and a nickname that my mother called me when I was young. We make four flavors year round, Raspberry Pepper, Blueberry Pepper, Green Pepper, and Garlic Pepper Jam. We also make a few different seasonal jams which currently include Rhubarb Strawberry Basil and Raspberry Garlic Jam. In the fall, when the apples come in we will make our Real Apple Butter. We sincerely hope that our customers enjoy eating our jams on some of the great local cheeses, Aebleskiver’s, and shortbread that are available at the farmers market and that we can help farmers market customers in putting together at least one local meal per week. We mean it when we say that we are Passionate About Local Flavor. Please visit our website and blog for recipes.
Distance traveled to Market:
5 miles from St Paul, MN
In the News:
Cooking Light Magazine votes Lucille’s Kitchen Garden’s Minnesota Mead Jelly Best in Condiments for Minnesota in the 2011 Taste Test Awards!
