Food...

When Kristina Shevory needed a present for her dad, a known re-gifter, she opted for a exhaustive homemade gift that’s a far cry from plaster of Paris handprints or marker-decorated cards. She cooked up a batch of strawberry jam. “The recipe sounded daunting,” she wrote in The San Francisco Chronicle, “vats of boiling water, hours over a stove and bubbling, splattering jam. But it was unique and just difficult enough that I thought he would like it – or at least like the effort it took to make it.”

That was eight years ago, now she’s a jam making fanatic. Around the Bay area, jammers make the sweet stuff for friends, to sell online or at specialty stores. And they’re making more than your average strawberry preserve or orange marmalade. Today’s jam makers are mixing up batches of Elephant Heart plum or Fukushu kumquat jam, kiwi lime ginger jelly, or lemon with black pepper preserves.

Interested in tasting a specialty jam?

Try one of the many charismatic flavors from CMB Sweets. Also in the Bay area, We Love Jam takes it back to basics with their signature apricot jam. In Michigan Friske Orchards sells locally made jam and a six-jam gift pack. Apparently, Thimbleberry jam is an Upper Peninsula specialty. Local Harvest includes lists of jam makers across the U.S. (or type in your zip code on our homepage).

Want to make your own instead?

Learn how with recipes from the SF Chronicle article or PickYourOwn.org.

Photo of the classic apricot variety from WeLoveJam.com.