Online - November 21, 2006

Jam Session

High Desert Fruit Confitures

Jams get a bad rap. Nasty stuff in between toes. Making you late for important meetings. Excuse for all the dirty hippies in a 500-mile radius to congregate for a friggin’ concert.

High Desert Foods is doing its part to counteract the poor word’s negative connotation.

The Durango, Colorado-based company grows organic fruits and vegetables in the Kiva Orchard, then transforms them into confitures (a term that includes confections, sauces, preserves, and jams, to you nonfoodies).

Small, handmade batches are made with just enough organic sugar to ensure they will be safely preserved. There are 17 flavors, including apple cider, apricot amaretto, sour cherry, peach vanilla bean, pear merlot, rhubarb rose with vanilla, and strawberry chardonnay.

Enjoy them mixed with yogurt, between layers of cake, on toast or pancakes, with a cheese plate, on sandwiches, accompanying meat, or almost anything else you can think of.

You might want to keep a few on hand. In case you’re ever, you know, in a jam.

Available online at highdesertfoods.com.