Ma's Country Bakery

[franksolich]

This isn't anything one's going to find on the internet, but anyway.

Ma's Country Bakery of Verdigre, Nebraska, way up in the northeastern corner of Nebraska.

This morning, while in the big city, I stopped at the grocery store where the Country Club Set shops, and noticed an array of jellies and jams in old-style canning pint-jars.

At five bucks a pint (one pound, three ounces).

Alas, there was no grape or cherry (jam or jelly), but I wanted to give it a try anyway.  The jalapeno jelly was obviously out, and among the rest, the one that looked least risky to a person firm in his culinary tastes was strawberry-rhubarb jam, both fruits towards which franksolich harbors no ill-will.

The ingredients are: strawberries, rhubarb, sugar, pectin, citric acid.

Thirty calories per serving, 0 grams total fat, 0 milligrams sodium, total carbohydrates 7 grams, sugars 6 grams, Vitamin C 25%.

The label advertises it as "Our homestyle fruit preserves are made in small batches in a traditional kitchen."

For whatever that's worth.

I haven't tried it yet--I just got home and need some sleep--but has anyone else ever tried small locally-made jams, jellies, and preserves?  I have a good feeling about this without having tasted it yet, but I wonder how such compare with jams, jellies, and preserves made the old-fashioned way, in large corporate vats in large corporate factories.

[Eupher]

There's an Amish community located to our southeast. They run a country store that features all sorts of things, including jams and preserves.

Stuff tastes great -- not at all like that commercially-prepared stuff.

The really odd thing is, speaking of the Amish, I actually saw an Amish woman driving a car a few days ago. I did a double then a triple-take. Yep, she was outfitted just like a traditional Amish woman.

Blew me away....

[franksolich]

There's an Amish community located to our southeast. They run a country store that features all sorts of things, including jams and preserves.

Stuff tastes great -- not at all like that commercially-prepared stuff.

The really odd thing is, speaking of the Amish, I actually saw an Amish woman driving a car a few days ago. I did a double then a triple-take. Yep, she was outfitted just like a traditional Amish woman.

I recall when a kid--this would have been the summer of 1969--seeing an Amish family in Pennsylvania disembark from a motor vehicle.  But they made a concession to austerity; the car was black, and the tires weren't white-sidewalls.  Absolutely no ornamentation or fanciment on the vehicle.

There's Amish up here on the roof of Nebraska, the floor of South Dakota; not many, but some.  Because of the sheer distances, they tend to use cars; but modest models, and always black.

Anyway.

I tried the strawberry-rhubarb jam; it's not particularly exceptional, and the rhubarb taste was considerably less than what I'd hoped for.  However, I'm not a big jelly-and-jam consumer--this pint'll probably last me until next spring--and so that's of little import.  I think I'll just stick with this rather than the Welch's or Smucker's or other big brands, because I assume the ingredients are safer.

Am I right or wrong?  Does anybody know, or care to speculate?

[franksolich]

Since the strawberry-and-rhubarb jam worked so well, today when in the big city I bought a jar of Ma's County Bakery apple butter.

Ingredients are apples, sugar, salt, and "spices."

One pound, three ounces for five bucks even.

Thirty calories per serving (one tablespoon), 0 fat, 2.5 mg sodium, total carbohydrates 7% (sugars 6%), protein none.