We know summer is here when we taste it. When we spill a nectarine down our sleeve. When we snap open a purse of peas. When we nab rhubarb from our neighbor.
To celebrate the perfect palate of summer, we have collaborated with a crew of local producers on a line of signature products, starting with Persephone Preserves. Enlisting our friends at Roots Kitchen and Cannery, we set out to concoct a complement to our Persephone pastries.
After experimenting with a bunch of different pairings in our home kitchen, we settled on strawberry as the base flavor. We left the rest to Roots, a talented trio based in Bozeman and Jackson who specialize in canning locally-grown, non-GMO, pesticide-free produce, “happy fruits and vegetables,” as Willi Brooks says. After only several weeks of development, they presented us with a test selection: We swooned over the preserve marrying sweet strawberries with tart Montana rhubarb and a delightful hint of vanilla. We are spooning the magenta jam over everything from vanilla bean ice cream to a block of white cheddar and even in our cocktails (strawberry rhubarb rum tonic anyone?)
In addition to our Roots collab, we worked with a local family of beekeepers to jar a 100% raw honey that tastes of a summer hike through high alpine fields. Just a drizzle adds notes of golden rod, aster, dandelion and thistle.
Between blooming honey and luscious preserves, our shelves now sing with the abundance of summer.