FREE TASTING IN THE STORES! (EPISODE 2)

You can now taste for free our jam at any time in the different stores. We really think it is better for you to make yourself your own idea about the quality of our products before buying it. The stores which participate to this action are signaled with these frames (presently, all the stores participate to this free tasting action).

Other news of the stores:

The store of Merci Silay airport will not have anymore our jams. The problem is: the police do not accept glass containers in hand carry baggage for security purpose (?). As the store is after the check-in of the baggage, it is too late to add the jams in. We are very sorry of that but there is no possible agreement with the control of the airport. Anyway there are now many place you can find your jam pasalubong before arriving to the airport.

The question of the week:

I tried to make jam at home but the jam are very hard. Why?

Probably you cooked too much time. If there is too much sugar at the end of the cooking, even though the hot jam is liquid, the result after cooling is not jam but fruit candies. The use of a refractometer and thermometer help to decide the end of the cooking. Without this tools the simple test of the drop of hot jam in a cold plate can help you; when the drop is cold and you hold the plate vertically, if the drop is runing, the jam is not ready. The jam is ready when the drop stay round at the surface of the plate.

 Available this week:

           Guyabano-calamansi, 

            Jackfruit-calamansi, stock in the stores only, the season    seems finished,

            Kalumpit, here called Sarali, the fruit you turn in your hand to make it softer, stock reduced as we are at the end of the season

            Pomelo-orange, 

            Papaya-Buko,
            Breadfruit, stock in some stores only; season is finished,

            Tomato-apple jam

     The unique starting price is still 130 P*/bottle 300g except the Kalumpit  and tomato-apple jam at 150 P/bottle,

     Minimum order: 6 bottles mixed,

     Free delivery in Bacolod (payment at the delivery)

*not applied in local selling places


Send your remarks and orders to:

lolasgardenjam@gmail.com
or Text: 0919 3555 424

FREE TASTING IN THE STORES!

During the two last weeks, we organized Free tasting sessions in the different stores where you can buy our jams (see the list on the right side). It shows how people having no special feeling for jams can enjoy with the natural taste of fruits. In a large proportion, the one who tastes, go back home with a jars to renew the pleasure or share  the discovery with the family.

Free tasting session in Virgie's and Fresh Start Robinson

We believe this actions should be done regularly every week and we are looking for a saleswoman or salesman interested with the promotion of our jams in Bacolod. Contact us if interested.

The question of the week:

Is it possible to make jam with any kind of fruit?

First we have to define what is a fruit. The botanist will answer: "The ripened reproductive body of a seed plant." Not very romantic but exact. So tomato, cucumber, pods of ipil ipil or a pumpkin are fruits. And the answer is yes we can, in theory, any kind of fruit, even nuts can be used to prepare jams. The conditions are alway the same: to have enough pectin for jellification, the good quantity of sugar and the good acidity. Of course a good taste is also required! And hard fruits like nuts will need an extra preparation. It is also possible to use herbs, flowers, wines, alcohols,... but, like for any fruit, the art of the "confiturier" is to keep the delicate flavor of the natural product.

 Available this week:

           Guyabano-calamansi, 

            Jackfruit-calamansi, stock in the stores only, the season    seems finished,

            Kalumpit, here called Sarali, the fruit you turn in your hand to make it softer, stock reduced as we are at the end of the season

            Pomelo-orange, 

            Papaya-Buko,
            Breadfruit, stock in some stores only; season is finished,

            Tomato-apple jam

     The unique starting price is still 130 P*/bottle 300g except the Kalumpit  and tomato-apple jam at 150 P/bottle,

     Minimum order: 6 bottles mixed,

     Free delivery in Bacolod (payment at the delivery)

*not applied in local selling places


Send your remarks and orders to:

lolasgardenjam@gmail.com
or Text: 0919 3555 424

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN JAM, JELLY AND MARMALADE?

In the universe of "fruit to spread", four products look similar: the jam, the jelly, the marmalade and the butter fruit. They are, technically, different products:


 jam is made cooking crushed or cut fruits with sugar.


 jelly is made cooking the juice of fruits with sugar.

marmalade is soft jellies made with small pieces of zest of fruits, generally citrus fruits (orange, lime, grapefruit, etc.) regularly distributed in the product.

For example, our pomelo-orange is very close to a marmalade because of the zests but is a jam because of the pieces of pomelo and not only the juice. All the other flavors are clearly jams.

 the butter fruit contains less sugar and should be kept all the time in the fridge even when not open. The taste of our breadfruit jam is very closed to butter fruit.

There is, of course different quality of jams depending of the content in fruits. In France, the jams containing more than 45% of fruits are classified "Extra jam quality". All our jams are much more than 45% of fruits.
Some products you can find in supermarket contain gelatin. According to the Department of Health of the Philippines gelatin is not an allowed ingredient for  jams. So, it is not jam. But no need to refer to the law, your taste buds will give the same answer!


BAD NEWS 


We received a bad news last week from San Miguel. The nice bottle S shape we chose is now out of stock. And no date for a new fabrication. We have temporary (and it should be long...) to use the round classical bottle. I'm very sorry for the design but no other solution. The volume is exactly the same. And of course the taste! So don't be surprised if you find another packaging for our jam, it is not a fake!
The lesson is: "just-in-time distribution" management is not applicable with San Miguel... (Yes, I'm a little angry a so big company doesn't respect the needs, even small, of its customers...)


GOOD NEWS 


Do you remember, on 10th of September, I wrote about crepes and pancakes?
The good news for Bacolod is a new restaurant specialized in crepes and pancakes is born.

You probably know the owner, Babes Fisher, who manages the SPAs in Mandalagan (Lopue's building) and at Singcang (Metrodome building). The restaurant is inside the Metrodome building.
In his modern restaurant, Babes invested in a french gazul cooker for crepes and the taste is like in France! Of course, Babes chose our jams to spread on the crepes. Is there a better association between Philippines and France?
After your degustation of crepes, pancakes or sandwiches, you can also buy our jams in the restaurant.

The question of the week:

Is there vitamins in the jam like in the fruit?


Yes, there are vitamins in the jams but, because of the cooking, some of the vitamins are destroyed and you cannot find the same quantity as in the fruit. On the opposite, the mineral value of the fruits (iron, calcium, sodium, potassium, etc.) is intact.
My opinion about jam and health is: jam is a food for pleasure like chocolate. Pleasure has a beneficial effect on the brain. And when your brain is happy, the mood is good and your body too!

More seriously, jams cannot replace fruits. Jam contains sugar and the quantity  eaten every day should be in relation with the type of activity, the age and the diet.
Some jams like Tamarin (Sampaloc) are known to fight against constipation. Medecine and jam is, as you know, a long old story. But this is another story.

 Available this week:

           Guyabano-calamansi, 

            Jackfruit-calamansi, stock in the stores only, the season    seems finished,

            Kalumpit, here called Sarali, the fruit you turn in your hand to make it softer,

            Pomelo-orange, 

            Papaya-Buko,
            Breadfruit, stock in some stores only; season is finished,

            Tomato-apple jam

     The unique starting price is still 130 P*/bottle 300g except     the Kalumpit  and tomato jam at 150 P/bottle,

     Minimum order: 6 bottles mixed,

     Free delivery in Bacolod (payment at the delivery)

*not applied in local selling places


Send your remarks and orders to:

lolasgardenjam@gmail.com

or Text: 0919 3555 424

MANY PEOPLE WERE WAITING FOR IT: I GIVE YOU THE TOMATO AND APPLE JAM!

Many things to tell you this week! Let's start with the new flavor: the tomato and apple jam. Actually, if we are teaching natural farming and making jam in the Philippines, it is because of the tomato jam. I tell you the story some of my friends know. A long time ago I was in Mindanao starting a farm for the first time. I was selling my production in the local market and, like are often the foreigners, I was joking the saleswomen  about these small ridiculous green tomatoes you find on the displays. I decided to produce big tomato salad like in Europe and, with pruning and good care, I succeed to get tomatoes of 250g average. I was a little proud with my first crate of tomatoes going to meet the local middleman. I had fixed my price at 15 P pesos per kg instead of the usual 5 P at that time. The middleman looked at my tomatoes and said: "Well Sir, I will not buy or tomatoes at 15P or 10P even 5P. I will not buy it". And he explained me the size of small tomato was adapted to the use of a family and my big tomato was not marketable because a family has to cut it and after the excess is lost. I was not so proud when I went back to the farm with my crates of big tomatoes 250g average. To not waste the production I started to make juice, sauce and finally ... jam.

The jam was very appreciate in various administration and I discovered at the same time that a farmer who processes his product can drastically increase his benefit. It is what I teach since that date to farmers: "grow, process and sell and you will have a better life."

And that is why I recommend you this original jam very well adapted to the Filipino taste.

BREAKING NEWS 

Everybody in Bacolod knows MERCI. The company was established as a family enterprise in 1995 in Bacolod City. Its products are marketed under the trade name "Merci," a French word that literally means "thank you." At this time, you can find our jam in four MERCI branches:

Singcang (UTC Building), Araneta Street
Contact No.: (063-34) 707-1400

Mandalagan (Lopue's Mandalagan), Lacson Street
Contact No.: (063-34) 709-1788

SM City Bacolod (Beside Food Court), North Wing
Contact No.: (063-34) 468-0053

Bacolod-Silay Airport, 2nd Level Pre-Departure Area
Contact No.: (063-34) 476-1546

We were recently invited to the 15th year anniversary of MERCI in SM. It was a great occasion for many Bacolodenos to taste for free our jam on the delicious pastries of MERCI. We hope it is the symbol of a long and fruitful (!) association between MERCI and LOLA'S GARDEN JAM. 

The question of the week:

You said you don't use chemical product but there is citric acid in some jam.

We choose to use lemon citric acid which is natural. Acidification is a necessary step of the jam processing when fruits are not enough acid. When the pH is too high there is no jellification and the conservation is not good. When only a small adjustment is necessary, we use calamansi which enhances also the taste of the fruit.

     Available this week:

           Guyabano-calamansi, 

            Jackfruit-calamansi,

            Kalumpit 

            Pomelo-orange, 

            Papaya-Buko,
            Breadfruit,

            Tomato-apple jam

     The unique starting price is still 130 P*/bottle 300g except     the Kalumpit  and tomato jam at 150 P/bottle,

     Minimum order: 6 bottles mixed,

     Free delivery in Bacolod (payment at the delivery)

*not applied in local selling places
Send your remarks and orders to:

lolasgardenjam@gmail.com

or Text: 0919 3555 424

IT IS NOT RARE, IT IS EXCEPTIONAL!

Today, we offer you an exceptional jam, you probably never taste, the Kalumpit jam.

According to the excellent website http://www.stuartxchange.org, the Kalumpit (or Sarali or Kalupit or Kalupi or Terminalia edulis for the scientific name) tree can reach 25 m and you can find it in the primary forest (firt you have to find the primary forest... which is also very rare). The fruit lotion is used for eczema. Even though the jam is full of fruits, please eat it, don't use as lotion!

This jam is rare because the season is very short. It is rare because you do not find it easily at the market and we bring it back from the mountains of Ara-al. It is exceptional because the first time we prepared this jam, we discovered a unique taste of tannin and red fruits (like gooseberry), as if this jam was made with the heavy red wines of South of France and also of Chile. Frankly, this jam is made for the connoisseurs. The taste of wine without alcohol!

I was able to prepare this week only one carton of 24 bottles. This very low production will be in small quantities in the different stores or sold directly to the jam addicts* of Bacolod. Is it useful to say "hurry up!" if you want to be among the privileged people who can benefit of this taste bud feast?


*I thank again a friend of Iloilo who found this expression to describe her behavior very closed to my attitude too! We will probably create the first "jam addict club", where, to be member, you must show evidence of consumption of 5 bottles per week...

The question of the week:

Do you take back the empty bottles and cover ?

We are not yet organize for that but we have to see with our partners if they agree to stock temporary the empty bottles. Of course, as ecologists we are in favor of this practice.

     Available this week:

           Guyabano-calamansi, 

            Jackfruit-calamansi,

            Kalumpit 

            Pomelo-orange, 

            Papaya-Buko,
            Breadfruit

     The unique starting price is still 130 P*/bottle 300g except     the Kalumpit jam at 150 P/bottle,

     Minimum order: 6 bottles mixed,

     Free delivery in Bacolod (payment at the delivery)

*not applied in local selling places
Send your remarks and orders to:

lolasgardenjam@gmail.com

or Text: 0919 3555 424