JamJam

Every summer I invite a group of friends to my family’s summer home in South Haven, Michigan. We call this “Mary Week.” It’s been pretty much the same group every year and we keep things simple. Everyone does their own thing during the day, someone (or groups) take turn cooking, and then we eat dinners together.

Except for our special event. For that, we are all on board.

Nate, Suzie, Sally, Mary, Georgia, Mary, Mary Pearl and Paige all aboard the Lindy Lou, August 2018.

Two years ago, in the summer of 2018, we took a boat tour up the Black River on the Lindy Lou, a replica of a river launch popular in the early 1900s. And, of course, we had to dress appropriately. That meant putting on boat-wear (dresses for the gals and such) and boating hats. Lucky for us, 303 North Shore Drive has an ample supply of straw hats hidden in closets throughout the house. Plus, we found crepe paper to make flowers and streamers to decorate the hats. Nate, my friend Suzie’s son, bought a hat at the boat’s launch, the Michigan Maritime Museum, to complete his snappy look. That day we had the Lindy Lou to ourselves except for a couple from Ohio, who I’m sure were wishing they took the later afternoon tour. Paige, who supplied the photo here, wrote, “What a fun day that was!” Indeed Paige!

In 2019, we had a different sort of event, something I named a “JamJam (trademark-pending*). The inspiration hit me while at the Blueberry Festival when I visited a jam vendor Sarah and her company “Jam On!” Her tagline is: “Working to make jam hip one jar at a time.” And if by hip she means delicious, Sarah is correct-o. Jam On! jams combine unique and surprising combinations. I tried just about all of them and went home with a big bag of them and a mouth smeared by reds, purples and deep oranges.

Sarah of Jam On! Jams! Photo from her Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/pg/youjamon

And so, I thought it would be fun to invite my guests (plus my aunts and some cousins) to a tea party to try out the jams. This also would provide the opportunity to use the beautiful tea sets from my Grandmother. They had been gathering dust for years and I had recently spent a morning chiseling out the grit. On seeing me do this seeing this, Stu, my brother said, “So, are you just going to put them on the shelf again to collect dust?” No, Stuart, I am using them in my JamJam.

And since I’m a Scott, I decided to turn it into a competition!!!

Besides the JamOn! jams, Aunt Judy, who makes her own “Granny Jams” donated a couple as well, so we had six total.

Lucky for my guests, I spotted these fabulous Palm Trees hats at the Dollar Tree, so these became the official testing hats, and Ironic Michigan vacation ones to boot. You can tell in the photos how well received they were!

Everyone enjoyed tea from the aforementioned vintage tea sets and tested the jams –Identified as 1 through 6- with some bagels and cream cheese and wrote down the one, two or three flavors included in the jam. These included Strawberry, Raspberry Cocoa; Cherry Almond; Pineapple Mango; Caramel Apple; Boysenberry and, of course, Blueberry. Right off the bat, the Aunt Judy-Aunt Janie duo tried to trip up everyone else. “They led us astray talking about making jams with other ingredients, not the ones submitted to the competition,” said my friend Mary. “They led us astray. They hoodwinked us,” she said.

The JamJamers diligently wrote down their guesses on a card. “Everyone took it very seriously, but especially Georgia. She was analyzing everything to the Nth degree,” said Mary.

When it came time to reading out the ingredients and see how my guests fared, I learned that while there is a lot I about these women, I’m not so impressed with their flavor-identifying-skills. When there were three flavors, most could only pick one. Two flavors? Sometimes none at all! Aunt Janie was so far behind in the voting that she started insisting she chose the right flavor after it was identified. When we asked to see her card with her written entries, she all of a sudden claimed she “lost it.” (All us cousins know that Janie must have missed the nun vows section that says, “Do not cheat to win at games” As kids, she’d do anything to hijack a Hearts game.)

Aunt Janie….looking innocent…but we know better

In the end, it was the dogged Georgia, who during the sampling said, “You know, I think I sense some chocolate in this one,” who was the grand prize winner, followed by our two “youngsters” Nate and Mary Pearl in second place. My aunts, even the one with her own friggin’ “Granny Jam” label, did not even place. I have to say, it was a huge disappointment for the Templeton home team.