When you live in New England, now is the time to start preserving summer’s bounty. It is honestly amazing how quickly summer fades into fall and fall turns into winter. And once winter’s snowy days are upon us, it is difficult to remember the abundance of fruit and vegetables we were once surrounded by, even for fruit and vegetable growers. That is why making jam, canning, freezing, and pickling, are such important parts of New England history.
I normally make a few batches of jam; the type of jam I make always depends on what we have available and what unmarketable fruit we have in the cooler. This year, I made a few batches of Golden Plum Jam, made with a mixture of Early Gold and Shiro plums. Plums come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, and the golden plums might be the most striking of all of them, however, they are extremely delicate and prone to bruising. So with our bruised plums I set out to create something delicious we could enjoy in the winter months. Plum is one of our favorite jams here at the farm because it has a natural tartness to it, which works well with the sugary sweetness of jam.
So when when we set out to make jam cocktails, I knew I had just the thing, a perfectly sweet and tart mixture that would make a drink sweet, but not cloyingly so. We decided to use fresh lavender to give the cocktail a bit of an herby kick. We simply shook the lavender buds in the shaker with the other ingredients. You can chose to serve the drink with the buds in it, as we did, or strain them out. If you have a bit more time you might consider infusing your lavender buds with the vodka. This drink would also be terrific topped with a little sparkling water to add some bubbly, if that's what you prefer.
Golden Plum Jam Cocktail
1 tbsp golden plum jam
2 oz vodka
1/4 tsp fresh lavender
1 tsp honey
Place all ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake with ice until chilled. Strain into glass and serve with additional ice cubes if desired.
