Mamsen’s Jams

Alette was a kind and hard-working farmer’s wife who lived well into her 90s. She had seven children: Carl, Jack, Minda, Hilda, Alma, Jenny and Margit plus her adopted grandchild Ragnhild (Mamsen). She was not much of a cook, but always had coffee brewing on the kitchen stove, often accompanied by waffles served with delicious homemade raspberry jam.

Grete (Mimmi) grew up in the outskirts of Oslo, and only moved 20 meters in her life, as she built a house in the garden where she grew up! She loved nothing more than to be outdoors with her animals, and took every opportunity to ride, sail, hike and ski. Mimmi also loved to bake, and her signature apple cake and homemade jams were year-round treats, with blueberry being a favorite!

Alice grew up on a farm in the Zurich highlands with eleven siblings. As an adult, she would return every summer with her own three sons François, Michel and Jean-Jacques. They would go out onto their farmland to harvest strawberries, and then return home to the wood burning stove in the kitchen to turn their berries in to Alice’s delicious jams.

Born and raised in the Dutch city of Maastricht, Simon’s father taught him how to make orange jam. Using fruit from trees in their garden, Simon continued to make apricot jam with his three children and two grandchildren. They enjoyed their jam on toast and in homemade apricot tarts – a Maastricht speciality.

Born and raised in the ‘Grape Juice Capital of the World’, Carol worked throughout high school at the Welch’s Grape Juice plant in Westfield, NY. She would lovingly make jams and jellies each summer, passing on her childhood memories to her own six children while they worked together in the kitchen.

From the Golden Ring town of Uglich along the Volga river in Russia, Babushka Nadya prided herself on her homegrown fruits, berries and vegetables. She loved her garden, and every summer day used to pick flowers to give to Viking guests. The bees loved her flowers too, and produced the most delicious honey, or mëd as it is called in Russian.

Marit grew up making jams from all the berries growing in the woods where she grew up in Gudbrandsdalen in Norway. One of her favorites was the Lingonberry Jam. Although lingonberries look bright red and attractive on the bushes, they are not good candidates for eating raw as they are quite bitter. Sugar transforms them into a concoction that goes well with game, meat, fish, and with several desserts.