Sourcing fruit
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What to buy, by product
The fruit you want is different for jam than for jelly, and it is different in a way that runs against instinct: the best-looking fruit on the stall is not the right fruit for either. Buying by product rather than by appearance is most of what separates a sensible fruit cost from an impossible one.
| Making | Buy | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Jam, no added pectin | Fully ripe | Flavor, and the guide says so |
| Jelly, no added pectin | About 3/4 ripe, 1/4 underripe | Pectin, which falls as fruit ripens |
| Either, with added pectin | Ripe, for flavor | The pectin is coming from a packet |
Where it comes from
Every source has a different failure mode, and they are worth knowing before you depend on one. The cheapest fruit is usually the least predictable, and predictability is what lets you promise a wholesale buyer anything.
- Growers directly, at the end of a picking run, for fruit that will not make the fresh grade.
- Your own trees or canes, which is how most of this starts.
- Wholesale produce, which works for a high-value fruit and usually does not for a cheap one.
What not to buy
Some fruit is cheap for a reason that shows up in the jar rather than on the stall. These are the cases where the saving is real and the cost arrives later.
Anything with mold on it, however small a proportion, and anything that has been frozen and thawed unless you know how. Poor quality fruit is a published cause of a preserve that does not taste of the fruit, and no process recovers it.
The one that is not fruit
One input matters as much as the fruit and nobody thinks of it as sourcing, because it is not perishable and it arrives on a pallet. It still has a lead time, and that lead time has to clear the picking window.
Commercially canned or frozen juice, for jelly. The guide rules it out and gives the reason: the pectin content is too low. It is on why commercial juice will not set.