V Smiley refused to believe that preserves must be made with sugar. Fortunately for jam lovers (and honestly, who can resist a spoonful of luscious, richly colored, fruity deliciousness??), they listened to their gut—literally—and taught themselves to make unique preserves using honey as a natural sweetener.
For health reasons, V shifted away from sugar to honey and fruit in her early 20s. Putting It Up with Honey: A Natural Foods Canning and Preserving Cookbook by Susann Geiskopf-Hadler and The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook by Rachel Saunders inspired V to create the jams that ultimately brought them from the Pacific Northwest back home to their family farm in New Haven, Vermont in 2015.
V Smiley Preserves contain fruit, honey, and lemon juice often infused with herbs, edible flowers, spices, and liqueurs. Jams are made by small batch in copper kettles. “The honeybee, as pollinator, provides everything we need to make fruit preserves,” V explains. “Honey is a powerful preservative and natural sweetener. Lemon brightens the flavor and hastens the thickening process. Copper has great heat conduction, and the smooth surface prevents boiling fruit from burning while cooking fast and hot. Your spoon can feel what’s happening on the bottom of the kettle.”
V made their preserves at Tandem in Bristol from 2016 to 2021. In December 2021, they purchased the Bristol Cliffs Café, which V re-opened as Minifactory in March 2022. V and their team operate a popular café with a menu that features preserves across savory and sweet applications in the bright and cheery front half of the space. Back in the commercial kitchen, the jam team makes preserves on Tuesday and Wednesday when the café is closed. Talk about a jam-packed week!
Their repertoire encompasses more than 45 flavors, with 24-plus available at any given time in summer, including a seasonal flavor each month for their wholesale program. One jar of jam contains nearly a full pound of fruit that she sources from Champlain Orchards, Scott Farm in Dummerston, and farms in the Hudson Valley. Omar Fugaro, a phenomenal grower in Middlebury, is her not-so-secret weapon for currants, raspberries, strawberries, and gooseberries. Honey comes from central New York, and V’s partner Amy Johnson grows herbs and edible flowers (bee balm, lemongrass, anise hyssop, dianthus, clover, rosehip, and lemon verbena) that V infuses into the preserves.
“I’m less interested in making the classics,” V says. “I love to create and didn’t want to conform or get boxed in.” Cherry Fennel Sherry. Pear Lemon Sage White Pepper. Raspberry Redcurrant Geranium. Strawberry Blackcurrant Rosemary. Pear Quince Orange Ginger. Spicy & Smoky Heirloom Tomato. Elderberry Plum. With flavors such as these, the only thing getting boxed are jewel-toned jars of thoughtfully created, unique jams that capture the sweet bounty of the Green Mountains.
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