Anarchy In A Jar

When Eastern District first opened, literally on their opening day, my first purchase ever was a jar of jam from Anarchy in a Jar. The next morning I spread some jam over a piece of toast, took a bite and was immediately hooked. Ever since then there would be at least one jar of jam from Anarchy in a Jar.

Couple weeks ago I got the chance to see where Laena McCarthy, the jam master, turns tasty fruits into delicious jars of jam. It was 7:30am (stupid G train made me late, was suppose to get there around 7am) and Laena and helper Emma had already started cooking. That morning they were making blueberry jam and grapefruit jam. They told me they usually work from 7a to 10a to escape the summer heat but luckily that day everything went smoothly and ended their morning an hour early. During that time there was a lot of stirring, jars were being boiled in a pot of water, the finished jams were ladled into the jars, the lids went onto the jars and then they went into another pot of water for one last time. When the water came to a boil, the jars of sealed jam were placed into boxes to cool off.

Then over the weekend Laena and Emma will put in two full days of work being at Smorgasburg and New Amsterdam Market. If y’all see these two ladies, make sure to go say HI and buy some jams!