Lee and I are collectors. We collect all sorts of thing. Some of it valuable, most of it not. We love to travel and to bring stuff home. Problem is with a small apartment collecting can easily get out of hand. And it's not like we actually NEED anything.
So a few years ago we came up with an ingenious idea. Rather than buying lots of stuff we don't need on vacation, we'd buy something we actually do need. Jam. When we go on a trip--even if it's just a weekend trip and we feel compelled to buy something we pick out a jar of jam. We know we'll use it up and while we do we'll remember our trip fondly.
In Hawaii we have bought tropical guava and lilikoi jams. On our honeymoon in Spain we bought Seville orange marmalade in Seville. In Paris we always buy Bonne Maman jam. It's a grocery store brand, not gourmet but it's really good and much cheaper there and they have flavors you'd never find here--rhubarb prune and orange fig, both delicious. Our only is criteria is that it must list fruit as the first ingredient, not sugar and that it must be local. This weekend we bought a jar of strawberry rhubarb jam in Dixon, can't wait to try it.
