Book excerpt: A comprehensive, year-round guide to jellies, jams, conserves, preserves, and marmalades, featuring over 100 recipes. If you love to cook, are crazy for fruit, or have even a passing interest in jam or marmalade, Rachel Saunders’s James Beard Award–nominated Blue Chair Jam Cookbook is the book for you. Rachel’s legendary Bay Area jam company, Blue Chair Fruit, earned instant fame for its intensely flavored preserves when it launched in 2008. Rachel’s passion for fruit shines through every part of this lavishly illustrated book, which is the culmination of nearly ten years of research. The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook is the essential jam and marmalade book of the twenty-first century, one in which Rachel’s modern yet nostalgic vision of cooking takes center stage. Rachel offers an in-depth exploration of individual fruits, a comprehensive technical section, and nearly 120 original recipes organized around the seasons. In offerings ranging from Plum Jam to Strawberry–Blood Orange Marmalade with Rosemary and Black Fig and Candied Citrus Jam, she vividly captures the joyful essence of fruit and of the preserving process. The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook is not only an exciting and vibrant exploration of fruit and of the seasons, but also one of the few books that clearly explains and illustrates preserving techniques. Each recipes includes clear and detailed directions to help ensure success, and Rachel explores a wide range of technical questions as they relate to individual fruits and types of preserves. Whether you make jam or marmalade once a year or every week, and whether you are a home or professional cook, The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook is sure to claim a special place in your cookbook library. Praise for The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook “A complete and exquisite guide to making jam and marmalade at home. In addition to sharing 100+ recipes, Saunders walks you step-by-step through the process with in-depth explanations as well as photos of the various steps so you see exactly what each phase looks like.” —Epicurious “Blue Chair could well become the jam maker’s quintessential reference book.” —SFGate.com “Rachel Saunders . . . is quite possibly the high priestess of jam making. [The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook] . . . belongs in the kitchen of anyone interested in keeping their pantry stocked with delicious and unique fruit preserves. And Rachel’s instructions are so thorough and clear, even beginners are assured success.” —The Splendid Table’s “Weeknight Kitchen” newsletter