The act of preservation is a ritual often anchored by a memory, which is fitting knowing that canning fruit, for example, is distilling something organic to its essence and pinning it to a season underneath a good seal.

Here at Ayako & Family, with the legacy of this jam recipe and Mair Farm-Taki's orchard to honor, we were called to the art of storytelling and remembering, through food. 

When my mother became ill and could no longer make jam, I knew that the legacy and the commitment to our history did not stop when I took over this business in 2017. In an effort to find my own voice and place it alongside her jams, I introduced the shokupan at the farmers markets as an homage to my childhood. It helped me reach into the past and bring forward a cherished memory, knowing that nostalgia is what I need after she passed.

 It's the thing we ate for breakfast growing up in Japan, already sliced from the department store and prepared by our grandmother sometimes without so much as margarine and a dusting of granulated sugar. Our recipe is reflective of its origins - trained by my mother's dearest friend, also a Japanese baker -- while introducing whole, farm-focused ingredients.