Taste of Cape Cod: Debbie's Jamming Journey

In this episode of 'Jacqui Just Chatters', host Jacqui Lents concludes her Cape Cod series by diving into the world of jams and cranberries with guest Debbie Greiner of Cape Cod Cranberry Harvest. Hear about Debbie’s journey in the jam-making business. Starting with her initial forays into crafting and gradually moving into jam production, Debbie shares insights on cranberry cultivation, her top-selling products, and unexpected fame in 'Country Living' magazine. The episode touches on the complexities of cranberry harvesting, including the fascinating detail that ripe cranberries bounce. Jacqui and Debbie also explore various unique uses for cranberry jams beyond the traditional. Please share your own jam-related recipes and stories at Jacqui’s FB or IG accounts.

Info/links from guest or topic:

https://www.cranberryharvest.com/

FB https://www.facebook.com/CCCHDT

Do you have a story idea or thoughts about the episode? Connect with Jacqui at the following.

www.JacquiLents.com

FB: Jacqui Lents Author https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100069970208082 

IG: @JacquiLents

Music used for this episode includes –

Ratatouille's Kitchen - Carmen María and Edu Espinalfound

Always – Nesrality

Your Love - Yung Logos

The Cradle of Your Soul – Lemon Music Studio

Transcript

[00:00:00] 

Jacqui: Hello my friends. I am back from my vacation. My trip was all sunshine, sand, and swimming in the ocean. Total beach bum dream. I even read like three or four books. Point of information, if you're from the north, you can 100 percent go into the water off the coast of North Carolina in the month of May. But that is not our subject.

Today we are talking jams and cranberries. This is the last of my Cape Cod series. Well, for now, you never know if I do more trips. My guest is Debbie Greiner, and she has some great suggestions for spicing up your food, so stick around. Welcome to Jackie Just Chatters. Thank you for joining me. I'm your hostess, Jackie Lentz, and I'm trying to make the world a little better, one story at a time.

[00:01:00] Whimsical episodes come out every other Tuesday. What's your story? If you've got one, reach out via my website. Now let's get chatting.

We are back! First, I want to apologize that the audio quality of this episode is not studio quality. I had to use my phone for this interview, but really it's, it's not too bad, but you are going to hear Debbie's dog in the background. I swear the panting is his and not ours, but really seriously, both of her dogs were absolute sweeties on Facebook, on Facebook and Instagram.

You'll be able to find pictures of Debbie's dogs, Duncan and Rocky plus photos of my yummy cranberry pineapple jam snack. I made an eight while I was editing the episode. Okay, now let's hear about jams from Debbie herself. I am here with Debbie Greiner of Cape Cod [00:02:00] Cranberry Harvest. And, uh, right now with Duncan, her dog.

So you may hear Duncan in the background. We'll try to keep that down as best we can. Welcome to the show, Debbie. 

Debbie: Thank you so much for having me. This is kind of exciting. 

Jacqui: I am so excited. I've been looking forward to this and then driving around the Cape. I saw my first cranberry bog. I've never seen one before and they're everywhere.

And now I have like. All these cranberry questions that's been building up all week and I'm like, oh good. She can hopefully answer some of this stuff. 

Debbie: Hopefully I can, maybe some I can't. 

Jacqui: First, tell us a little about yourself. 

Debbie: We've been living here now for over 30 years. I'm originally from New Jersey.

That's also a big cranberry state. 

Jacqui: I never knew New Jersey was a cranberry state. Never would have thought of it. 

Debbie: I think it's even bigger than Massachusetts. I don't think it originated there, but [00:03:00] my husband has a charter boat and duck hunting business. So we're busy all the time. Summertime we really don't get to go around and do anything because he's doing that.

I'm doing craft shows plus making jelly. And, um, I've been doing this now for 25 years, maybe a little bit longer. 

Jacqui: Oh, wow. That's a long time. Who introduced you to making jam and jelly? 

Debbie: I started making just plain pepper jelly 25, 26 years ago as gifts, Christmas gifts. And my best friend and I were doing different things, different crafty things.

And we ended up doing a home show at a woman's house. And, uh, we were making things like ballerina bunnies, and photo albums, and whatnot. And they told us, bring some food in, some type of homemade food that you have, because the customers will go through the [00:04:00] house, and then they check out through the kitchen, and they're always standing in line.

So I thought, okay, I'll bring in some food. And I had samples out there with crackers. Every person that came through had a jar of jelly, and then it would stop. So then I would go and check, and it would be either the jelly sample was out or the crackers were out. So I would put it out again, and it kept flying out of there.

So I made more that night for the show the next day, and then we thought maybe we were onto something. And so we were doing that. Doing that as well with the other items for craft shows and then my husband said you need to do cranberry pepper And I said no, I don't need to do that. This is good. No, we live on Cape Cod You got to do cranberry pepper.

So we did that. That's actually number one seller people buy that by the case It's crazy. And then after we had that one going then he says now you got to make cranberry orange marmalade I'm like, no, we're not gonna do that, but he kept it up We made it that [00:05:00] second biggest seller that was actually featured in country living magazine.

Oh Wow, yeah, that's fantastic Yeah, and we found that out from a customer that called us to say She used to get our stuff at a certain store here in Brewster on the Cape. She went home in the winter and To Virginia, she called to say, I just got my Country Living magazine and you're in it. That's how we found out.

They saw us online and put us in there as things to purchase. It was wild. It was really wild. 

Jacqui: So they didn't do an interview with you, anything, like they just liked the product and then did a feature on the product. 

Debbie: Exactly. Exactly. Wow. Yeah. So I had to get in touch with them to say, Hey, can we have some magazines and how did you hear about us?

And I don't remember all that stuff behind it because it was so long ago, but that was really cool. And then his third option or suggestion was cranberry pineapple. So we did that too. [00:06:00] 

Jacqui: I am very excited about the cranberry pineapple. That sounds fantastic. When I saw that, I was amazed. 

Debbie: Yeah, it's great on vanilla ice cream.

Ooh. Yeah, my mom used to do that on vanilla ice cream. Yeah. 

Jacqui: It sounds like your husband has a lot to do with your flavor creations. 

Debbie: He did. After that one, I was like, okay, we're done. You go do your job. We're good here. Stop telling me what to do. Exactly. Exactly. But no, he had very good advice. 

Jacqui: Let's go back to a cranberry.

I'd never seen one where I'm from, and I'm sure there's lots of other people. I've had cranberry juice. I've had cranberry stuff. But I don't really know much about cranberries and how they're grown and why they need a bog and what can you tell us about cranberries? And like, how do you know if they're done or not?

If they've, they're ready to harvest? 

Debbie: Okay. That's a [00:07:00] lot of questions for somebody that makes the jelly and I'm not the cranberry grower. That's a full time all year long. The cranberry growers. So I don't know which way you came towards my house, but my grower is down there. I could walk to his place. And I don't know if it was flooded right now, because they do water it.

Jacqui: Yeah, we may have passed it because we just passed a cranberry bog on the way here. 

Debbie: There, they do like weeding it and pesticides and stuff like that. And if it has to be watered, because if it gets too dry, then they're not going to be good. 

Jacqui: So they need a ton of water, and that's why they're grown in a bog, which is really just a pond.

It looks like a pond, and then it's got the, the growth on top of 

Debbie: it. Yep, they put sand on it after they harvest, that usually, at least harvesting here, is in [00:08:00] October. 

Jacqui: Okay, that's what I was wondering. 

Debbie: Yep, they do dry picking, I think that's first, and then they do the wet picking after, which is they flood the bog completely, then they have a machine that rotates around to make the berries come off of the soil.

The vine, and then the berries float, and they go out, they take, not hosing, but rope, but it's got, like, how do you explain that? Those noodles, the um, Oh, yeah. So it looks like that. Okay. But more a technology advance, obviously, but to explain it, then, so they corral it in. Okay. And then there's another machine that is on land, but it goes down into the water and the berries are shot up.

Like it sucks the berries up. Like a vacuum. Yes. Okay. And it goes into a semi truck. [00:09:00] Then they take that and they bring it to their, I don't know what the building's called, but where they have the machine. That has the berries go through it, and the berries have to bounce X amount of times. I don't know if it's 11 or 9.

That's yeah, that's part of the thing. They bounce? Yeah, they bounce. The bad ones don't bounce, and then they get culled out at the end. So there's, it's all really manual labor. So when it, after it gets shot through this machine, then it's down the conveyor belt and they sit there and pick out what isn't good.

A good berry bounces. A bad berry will just lay flat. Never 

Jacqui: knew that. I've never heard about bouncing cranberries. Hi, this is Editor Jackie. If you want to learn more about Debbie, look at some of her recipes, or purchase her jams, you can find her website link in the episode [00:10:00] notes, just to let you know.

Okay, let's get back. Okay, and then, so they harvest in October, and that's when they flood the bog and collect everything. 

Debbie: Through the rest of the year, they're pruning and, you know, Getting rid of weeds and maintaining that it, Oh, did I say the part where they put sand? 

Jacqui: Yeah. 

Debbie: Okay. To get the, to keep the weeds out.

Jacqui: You did not tell me that was, so. That's 

Debbie: the reason. Yeah. 

Jacqui: Okay. So they'll put sand on top of it to help keep the weeds down. 

Debbie: Correct. 

Jacqui: But it still grows fine with the sand. 

Debbie: It must just fall down to the bottom. So we're. If when you leave and you go back to that bog again, you will see like mountains of sand behind it.

That's what they use. 

Jacqui: Okay. Interesting. Gee, I don't know where they'd find sand on Cape Cod. I don't 

Debbie: know. 

Jacqui: They really got to import that stuff. 

Debbie: Yep. Don't have to go too far. 

Jacqui: [00:11:00] What turned you on? Like, how did you learn to make jams and jellies in the very first place? I've never done one in my life. How did you start with, did somebody show you, did you just decide one day I'm going to make jelly?

That's what, 

Debbie: that was it. Nobody showed me. Nope. It's not some great family secret recipe. I just decided to make it one Christmas and it just took off from there. And with the other things that we were doing, those were taking too much time. After a while we had saturated the market with. The crafty type stuff.

And we just went right with the jelly and kept on every year, adding a new flavor to where now we got 33. 

Jacqui: You make all your jelly out of the kitchen. How do you find room? That's just gotta be so crazy to do it all in an average home's kitchen. 

Debbie: It's actually easy. People think, Oh my gosh, how big is your kitchen?

And [00:12:00] it must be huge. It must be industrial size. It must be equipped with this, that, and the other. And it's not. It's what, 10 by 10 over there? And if it was bigger, it would take longer for me to do. So I stand on one side of the island and the pots are going on my stove. I put all the ingredients in the pot that's on the other side of the island.

So it's, I just circle around all day. 

Jacqui: How many jars do you do in a day? 

Debbie: Oh, in a day. I could do 24 cases in a day and there's 12. In a case. So you do the math on that 

Jacqui: one. Twenty four cases? Yes. Wow! How, okay, so when does your day start and end when you are doing it hardcore? 

Debbie: Um Probably nine o'clock and be done by four.

Jacqui: Wow. Yeah. I'm impressed. You just churn out the jam. That's awe inspiring to me. 

Debbie: Yeah, but [00:13:00] I've been doing it so long. It's almost, you're just doing it by rote. 

Jacqui: You were talking about, you have all these flavors. Do you do, okay, today we're going to do the cranberry pineapple and that's all I'm doing today.

Or do you make different batches on any given day? Okay. 

Debbie: There have been, like, this past December, I was running out of things. So there was a day where I did make two cases of, let's say, cranberry strawberry, three cases of cranberry raspberry. I did do that. But normally, I do one flavor per day because I can confuse myself and then Different things happen.

Jacqui: This is how a new flavor is born. 

Debbie: What did I do over there? 

Jacqui: Your husband helped develop your first flavors and you're now at 33. How do you come up with these things? 

Debbie: The new flavors [00:14:00] usually always came up when we were the busiest. And the busiest is in like September, October, November, because that's from.

all the big shows were, that's when the cranberries are coming in and whatnot. I don't know. I, for me personally, if I have nothing to do, I will do even less. But when I've got things going on, then I'll do more. And I, maybe the creative process starts working a lot more when I'm busy. There's a show in New Jersey, Cranberry Festival.

They would come and say, what's the new flavor of the year? What's the new flavor of the year? So that went on for quite a long time until finally, I'm like, that's it. No more flavors. 33 is enough. 

Jacqui: I'm like. I can't imagine the pressure of trying to come up with a new flavor every year. Oh, 

Debbie: you know what? I think because I enjoy what I do, that wasn't stress.

There's stress sometimes where I'm like, Oh my [00:15:00] gosh, I don't have what I need for whatever show or whatever's coming up. But I didn't feel stress on having to have a new flavor. And this is one of the things my husband says, you have too many flavors. You need to just do. Cranberry pepper, cranberry orange, cranberry pineapple, I'm saying cranberry.

But there are people that only buy, say, cranberry mint or only buy cranberry basil and his thought is they'll buy something else. But it's been proven to me that they won't. They'll come up to a show and say, oh my gosh, I want to get the, the basil. I'm all out. When are you going to make it again? And then they'll wait and they'll leave.

Jacqui: I hope you are enjoying this episode of Jackie Just Chatters. I would like more people to join our community here, and you can help. Most people learn about podcasts from word of mouth, so tell your friends or post about the [00:16:00] program on your social media. Also, shows with more positive reviews and five star ratings get wider promotion on apps.

Leaving a quick five stars or mentioning why you like the show makes a difference. Together we can spread those positive vibes. Thanks again for listening. I'm grateful for you. Now back to the show. What is your favorite way to use the jellies? That's not like on toast, not on your traditional breads.

What's your favorite way to use them? 

Debbie: The cranberry pepper, which is the number one, that is like the standard is cream cheese and crackers as an appetizer. So, That's a good go to, but I have white cranberry pepper garlic, which is my favorite on everything. I haven't found anything that I don't like it on, but it's excellent on oysters, raw oysters, instead of cocktail sauce.[00:17:00] 

Fantastic. All the savory jellies are really good though when you're cooking pork, chicken, baked brie, that's another delicious one. Baked brie with the jelly and then you have Pillsbury crescent dough, or now they've got it without the striations in it. That's delicious. 

Jacqui: I had a friend who Did this meatball thing and the secret ingredient was 

Debbie: grape jelly and ketchup.

Jacqui: And I'd 

Debbie: never heard of such 

Jacqui: a thing. And I'm like, okay, if she had told me straight out, I never would have touched the meatball. I've been like, oh my God, that's gross. But then I ate the meatball and I was like, oh my gosh, that's really good. So I could totally see these being used and that kind of thing is with a crockpot of meatballs and give them a unique flavor.

Debbie: Or kielbasa. You don't think of the jelly as in a quote unquote peanut butter and jelly thing, but as a condiment instead. Because there are just so many [00:18:00] uses with the sweet and the savory. I did just um, locate a recipe of my mom's for a cookie called Klotschki. And she would always fill it with apricot jelly or I think raspberry and fig.

And somebody had asked me for the recipe and I found it. And then it, this just happened, like a week ago. And when I saw the picture of it, I thought, oh my gosh, you can use, I have cranberry apricot, I have cranberry strawberry, I have cranberry raspberry, can all be used in that cookie. And I did put that on, Facebook last week and there were so many people who They either remembered my mom making those cookies or their Grandmothers or aunts that made them but they didn't have the recipe.

So they were all excited about me posting that so that was cool 

Jacqui: Do you have on facebook people [00:19:00] sharing their own recipes of things to do? 

Debbie: Absolutely. In fact, I do ask them to do that somebody She used the, okay, this isn't cranberry, but she uses a lemon pepper garlic on her turkey burgers. And then another one, another woman used her white cranberry pepper on a pork loin.

Then she used it on her turkey. And somebody used something on their ham. It could have been the cranberry pineapple that they used on their ham. 

Jacqui: Ooh. I'm going to check the Facebook page and look for recipes. So I'm going to be bringing jam home. So I'm going to want different ways to try it out. The biggest one I know, as my grandma used to make was the jam thumbprint cookies.

Yes. 

Debbie: Yes. And 

Jacqui: it's been fun to experiment. And I put pineapple in them and it was okay, but it just didn't have the same zing. And I'm like, [00:20:00] Oh, maybe a cranberry pineapple. That might have. the wow factor I'm looking for. 

Debbie: Absolutely. Oh yeah, definitely. 

Jacqui: To me, the cranberry is, it's so Cape Cod. It's a way of tasting Cape Cod anywhere.

Debbie: Oh, absolutely. There's so many different things that have been done with cranberries. There's a cranberry chocolate, cranberry relish. Oh, I make a cranberry chutney. That's really good. My dad never liked that, but He would always say, Oh, who eats that stuff? I'm like, it's delicious. What are you talking about?

You have it with chicken salad. It's great. Everybody has their own taste though. 

Jacqui: That's true to each everyone's own cranberry. Thank you so much for sitting down with me and talking jams. This has been fabulous. 

Debbie: That was very fun. I enjoyed this a lot. 

Jacqui: I want to thank Debbie again for fitting me into her busy schedule.[00:21:00] 

Debbie, you made me feel welcome and were just a great way to cap off my visit to Cape Cod. Thank you to my listeners. I wouldn't be here without you. If you have any jam or cranberry recipes, head on over to Facebook or Instagram and share them with me. I want to see these. All right. Until next time, I wish you well.