Kim McQuhae likes to keep judges on their toes during the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair’s annual jam and jellies competition — and this year was no exception.
The fair, which will open to the public in Toronto on Friday, Nov. 1, released competition results online last week.
McQuhae submitted 28 jams and jellies across 14 categories, taking home four first-place wins, three second-place wins, four third-place wins and sixteen more wins outside of the top three.
Her elderberry peach preserves didn’t meet the competition’s criteria, so it wasn’t taste-tested.
Aside from the single fruit jams and jellies, all the submissions were new recipes, McQuhae said.
“I like making things that are different,” she said.
Since the recipes have to be ready by the end of September, McQuhae sometimes makes them up on the spot, she said.
“It’s almost like a really fun game, McQuhae said.
Her first-place-winning strawberry champagne jelly was a result of this experimentation— and at first, she didn’t think much of it, she said.
“Sometimes you just don’t know.”
Some of her other favourites of the year were a strawberry hibiscus jelly along with a pear and lychee fruit jam.
“At the market, I’ve been calling it Pearl Jam,” McQuhae said.
The pear and lychee recipe was a great seller at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Farmer’s Market and placed fifth in the competition in the “fruit jam — other” category.
Some of her more experimental jams McQuhae particularly enjoyed making this year, she noted, including a blackberry watermelon preserve, which placed first in its category.
“I’ve always found that watermelon is such a giant fruit: How come no one makes anything from it?” she said.
There are big chunks of watermelon in the recipe, making for a unique texture, McQuhae said.
Other recipes experimented with colour, like a bright pink jelly made using dragon fruit nectar, which placed fifth in its category.
“It’s a bright sort of pinky colour that looks really nice on a white cheese,” she said.
McQuhae also mentioned her pawpaw fruit jam — made with the high-demand fruit she sources right in town.
“It didn’t place all that well at Royal, but it’s very popular at the market,” she said.
The pawpaw fruit looks like banana custard when you open it up and has a banana-mango citrus flavour in her recipes, McQuhae said.
“The reason you don’t see (pawpaws) in stores is because they have a very short shelf life,” she said.
McQuhae hopes to keep her pawpaw connection secret but did mention that a few other culinary fans in town source them there as well.
For those who want a chance to try out McQuhae’s award-winning jams and jellies, stop by the Gryphon Ridge Jam Store on Larkin Road in NOTL.
“I have just about everything,” she said.
