Made with strawberries grown in their sun-drenched California garden, decanted into jars with handwritten labels, and delivered in plentiful presentation baskets to an elite group of friends and influencers, this is no ordinary jam.
For almost two weeks now, the debut product from American Riviera Orchard, Meghan Markle’s elusive new lifestyle brand, has been making waves on social media.
The jars have been appearing on the Instagram profiles of her nearest and dearest, including comedian Mindy Kaling, polo player Nacho Figueras and actress Abigail Spencer, who warbled “This jam is my jam” and covered herself with a jar for a flattering outdoor photo shoot. . No, they’re not names we’d recognize here, but let’s face it, we’re not their target audience.
It’s not like anyone can buy a pot yet. According to the batch numbers written on the labels, only 50 jams exist. Each has been lovingly made by Meghan herself, in the £12 million mansion she shares with Prince Harry and his two children in Montecito, Santa Barbara.
For those who didn’t know, actress-turned-Duchess Meghan, 42, was also a condiment chef and claims her green side is nothing new.
Meghan’s Suit co-star Abigail Spencer covered herself in a jar of the Duchess’s strawberry jam for a fawning outdoor photoshoot in an Instagram post.
Sarah Rainey recreates Abigail’s look after making her own strawberry jam
“Growing up in Southern California, I loved gardening and growing my own vegetables,” she said. A more recent Martha Stewart-style makeover is, of course, tied to an upcoming Netflix documentary about her bucolic life.
The Sussexes certainly have room for a fruit and vegetable garden: their nine-bedroom home features an extensive backyard surrounded by fragrant orange trees, flower beds and a wildflower meadow.
It’s a passion he shares with his father-in-law, King Charles, whose Duchy Organic strawberry jam comes from British organic fruit farms and sells for £2.80 in Waitrose.
But experts say Meghan’s ultra-glamorous jam could cost a lot more, if it is ever made available to the public.
American Riviera Orchard has been compared to Californian luxury brand Flamingo Estate, which sells a jar of celebrity honey for a cool $250 (£200).
You won’t see it on the shelves of your local Tesco either: it’s more likely to be sold somewhere like LA’s exclusive Erewhon Market supermarket, where a large bottle of milk will set you back £15.
The jam is the first (and only) product to carry the American Riviera Orchard logo, which was scheduled to launch on March 14, but has since gone eerily quiet. Trademarks registered under the brand show that Meghan also plans to produce cutlery, cookbooks and more foods in jars, as well as foods such as jams and jellies.
Sarah’s family are prolific strawberry jam makers and she learned to make jam as a child.
Sarah says her preserve is sweet, summery and quite spectacular on toast… and it’s just £4 a jar.
So what’s in this very special bottle? Without a list of ingredients or nutritional information, it’s hard to know exactly how Meghan makes her preserves.
She didn’t share a jam recipe in the cooking section of her now-defunct pre-Harry lifestyle website The Tig, nor is there one in Together, the cookbook she supported in 2018 by women whose community was affected by Grenfell Tower. fire.
However, as luck would have it, my family is prolific strawberry jam makers (and indeed jam eaters). I learned to make jam as a child, following a tried-and-true method passed down to me from my great-aunt May, whose faded, handwritten recipe has become so beloved in my family that my husband and I give mini jam jars as gifts. favors at our wedding in 2015.
To start, you’ll need strawberries: 680g is enough to make four medium-sized jars (meaning the Duchess will have needed a whopping 8.5kg for 50).
The climate in rural Suffolk, where I live, is somewhat different to the warm 22°C (72°F) of Montecito, so spring strawberries are few and far between, but I manage to locate a few baskets of locally grown strawberries in my neighborhood. delicatessen for £3.50 each. I start by shelling them (removing the green tips), cutting them in half and putting them in a frying pan over a very low heat with 800g of powdered sugar.
Now, this may seem like a lot of sugar for the health-conscious Meghan, but I’d like to see her tell my great-aunt. Anyway, all “sugar-free” jam recipes use artificial sweeteners, which are more riddled with chemicals than traditional castor beans.
Use a wooden spoon or potato masher to mash the berries (though not too much: Meghan’s jam seems decidedly lumpy) and let the mixture bubble for an hour, stirring occasionally.
Then remove the pan from the heat and add 125 ml of liquid pectin, a fruit-based fiber that thickens the jam, followed by two tablespoons of lemon juice. Stir continuously for a few more minutes.
And that is. I sterilize my jars with boiling water, divide the jam between them, cover them with aluminum foil and leave them in a warm place for 48 hours, before covering each with a disk of wax paper (this keeps the seal airtight) and screwing on. the covers well. Total cost of my jam-making efforts? Only £4 a jar, and that’s mainly due to the astronomical cost of buying strawberries in April.
But my rustic jars still don’t look like Meghan’s. First, I use their company’s website, which is blank apart from a sign-up box to sign up for the “waiting list,” to borrow their gold swirl logo and branding.
Next, it’s up to my dubious Photoshop and Microsoft Paint skills to turn it into a label, finished off with my best calligraphy in black ink to number the jars.
I cover each with a circle of muslin cloth, tied with cream ribbon, and attach the labels using my children’s Pritt stick, which seems appropriate, given that Meghan’s were peeling off at the edges.
Finally, for the much-mocked display basket, I find an old stone pot from my shed (you can buy one at TK Maxx for £9.99) and fill it with shredded paper, foliage cuttings from the garden and six of the biggest lemons I know. I can get (45p each) at the local market.
All of this costs an extra £12.69, bringing my version of Meghan’s elegant jam presentation to £16.69, 12 times cheaper than the price of a single jar of honey that her jam has been compared to.
And while it may seem appropriate, it all comes down to taste. I can’t guarantee the Montecito variety, but my jam is sweet, summery, and amazing on toast.
It may not have the royal seal of approval, but neither does Meghan’s.