In a vibrant celebration of nature's rich bounty, Joan Hassol combines mouthwatering recipes for jams and preserves with personal reflections on the spiritual joys of berry picking and apple gathering.

Joan Hassol's story is a jam-making hymnal, more in the tradition of Laurie Colwin and M. F. K. Fisher, than a standard cookbook. She turned to berry picking and preserving in the aftermath of her husband's death. Initially, the work was a therapeutic way to keep busy during a period of great difficulty. Eventually, though, she discovered her love of the process and its life-giving quality.

Joan takes readers on an evocative journey through raspberry patches, in search of beach plums, down memory lane, and ultimately to her B&B on Cape Cod, where her jam business, Well Preserved, is in full operation. In more than 70 easy-to-prepare recipes — none of which requires special equipment — she reveals how to create such goodies as blueberry, wild cherry, and concord grape jams, five-fruit marmalade, pears with frangelico, and green tomato chutney, as well as breads, muffins, and cakes to complement the preserves or to serve on their own.

"This book is about my relationship with jam, my soul, music, and the world in which I live. When I make jam I slow down, my actions become rhythmical, my thinking clear. The repetitive motions of washing, stirring, pouring, and labeling allow me the space to think about my life — what it means to be starting over and how I can embrace this stage of my life with vitality and joy."

With warmth and love, Joan Hassol takes us on an evocative journey through raspberry patches, in search of beach plums, down memory's lane, and ultimately to her bed-and-breakfast on Cape Cod, where her jam business, Well Preserved, is in full operation. In over seventy easy-to-prepare recipes — none of which requires special equipment — she reveals how to create such goodies as blueberry, wild cherry, and concord grape jams, five-fruit marmalade, pear with frangelico jam, and green tomato chutney, as well as breads, muffins, and cakes to complement the preserves or to serve on their own.

Well Preserved is a jam-making hymnal, a vibrant celebration of nature's rich bounty, as much about the soul as cooking.

Joan Hassol, mother of six and grandmother of nine, started her

jam-making business, Well Preserved, in 1990. She lives in Brewster,

Massachusetts.