Missie Cindz: Vintage Preserves

05 September 2011

Missie Cindz Vintage Preserves co-produced with PJ Taste

Sheffield home-grown Victorian plums, grown in my own garden and hand picked by myself

Sheffield home-grown Victorian plums, grown in my own garden and hand picked by myself

Yes, your Missie Cindz and Sheffield’s passionate advocates of local produce, PJ Taste have joined forces to launch a (very) limited edition of delicious plum preserves, marking Missie/Cindy’s first foray into the foods retail industry.

Vintage Preserves is my new line of delicious preserves and I hope you all really enjoy these. Starting off firstly with Victorian plums. Plums are currently in season and the fruit used for this jam were home-grown in my garden and hand picked by myself – I had fun picking these (and tried my best not to munch through the whole batch). The more I’m finding free food lurking in my garden the more I think, Edible Sheffield? I’m learning to use my imagination and finding clever ways to grow my own at the moment and it’s AMAZING (free food in my garden!?…yes, please).

I love plums, afterall they are a shade of my favourite colour (Pantone 520 :)…Green to purple, lovely and sweet to tantalisingly tart, the perky plum comes in several guises that tastes every bit as good as they look – and mine certainly do. It’s definitely the time to get gorging on fine seasonal plums.

The Missie Cindz and PJ Taste plum jams will be available in three different flavours: Sheffield Plum (original), Plum and Vanilla and Plum and Cinnamon – each flavour has their unique Missie-ness added, you’ll see this in the branding and packaging, plus the first 20 jars sold also comes with their very own Missie Cindz cutout sticker! Currently, I’m still working and refining the packaging and labelling (picking jam jars are so hard – there’s just too much choice) – but I hope you like our labels and the whole branding I’ve created for my first line of Preserves, I’m having a lot of fun designing this.

As soon as you enter PJ Taste at the top of Glossop Road you know that you are in for a Sheffield food experience.

I’m hoping our Missie Cindz PJ Taste collection of preserves will be enjoyed by jam lovers of all ages and places. I am very excited to be collaborating with PJ Taste. PJ Taste co-owner Peter Moulam has taught me a lot about using fresh produce and it’s been interesting finding out more about their tasty plans for Sheffield and why he loves local produce so much. When PJ Taste was set up five years ago, Peter and his colleague John Fitzpatrick were clear about their ethos for the business: to provide fresh, tasty and creative food using locally sourced ingredients. This mission is clear from the food that you can find in their PJ Taste café on Glossop Road (I’m a big fan of their toasties) – where bacon sandwiches are made using local farmed cured bacon, their own sourdough bread toasties, freshly made salads using ingredients they’ve grown or foraged themselves. PJ Taste also do their own line of soft drinks, Citrus Hit drinks (which are bottled in recycled J20 bottles) made with infusions of Yorkshire herbs and fruits such as elderflower, wild apples and Pennine Lavender. There isn’t a lot that PJ Taste don’t do! – they amaze me…. on top of all this, there is also the occasional brewing which has produced Mead made with Sheffield Honey and apple cider too! Peter is currently creating more ideas and dishes for the PJ Taste food menu using seasonal local produce – his ideas and enthusiasm for all things edible is addictive!

My delightful jars of plum jam will only be available to purchase from PJ Taste on Glossop Road from Monday 3rd October. If you would like to pre-order (reserve) your very own jar of Missie Cindz Preserve to spread a little Missie-ness on your morning toast then please send me, Cindy, an email to reserve your jar. Please allow 24 hrs for email confirmation of your order. Your pre-order(s) are not guaranteed until you receive this email.

Your fun and whimsical Missie (Cindy) hopes to bring out the carefree joy of being a kid again, no matter what’s your age – I know, EVERYONE LOVES JAM – and I hope you enjoy spreading the Missie Cindz ethos around with me. I can’t wait to hear Sheffield’s feedback on the Missie Cindz Vintage Preserves range – Sheffield? I hope you enjoy us :)

PJ Taste
249 Glossop Road
Sheffield, South Yorkshire S10 2GZ
Tel: 0114 275 5971

Missie Cindz