Neighborhood Jam, Albany, NY

I want to introduce you to someone. Her name is Deloria Ballard-Hubbell. She lives in my old neighborhood, just off Delaware near the Spectrum. After her long days of chasing after two little ones, she tucks them into bed and heads to the kitchen. And there, in the quiet of the late night, she washes fruit, measures and pours with precision and sets things bubbling on the stove.

"Making jam is meditative," she said when I called her a few nights ago around 11 pm. (This is my kind of girl, finally someone else who's awake at decent hour!) "It's something you can take your time with."

Take your time, huh...

I spent this week answering phone calls from three different jobs while trying to mind a sick child, two well children and address the emotional needs of one member of the family who feels like I breeze by without so much as a hello. And lately, this person has point. I need to slow down. Focus. Take my time with things.

I like just listening to Deloria.

"You get to know the fruit really well," she said. "You pick through each piece, and then there's the way it looks after you've just washed it."

I am imagining sitting down and getting to know a piece of fruit.

The science of jam making is appealing, she says. "It feels like a witches' brew. You are adding these different things, the smells are rising up and there is this bubbling thing going on, and then the colors change."

I met Deloria last weekend at the Annual Holiday Studio Sale at the Woman's Club of Albany.

Her table was right next to mine. I did my best to restrain myself from abandoning my own post and parking myself, Pooh like, in front of her open jars.

She had a kiwi jam that sparkled on the tongue and a strawberry-lemon marmalade that hit just the right note, full round sweetness with a cut of bitter. These were my two favorites. There was also a currant jam that held nothing back. It was intense, almost heading in the direction of chutney. I would buy a jar of that just to explore the flavors.

The weekend was the debut of Neighborhood Jam. All I can say is, "Welcome, welcome, welcome."

Deloria has been making jams for Cardona's under their label for about a year. Otherwise, she's been giving her jams as gifts or bestowing them on the kind souls who help her start her car or watch her kids in a pinch.

(Call me, I'll be right over with my jumper cables and a nice loaf of sourdough bread.)

Not surprisingly, the recipients were asking for more. So Deloria cooked up her own label, Neighborhood Jam, and set up at the studio sale.

Her jams are $5 for an 8-ounce jar. Flavors depend on the season. She buys most of her fruit from the St. James/Delaware Avenue farmer's market, although she'll have to branch out for the winter.

(To all my relatives out there, pretend to be surprised when your presents arrive.)

To contact Neighborhood Jam:

(518) 462-0601

dballardhubbell@gmail.com