By Karen Parr-Moody
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – The flavors include pink champagne, pina colada and Cuervo caramel apple pie. But instead of being housed in bottles behind a bar, these ingredients are housed in jam jars and sold at the Smith-Trahern Winter Market by Lee Bittinger.
Bittinger has been concocting jam for a mere three months – she swore “up and down” she would never make jam after helping her mother make jam as a child. Yet within three months of experimenting, Bittinger has created a variety of flavors that could easily earn her the nickname of “The Willy Wonka of Jam.”
There’s not a boring grape or strawberry jam in Bittinger’s bunch. Rather, each jar carries with it a label describing its unusual contents. In addition to pink champagne and Cuervo caramel apple pie, there’s carrot cake, caramel apple pie, pina colada, Dr. Pepper, root beer and Mountain Dew.
“The kids really like the soda pop ones,” Bittinger said. “I think it’s the novelty of it.”
Then there’s the one Bittinger calls “Drunken Monkey,” which is a blend of banana, pineapple, coconut and rum. This is her version of a New York jam; she cracked the secret recipe.
The Cuervo caramel apple pie jam is deliciously dotted with tiny cubes of apples, along with tequila and butterscotch schnapps. Despite having liquor or champagne in them, the jams are not literally intoxicating, as the alcohol cooks out when Bittinger makes them.
“It’s been a long experiment,” Bittinger said of concocting so many jam flavors. “I’ve had to throw out a couple of batches.”
Each 4-ounce jar is $3. Bittinger sells them at the Smith-Trahern Winter Market, which operates through the end of April. The market takes place every Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at 101 McClure Street, at the corner of 1st Street and McClure Street.
If you have questions about the Winter Market at the Smith-Trahern Mansion, please contact Barbara Brown at 931-801-0822 or mamabee@twotzus.com or Martha Pile at 931-648-5725 or mmpile@utk.edu.
Each 4-ounce jar of jam is $3. Bittinger sells them at the Smith-Trahern Winter Market every Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Karen Parr-Moody began a career as a New York journalist, working as a fashion reporter for Women’s Wear Daily, a beauty editor for Young Miss and a beauty and fashion writer for both In Style and People magazines. Regionally, she has been a writer at The Leaf-Chronicle newspaper and currently writes about arts and culture for Nashville Arts magazine each month.