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  You are here:  The Rest of the Story     March 10, 2010

Woman takes
pride in her
jellymaking
 
By Kay C. Peck
For the Las Vegas Optic
Mora - Sometimes, the taste of history comes in a jar. Such is the case for those who discover Grandma Joan’s Choke Cherry Jelly.
     “Lots of people say it tastes like their grandma’s,” says the jelly’s creator, Joan Maestas of Mora. The jelly maker considers that a mark of success. When someone acknowledges that she has successfully preserved an important piece of the local culture, she knows she has done her job.
     Joan Maestas’ jelly making began 20 years ago, not as a business but as an act of respect for a woman she had grown to love since she had joined the Maestas family in 1962. Her mother-in-law, Clodovea Maestas, died in 1984. Mourning for the passing of a beloved woman included the family’s certainty that her choke cherry jelly was lost. 
     “I thought, we’ll see about that,” Joan recalls. And so, the experimentation began. 
     Clodovea had never used a recipe for her jelly. She made it the way all the women in her family had made it since the family first arrived in the Mora area sometime in the 1800’s. Joan had no recipe, but she did have the knowledge gained over 20 years as she helped make the jelly and watched the master at work. Besides, she had her husband, Matias “Matt” Maestas for “quality control.” She made the jelly, but it was Matt’s memories from a lifetime of eating his mother’s jelly that made him the expert. Joan cooked and Matt tasted until they finally developed a product they felt was ready for special gifts for family and friends.
     The jelly has been well received by family and local residents. This is quite an accomplishment for a non-native woman who came to the area in the 1960’s from Up State New York. Joan met Matt Maestas while she worked as  a nurse at the Presbyterian National Mission. She worked at the local clinic for about two years. It was there that Matt found her, and it was there that he courted her until they were married on July 21, 1962.
     “I fell in love with the area, the people and my husband, and I got to stay,” Joan says.
     “I was warmly welcomed by the family.”

 


                                                                                         Kay C. Peck/Photo for the Optic

Joan and Matias Maestas display samples of Grandma Joan's Choke Cherry Jelly.

     The welcome that Matias’ new wife received in 1962 was just one more indication of a loving family. Matias learned from the moment of birth that his family was there for him. His natural mother died when he was born, and he was adopted by an aunt and uncle. Clodovea Maestas, the mother he had always known, was actually an aunt who raised him as her own, including the annual family tradition of picking choke cherries and making the famous jelly.
     “These foods (choke cherries) were like survival foods," Matias says. “Stores were limited in goods, and people didn’t have much money,” he recalls.
     The cherries growing wild in the area were a welcome food source, but they were a natural food with a price. Matias explains that the fruit got its name because of the sourness of the cherries, which may actually make a person choke. Making jelly converted the abundance of sour cherries into a desirable food source.
     What began as a way to preserve a family tradition quickly grew into something that went far beyond the family. After Joan began making Clodovea’s choke cherry jelly as gifts, she decided to participate in an arts and crafts fair at the Cleveland Roller Mill. She set up with a TV tray, umbrella, chair and a couple of cases of jelly. So began Grandma Joan’s Choke Cherry Jelly, a product that the family has produced commercially for about 15 years.
     Today, Joan and Matias grandchildren continue the tradition as they pick cherries and help in the making of the varieties of choke cherry jelly  Joan has developed form the original methods.
     “Hopefully it will become a family enterprise,” Joan says.
     Some of her jelly is purely traditional, made just as the Maestas family has made it for well over a century, but she has developed other varieties to accommodate different tastes. One of their greatest sales tools is just letting people taste samples of the different jellies. At arts and crafts fairs, farmers’ markets and through retail stores, Grandma Joan’s Choke Cherry Jelly has been enjoyed by people from all over the world.
     “These jellies are cultural, historical, and they taste good and look good,” Matias said.
     The Maestas family offers fine choke cherry jelly to tourists, history buffs, and locals who love the traditional taste. The jelly is well worth the money, and the history lesson comes for free.

If you would like to sample some of our jellies just "CLICK HERE" to go to the Product Page.

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