V Smiley Preserves makes 100% honey-sweetened preserves with an emphasis on fruit, flowers, herbs and aromatics grown on their family farm, Lil to Do Farm, in New Haven, Vermont.
Creator of V Smiley Preserves, V Smiley, grew up on Lil to Do farm as a child of two 1970s "back-to-the-landers". Food was central to her childhood, and V's upbringing gave her "comfort in the kitchen and a deep admiration for food craft".
After years of living and working in the culinary world of the West coast, V returned home to the farm to work alongside her mother and her partner Amy to revitalize Lil to Do Farm and restore it back to working order.
V Smiley Preserves sources fruit, herbs and flowers from their farm when they can, and they source their remaining fruit, seasonally, from berry farmer Omar Fugaro in Middlebury; Champlain Orchards; Scott Farm and New York Hudson Valley Orchards. Any gaps in fruit production are filled in with only organically produced fruits.
V Smiley uses Vermont honey in their preserves because of the flavor and its locality. Smiley says, "Honey is a powerful preservative and sweetener... and it is intrinsically linked to the fruit-growing process. Conceptually, I like that as a pollinator the honeybee provides everything we need to make fruit preserves."
