Genussmanufaktur Faller: in the open copper kettle since 1913
Some family recipes come about out of necessity. At Faller in the southern Black Forest, it was the question of what happens to the fruit left over in the shop. The answer turned into a manufactory that is run today by the third generation.
It began in a laundry room
In 1913 Alfred and Therese Faller ran a colonial goods shop in Schönau in the southern Black Forest. Farmers from the region brought gathered fruit and berries into the shop. Whatever was not sold, Therese boiled down in a wood-fired copper kettle – following the old housewives’ principle of “pound for pound” – and sold as jam.
This laundry room became a business: in 1938 the first jam factory, in 1950 the resumption of production by son Martin, in 1991 the takeover by Thomas Faller in the third generation. Since 2007 production has been in Utzenfeld. Thomas Faller, grandson of the company’s founder, runs the business together with his wife Bettina.
Twelve minutes that make the difference
To this day Faller stirs by hand in the open copper kettle – four of them stand in the manufactory, only around 100 kilograms of mixture per kettle. “After all, it matters to us to be and to remain a manufactory,” they say in-house.
The hemispherical copper kettle has an optimal ratio of contents to heatable surface area and conducts heat excellently. That is why 12 to 15 minutes of cooking time per kettle filling are enough. Exactly that preserves aroma and colour – you can see it in the jam and taste it straight away.
What is in it – and what is not
Faller uses exclusively natural ingredients. Instead of citric acid, concentrated lemon juice is used, and the setting is done with high-quality apple pectin. Large quantities of the fruit and berries come from the Kaiserstuhl, the Markgräflerland and the Ortenau, some of it in organic quality, from long-standing partnerships with farmers in the region.
The manufactory is organically certified (DE-ÖKO-005), certified to ISO 22000 since 2017 and a member of the Slow Food movement. Around 90 employees make over 50 varieties – from the family guesthouse to the Adlon in Berlin, hotels rely on these jars.
Our Faller selection
Famous is the Baden black cherry jam, and a perennial favourite is strawberry. The insider tip in the house is elderberry: deep black, with the nutty aroma of the elderberry seeds.
With us you will also find the reduced-sugar fruit spreads, specialities such as Williams pear with cinnamon or damson with Lebkuchen spice, the beer jellies with Tannenzäpfle and Hefeweizen as well as the Faller honeys. A jar of jam sounds unspectacular – until you have the difference on your Sunday bread.
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