Suyematsu Olympic Berry Jam

This jam is a limited edition flavor, produced with Olympic Berries grown and harvested at Suyematsu Farm on Bainbridge Island, WA.

Olympic Berries are a regional hybrid berry developed originally on Vashon Island in the 1920's. They are a cross of a Phenomenal berry, a blackberry-raspberry cross similar to a loganberry with the wild blackcap raspberry, forming a plump fruit with a deep, purple sheen, bursting with a juice that is punchy, lightly sweet, with a tartness that trails not far behind upon first taste. 

Rebekah Denn at the Seattle Times wrote an article about the berry almost a decade ago, and how a fruit once crowned "the aristrocrat," and since become nearly impossible to find.

About the Farm

This 40-acre berry farm was founded in 1928 by Yasui and Mitsuo Suyematsu, two first generation Japanese immigrants who had been farming on leased land for over a decade in the same region. The property was placed under the eldest son, Akio's name, when he was merely eight years old, and after two decades of regenerating by horse and hand what was primitive forest into what is now the largest producing farm in the county, the Suyematsu family was forcibly removed from their home in 1942 at what would have been their most significant bumper crop season, along with thousands of other Japanese American families in the region and detained at Manzanar Internment in Death Valley, California. Upon their return, they worked tirelessly to restore the farm to its pre-war operation. In the 1970’s, Akio planted raspberries and learned to raise them from Felix Narte, a Filipino farmer, who had worked with Shigeko Kitamoto, one of the first local farmers to grow raspberries. Akio continued to farm, educate, and innovate up until death at 90 years of age in 2012. 

6 oz.

Image (left) courtesy of Educulture Project at Suyematsu Farm