Why we love making jam.

A product born from a rich foundation of sharing food with community, Ayako & Family aims to brighten your pantry with a small jar of love.

We are all familiar with the choreography behind a homemade meal. It is perhaps the one ordinary moment in our day that evolves into something quite extraordinary. It is where friends and strangers gather, where they might brush arms while setting the table. It is where strangers then become friends. It is where they taste what is simmering in the pan and it is where that taste becomes delight.

It is with this cultural expression that the Ayako & Family craft emerged. Ayako Gordon, a Tokyo native and now long-time Seattle resident, cherishes the time spent around the dinner table. Her call of "gohan!" a Japanese colloquialism for "meal," through the neighborhood prompts those within ear shot to swiftly belly up to the table. In the summer of 2010, she founded Ayako & Family Jams, partnering with Japanese Organic farmer Katsumi Taki to bring the rarest of European and Asiatic plum varieties to the pantries of preserves lovers around the globe. By hand selecting her fruit in small batches, the nuances of each flavor become clear; with enough integrity to lead its own conversation of flavors, Ayako & Family jams may not only change your idea of the Plum, but may very well lead you into the kitchen and inspire some food sharing of your own.

Ayako now produces over a dozen plum jam flavors with the introduction of seasonal flavors such as rhubarb, quince, and apricot. Welcome, grab a spoon and share in our experience of loving great food in the company of others.