The House Of Jam

August is blackberry season. When my mom was alive, she had acres of wild blackberries growing around a large pond in Penryn. Those berries and the days I spent harvesting by her pond are burned into my memory as intensely as the sun scorched my skin while picking them. Back then Blaize was just an infant and there was not yet a Denali. It was the summer of 2008 and the recession hit the US economy hard. I was living in San Diego where Mike was working as a contractor, life was good. But as fast as the berries come and go so did our meager savings. The contracting business died what felt like overnight. The phone stopped ringing, contracts no longer could be found, and yet our cost of living remained high. In the months that followed difficult choices had to be made. Stress and worry replaced our carefree mindsets. Mike and I were in over our heads managing homes in both San Diego and Penryn. Savings was shriveling like the berries on the vine and I knew we had to do something different to survive. We had purchased a little house down the road from my mom in Penryn so we packed our baby and belongings and said farewell to our heart city, San Diego, CA. I cried. Lots. I did not want to leave my little penthouse in the sky. I walked daily from our condo to the San Diego Zoo and read Blaize all the animal signs. I still believe his love for the animals was born from those early years when we called San Diego home. But with a two year old to care for and a mortgage to pay I needed to make money. Our savings was empty and the baby’s belly needed to be kept full. In 2008 it all happened so fast there was not a lot of time to plan or think, so I just did the next best thing I could. I looked around my new reality in this tiny house, in this tiny town, and asked myself what I had that I could immediately convert into cash money. I had some beads and started making and selling jewelry at craft fairs. I also had my mom, and she had acres of blackberries. I asked her if I could come over and harvest the berries and she agreed. I picked berries in 100 plus degree weather for four full weeks, baby Blaize playing in a pack-n-play in the shade of a pop-up tent. I then took those berries and made jam. Mike knew the manager of the Valencia Club in Penryn and he agreed to let us have a jam and berry pop-up sale in the parking lot. Those free, sweat equity, blackberries were the lifeline I so desperately needed at that time in my life. The berries and the jars of jam put food on the table and allowed us to pay our mortgage another month. As the years passed finances slowly improved as my jewelry business grew. Did you know I actually have a costume jewelry store in Colfax? Just Fun Jewelry, 222 S Auburn Street, Colfax, CA. Jewelry is my hidden passion that has carried my life since 2008. After that summer of recession I continued to harvest my moms berries and make jam. My mom, Kandy, was my best friend and biggest cheerleader. Her support made me the person I am today and each day without her has been hard indeed. She left us in 2013, she never knew of Not By Luck Ranch or goat walks, but she was as country as a John Denver song and she most certainly would have loved this version of my life. Never forget where there is a will there really is a way. Value is all around us, sitting there waiting to be found. What value will you pick to change your life? In honor of family and traditions we continue to harvest blackberries every summer. We don’t have as many as my mom did but we make it work. As I type this post there are cases upon cases of 2026 Blackberry Jam waiting for you, join us this Saturday in Loomis at the Vets Hall from 11 AM to 4 PM and taste our tradition for yourself. Better yet celebrate The Blackberry Jam at Not By Luck Ranch on August 29th, 5 PM to 8 PM in Gold Run. Tickets are on the site under “Farmstand” and includes a ranch tour, a jar of blackberry jam as well as animal feedings. The 2026 blackberry season has come and gone but the memories and traditions live on in this "House of Jam”.