We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Heidi Skoog. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Heidi below.

Heidi, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Serious Jam had it’s first glimmer one lovely summer day when the strawberry picking was abundant and the competitive spirit was high between my husband, Kern, and I. After picking far too many berries for two people to eat, I decided to make some jam and give it away to our friends and family. They loved it and requested ‘more, please!’. I realized that I could mix up flavors that had been flitting thru my brain in a way that was delicious, shelf stable, and quite sellable. My first flavor was strawberry, balsamic, black pepper jam. My second flavor was blueberry bourbon sage. I wanted to delve into those flavors that I love and share them with others.

I thought that if I was going to do this jam thing, then I wanted to make jam in a way that treated each ingredient with respect and care, doing my best to use as much local and organic fruit as possible. Supporting local farmers is one of the reasons I even thought that this might work as a business. I spent quite a long time cultivating friendships with farmers and farms, supporting them and singing their praises to anyone who would listen. And so with that I started making small batches of jam, selling at the farmers markets and holiday events, utilizing what I call old-fashioned jam with new-fashioned flavors.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

For much of my childhood, we lived on a tiny “farm” in the middle of a small town. Our yard was packed with a prolific organic garden, apple trees, peach trees, a raspberry patch, a strawberry patch, grapevines, rhubarb, chickens, a rooster named Charlie, rabbits, a whiskey barrel to catch the rainwater, a compost heap the size of a small car and a mulberry tree that belonged to our neighbor, but that I promptly claimed as my own. And we preserved everything. We made jams, sauces, pickles, and juice. We canned tomatoes and green beans, salsas and soups. We dried apple rings and made fruit leather. We froze strawberries and peas and corn. We had a sourdough started named Herman that was demanding, yet delicious. And during the winter, we ate the food that we worked hard to preserve — and it absolutely spoiled me for life. Because of that, I’ve always had a draw to preserve and use fruits and vegetables when they are in season. Jam making is an easy path from learning to preserver food as a child to now.

While I knew that I would always cook and preserve food, I was actually a florist with my own studio for about 18 years before I went full time into jam-making. As we were winding down with the flower business, I only stepped into jam because it was something to do for the time being until I found the next thing. I started with the flavors I had been making, but as I found more farmers, they kept showing up with fruit for me to try and it was a really fun challenge to come up with flavors to honor the fruits they worked so hard to grow and to tell their stories to those who bought the jam. And in some cases, I would be selling jam made from a farmer who was selling at the same market as I was. I love being able to point to their booth and say, “THAT is where these delicious fruits came from!”

I’m proud of the relationships I’ve formed over the years with my farms and look forward each season to the firsts – the first cherries, the first apricots, the first crabapples, the first pears! It’s a lovely way to work and I’m happy to still be doing this!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I’m very proud of my reputation as a jam maker and a farmers market vendor. I think what builds a great reputation is when people can just feel at ease with you — as in, they don’t have to think too hard about anything, they don’t have to make difficult choices, products are easy to see and prices are written and easy to understand. People also like to be able to touch things, so when you have a well designed label or product, they want to reach for it and that is a way to build ease with someone as well. When someone is curious, or drawn in by my label and design, I let them look and discover without pressuring them to buy anything. I want them to come to that decision on their own, and by doing that, then I’ve got someone who will become a fan and tell others about it.

I also think to build a great reputation, the simplest things are what makes a huge difference, actually. I give everyone eye-contact and a smile, I thank them for stopping by, I thank them for their purchase, I make it easy on them if they are not going to buy some that day. People will ALWAYS remember how you made them feel, and even if it was just a single jar of jam that they bought that day, I always let them know how grateful I am.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

I have a weekly newsletter that I send out where I share a bit about my life and what’s happening in jam-land. I like to share recipes and fruit processing tips, or other things about the growing season that I feel like I must tell people. I share behind the scenes and the sticky side of jam making. I also let people know where they can find me that week, whether I’ll be at the farmers market or another event.

I also post regularly on Instagram. I don’t really want to curate the most perfect feed, because many of my followers actually KNOW me and it seems false to suddenly create this persona that I have to maintain. I’d much rather share a post that took no time at all to make, being as authentic as I can be, and then carrying on with my day. And still I get messages ALL the time with cooking and preserving questions, and I really love to talk people thru it and help them get good results. I’m THRILLED when someone thinks to ask me, rather than google or YouTube because I know I’ve got their loyalty then.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.seriousjam.com
• Instagram: @seriousjam