Blue Chair Fruit makes  the best jams and marmalades of the San Francisco Bay Area. Our passion is fruit, and we source ours directly from local organic farmers, with whom we have formed a close relationship over the past several years. Our preserves stand out for their instantly recognizable brightness of flavor, perfect balance of sweetness and tartness, and beautiful texture. We make each of our jams and marmalades in tiny batches in traditional French copper jam kettles. While we do have a few of the same flavors year after year, most change each year. This keeps things fresh and interesting, both for us and for our clients! Blue Chair Fruit was founded in 2008 by Rachel Saunders, following nearly ten years of preparation and intense study of fruit and fruit preserving techniques. A native of New York State, Rachel majored in French at Smith College in Northampton, MA prior to moving west. She spent the next several years working with sustainable food and on her jams, culminating with the launch of Blue Chair Fruit.

Meet the Blue Chair Team

RACHEL

Rachel loves fruit! Though she would be hard-pressed to name a favorite, she especially loves the months of September and October, because there is such a wide variety of fruits at that time: figs, tomatoes, apples, grapes, stone fruits, and more. Rachel is the creative mind behind Blue Chair, and she lives the life of a small business person. Which is to say, she does the jobs of about three or four people! Rachel is inordinately grateful to her fantastic staff, which is what makes Blue Chair Fruit possible!!

LUZ

Rachel knew Luz was a keeper when, on her first day of work, Luz insisted upon finishing a huge batch of Concord Grape Jam she and Rachel had started, despite staying at the kitchen until well past 10pm with no dinner! Luz, you are one in a million! Luz's favorite fruits include elderberries and Concord grapes, though she also flipped over this year's East Coast Blueberry Jam. Luz helps Rachel with a wide array of jobs at Blue Chair. Rachel doesn't know where she would be without her!

STEPHEN

Stephen is Blue Chair's workhorse extraordinaire! In addition to his great sense of humor and ability to discuss The Wire for exceptionally long periods of time, Stephen is the world's greatest prep guy. His specialties include Seville oranges and cherries, but he is great at it all. His favorite Blue Chair product is our Sanguinello Blood Orange Marmalade. Stephen, we love you!

CHERYL

Cheryl is now the face of Blue Chair Fruit at the Grand Lake Farmers' Market and the Palo Alto California St. Market! A former manager for Blossom Bluff Orchards, Cheryl is a stone fruit expert with many years of farmers' market experience. We are so delighted to have her! She jumped right in during our busy holiday season and did a great job. We are so happy to have her on board!

ERIN

Erin, we love you! Erin is our newest addition, and she had proven herself adept at all manner of work, be it welcoming clients at the farmers' markets, slicing lemons, or running to the post office at a moment's notice. Erin works as a private chef when not helping out at Blue Chair, and we are so happy she has time to fit us in her schedule! Erin, you are fantastic!

NEELY

We first met Neely at one of our all-time favorite restaurants, Eloise, which was located in Sebastopol and sadly closed late last year (their baba au rhum was heaven on earth!). Neely was a server extraordinaire at Eloise, and we are so thrilled that her friendly face is about to be a regular presence at our Thursday San Rafael farmers' market stand, which we will be launching later this month! Welcome aboard, Neely!

NAOMI

Naomi is our farmers' market sub extraordinaire, and we only wish we could convince her to do a market for us every week of the year! In real life, Naomi is a graduate student specializing in public health and planning issues, and we wouldn't want to take her away from that. But if she ever feels the need for a career change, we're ready! We wish to thank both Naomi and her  father and stepmother, Mark and Elena, for their extraordinary support. Thank you!

Visit the Blue Chair Kitchen

We work out of a beautiful and newly restored turn-of-the-century streetcar garage in north Oakland, and our space belongs to Grace Street Catering. We love our new kitchen, which Grace Street just finished building late last year, and are excited to share it with you! In addition to participating in the fabulous pop-up markets that have lately been happening at our space, we will also begin offering jam and marmalade classes starting later this spring. To learn more, please join our mailing list at the right-hand side of this page. We will keep you informed of dates and times as our plans move forward!

Blue Chair Fruit Thinks Green

In addition to sourcing our fruit directly from local organic farms, Blue Chair Fruit uses only reusable metal tasting spoons at our farmers' market stands, and we have also instituted a successful jar return program. At each market, we offer jar return cards, enabling you to bring your used jars back to us. You can return your jars one at a time or all at once, whichever is best for you. For every twelve jars returned, you will be eligible to receive a free jam or marmalade of your choice!