If you don’t already have an appreciation for plums, Ayako & Family jam will change that. They make a range of heirloom plum jams, all sourced from certified organic fruit grown at Mair Farm-Taki, a Japanese-owned and operated regenerative orchard and vegetable farm in Wapato, Washington. Each jar of  jam is a carefully preserved memory of unique fruit grown with care and picked at peak ripeness.

In 2010, Ayako Gordon began helping at the Mair Farm-Taki stand at the University District Farmer’s Market. One day the owner, Katsumi Taki, suggested Ayako make jam with the unsold fruit. She experimented with recipes until she captured the essential flavors of each fruit. She then began selling the jam at the Mair Farm-Taki stand and a few local retailers. Soon, news of her remarkable jam spread from coast to coast through national press, including The New York Times and Food & Wine.

Ayako considered her work with Mair Farm-Taki a collaboration, aiming to highlight the quality and uniqueness of the organic fruit grown there and to honor their shared Japanese heritage. Ayako’s children joined her to help, and after Ayako passed away in 2019, her daughter Sako took over running the company. Using her mother’s recipes and large copper pans, Sako continues to foster her mother’s passion for building community through a love of great food. You can find Sako at the University District Farmer’s Market on Saturdays and at the Ballard Farmer’s Market on Sundays selling loaves of their Japanese bread Shokupan, along with a range of plum jams. “I really value human connection and interaction through food and the farmers market offers that in a really direct way,” Sako told The Seattle Times.

DeLaurenti carries a wide range of Ayako & Family jams, perfect for any time of year, but especially perfect as a Mother’s Day gift. With small-batch, handmade jams made from seasonal produce, our offerings rotate throughout the year. Can’t decide? Let us choose three to get you started!

AYAKO & DELAURENTI 
“As a business founded on family traditions, preceded by farmers and a reverence for culturally specific foods and the rituals that grow from them, we are deliberate in maintaining a deep connection to the Pike Place Market,” says Sako. “Beginning as a child in the early nineties, when my mother and I would visit Le Panier for pain au chocolat and hot chocolate each weekend, to now, thirty-some-years later, through our partnership with DeLaurenti, who for over a decade, has ensured that my mother’s legacy has a home. Our memories live on through the jams, and we can thank the DeLaurenti team for stewarding our story there.”

Order now at DeLaurenti.com