Editor’s note: Made in Cascadia highlights makers and artisans in Whatcom and Skagit counties.
If you ask Becca Green to sum up what she does for a living, she’ll tell you simply: “I make jam.”
This description, while not untrue, is a slight understatement. As the owner of 3 Generations Jam, Green oversees production of about 30 different kinds of jam, plus seven specialty syrups. Flavors range from classics, like strawberry and peach, to more unique varieties, including tayberry and honeyed pear. Each jar is made by hand with regionally grown, organic or no-spray fruit whenever possible.
As its name implies, 3 Generations also boasts a charming origin story: Green founded the company with her mother, Jan, when her first daughter was an infant. Despite initial hesitations about going into business with family, “it worked really well — we just kind of clicked.”
3 Generations became a lifelong project for Jan, who died about five years ago. Now Green works with her daughters, her father, Pete, and employee, Becca Hood, to carry her mom’s legacy forward.
On a given day, Green and Hood whip up 18-quart batches of jam in a tiny, USDA-approved commercial kitchen built into Green’s home in Anacortes. Its windows face backyard chicken coops and playground equipment, and daughters Charlotte, now 13, and Josephine, 10, are often just rooms away. Pete helps with sales on market days, whereas Charlotte and Josephine act as taste testers.
After more than a decade of growth and evolution, 3 Generations is still a small-batch family business.
“We’re not a production facility. We come in and we make pots of jam and we put it in jars,” Green said. “When you start automating that, I think that there’s a big chance of losing some of what you have.”
History of 3 Generations
Growing up, Green viewed jam as a part of day-to-day life, not a career path.
“[My mom] grew up making jam. I grew up making jam. It’s just farm stuff. That’s what we did, right?” Green said. “We took Ball recipes originally and tweaked them to our tastes.”
But when Charlotte was born in 2010, Green moved home to Washington from New Mexico to be close to family. Around this time, Jan started trading homemade jam for goods at the Bayview Farmers Market. Her recipe was a hit — so much so that other vendors encouraged her to open a business.
Jan didn’t want to commit every Saturday to the market, so she asked Green if she’d like to cover the occasional shift. “I was like, ‘No, not at all!’” Green recounted with a laugh. “But if you want to do it, I’ll go in 50/50. Partners. We’ll do it together.”
In the first few years, Green recalls cooking jam with Charlotte slung up on her back. She and Jan rolled out some flagship flavors — blackberry, raspberry, fig and marionberry, to name a few — and tested new fruit combinations as time went on.
Some experiments were unsuccessful, like the cantaloupe prosecco jam Green described as unfortunately musk-forward. But others, like raspberry habanero and spiced blueberry, became fan favorites.
In 2016, 3 Generations moved operations from a processing kitchen on Whidbey Island to a WSDA-certified kitchen Green built in her own home. “Letting my kids grow up with me in that space has been one of the most rewarding things, definitely, but it’s also the most challenging — because I’m in the middle of work and they’re still like, ‘Mom, mom, mom!’” she said.
Green’s daughters have also gotten involved with the business.
“When they were younger, they used to help label the jam and, you know, fun little things like that,” Green said. “They grew up going to the farmers market every Saturday with me, and Charlotte is starting to learn how to actually be a market vendor.”
Producing a jar of jam
Today Green has jam production down to a science, whipping up roughly 950–1,000 jars of jam during her busiest season, and 800 jars during the summer months. Her home kitchen isn’t roomy, but the close quarters enable her and Hood to collaborate at every step.
3 Generations’ jams start with fruit — hundreds of pounds of it, to be exact. Green has a degree in sustainable agriculture, and she sources produce from trusted regional farmers whenever possible. These include Hayton Farms in Mount Vernon, Silva Family Farms on Whidbey Island and Terra Verde Farm in Everson. Stone fruits, like peaches and nectarines, come from an Okanagan producer who vends at the Anacortes Farmers Market.
If Green is making raspberry jam, for example, she begins by straining half the berries into a seedless puree. The others are left whole, then combined with the puree. Green and Hood weigh out batches from this berry mixture, then freeze it in Tupperware until cooking.
Certain recipes call for add-ins like chili, lemon or herbs. But the most crucial add-in is pectin: When combined with sugar and acid, this soluble fiber allows jams to thicken. Some fruits, like apples and citrus, naturally contain pectin; others, like berries, need commercial pectin to gel. Green uses Pomona’s Universal Pectin, which forms a gel with calcium, not sugar. This allows 3 Generations to maintain a lower sugar content compared to other brands.
Once the jam is boiling, Green adds sugar, heats up the mixture again and ladles the finished product into jars. She and Hood ensure there are no bubbles, and that the jar has enough “headspace” for the lid to seal properly. The jars then boil in a water bath canner for 10 minutes; once cooled, they’re labeled, boxed and stored.
Green has increased efficiency over the years, transitioning from home canning-sized batches to a truly commercial scale. Even so, her attention to detail stays consistent.
“I think [Hood] and I touch every jar probably seven times before it even hits our shelf to go to the market,” Green said. “We wash it, we sanitize it, we put jam in it, we put it in the canner, or take it off, put it on the rack, label it … We spend so much time on every single jar of jam.”
Changes and constants
Early in the business, Green believed making jam was “something that my mom knows how to do, and I’m learning along the way.” But Jan eventually stepped away from production to focus on market sales, leaving Green to handle jam-making. Jan unexpectedly passed away at age 73 — and suddenly, Green’s safety net was gone.
“Even though she wasn’t really doing a whole lot, other than selling jam, she was still my partner,” Green said. “I think that big change made it more like do-or-die. I don’t have somebody to help me make these decisions. It’s all on my shoulders now.”
But Green rose to the occasion and, in the process, realized the depth of her own skillset. “People are like, ‘Oh yeah, you’re, like, a master jam-maker.’ I’m like, ‘Whatever. I’m just lucky,’” she said. “But it’s not just luck. I have the skills, and I have the knowledge.”
She models this work ethic to Charlotte and Josephine daily. Berry season is hectic, and schedules are unpredictable, but Green loves her work — tiny kitchen and all.
“I hope [Charlotte and Josephine] see me running this business and say: ‘I can do anything,’” Green said. “Like, ‘My mom and her mom just started a business, and they’re doing great. Women can do whatever they want to do.’”
As her daughters grow, Green isn’t sure how 3 Generations might evolve. She’s toyed with expanding distribution or even automating production, but at the end of the day, her plan is straightforward. In five years, she’ll be in the kitchen, making jam, just like she always has.
More importantly, she believes her mom would approve of this plan. “I think she’d be proud of me,” Becca said. “I think she’d be proud of the business.”
3 Generations jam can be found at the Bellingham, Bayview, Anacortes and Everett farmers markets as well as select stores and businesses. For more information and market schedules, visit 3generationsjam.com.
Do you have a suggestion for who we should feature next? Email cocoalaney@cascadiadaily.com with tips.
Cocoa Laney is CDN’s lifestyle editor; reach her at cocoalaney@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 128.
