Preservation wizard and Happy Girl Kitchen founder, Jordan Champagne will share her meticulously developed techniques in this hands-on class. Participants will use produce grown by farmers from the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market to make strawberry meyer lemon jam and mixed berry jubilee, learning the fundamentals of making jam along the way. Everyone will take home two delectable jars of their newly jammed goods and instructions for jam making at home.
Instructor Bio
Happy Girl Kitchen Co. was founded in 2002 by a young, idealistic couple, Todd and Jordan Champagne. Working on the verdant farms of California's Central Coast, Todd and Jordan saw the enormous amount of the harvest, at the height of the season, that goes unused and uneaten. Drawing from time spent in Norway, where food preservation remains necessary, they began experimenting with capturing the abundant harvests of the farms on which they worked.
Out of those experiments grew Happy Girl Kitchen. HGK now makes over 40 products--pickled vegetables, jams, and ferments—enabling people to eat the delights of summer throughout the year. Based outside of Watsonville, HGK draws from the neighboring small, organic farms of Santa Cruz, Monterey, and Santa Clara counties. Many of these farms are the same seen throughout Bay Area farmers' markets.
In addition to providing beautiful and tasty items, they conduct workshops to empower people to connect with and know their own food. They have also started The Preservationist Society, a bulk purchase program, to give home canners access to organic produce and fruits at excellent prices.
