This year's Jam Jam had plenty of folksy jams playing, but not a ton of jelly.
The fourth annual event, hosted Tuesday night as part of a social hour for participants at the Alaska Tribal Conference on Environmental Management, was a chance for people to share their harvests from around the state while a "jam band" played in the background. It was a fitting event for a conference that centered on conversations about environmental challenges in Alaska communities and how to deal with them.
The event has been growing since it was first introduced four years ago, said Mike Brubaker, director of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium's Center for Climate and Health. Last year dozens of jams lined the tables, with participants taste-testing all the different versions of jam along the way.
But that didn't get to happen this year. Only three people brought in preserves to the event -- including Brubaker himself.
Still, the three options were varied: a cranberry butter from Anchorage, a blueberry-banana jam from Klawock and a rhubarb-carrot jam prepared by Brubaker's wife.
Brubaker wasn't sure what happened this year. In a panel earlier in the day on berries, he said about half the people in attendance raised their hands when asked if they had a bad berry year. While Southcentral Alaska and Fairbanks noted good harvests this year, harvests around the state are dependent on what's happening in their own microclimates. He's not sure if that explains the poor showing; maybe people just forgot.
Oxcenia O'Domin, who organizes the Jam Jam, said jams and jellies from all types of berries and non-berries from across the state usually arrive at the event. The most exotic last year was a spruce tip jelly someone brought from Southeast Alaska.
"It had a minty, earthy flavor," she said. "It went fast."
In previous years, fireweed jelly, made with the buds of the flower, was popular. O'Domin, who grew up in Chignik in Southwest Alaska, said it has always surprised her to see how people identify and prepare berries differently, depending on where they come from. What she considers a salmonberry can be very different depending on what part of the state it's from.
And despite the low turnout, maybe there will be more next year, she said. O'Domin said a big part of the event is sharing ideas and inspiration.