About Us
O'Hara's Blue Ribbon Jams & Jellies By Katie O'Hara Barrett After marrying my husband/partner, Jim in 1986, we moved to our beautiful property in the North Animas Valley, an area appropriately named Hermosa. That is the Spanish name for beautiful or pretty. Jim and I had both grown up in big Irish-Catholic families in Western New York, but met out here in Durango, Colorado. We settled in on our property that was adorned with proliferating fruit trees in every direction. Several varieties of apple trees, cherries, plums and apricots , were what we started with. We then tilled a garden out front and added raspberries and strawberries, along with all our garden vegetables. We ate a lot of fruit, shared with our neighbors and sold some of these tree-ripened fruits at a table under the big Bing Cherry tree out by the road. And, by the way, the birds in the area have always had an ample supply from the tops of the tree, as well. They only laugh at my meager attempts at plastic owls and scarecrows that I strategically placed in the yard every year. Well, we still had more fruit than could be consumed, and so I started making jams and jellies from this wonderful, Hermosa Fruit. Once again, we shared with our friends and neighbors. Everybody really seemed to like the little gems in the jars, and so in 1990, Jim convinced me to enter the LaPlata County Fair. I did this in August of 1990, and came home with 2 Blue Ribbons. Iave been entering the Fair ever since, and have won numerous Blue Ribbons for all our jams. Our Raspberry and Apricot Jams have received Champion status. In January of 1996, we went commercial with our jams. I worked full time at the business, while Jim worked to support our family, as well as working part time in OaHaraas Jams and Jellies. He was always, and still is for that matter, giving me constant support and encouragement. Our 17 year old daughter, Meghan, has always been involved in the business, as well. She has taken over the fruit stand out by the road in the summer months. During the school year, she often come to the commercial kitchen, to help us in preparing our jams, and is very apt at affixing labels to our jars. Jim is now a full time partner in the business that started in our home. He is the CFO and oversees our Web site, mailaorder and all accounting procedures. The three of us, Jim ,Meghan and I , travel throughout the year to trade shows and retail shows, to market our jams. We enjoy the travel and hard work, but mostly the time spent together as a family developing our very own business, that we are all very proud of. After twelve years of manufacturing our great jams & jellies, we decided to expand our horizons and diversify. We have merged with San Juan Mountain Mustards, and are now manufacturing 5 wonderful Mustards, 2 BBQ Marinades and 2 Mustard Chutneys. We look forward to meeting up with all our jelly fans and introducing them to our great new line of products.
