Today we’d like to introduce you to Christiana Christian.
Christiana, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I grew up in the LA area. I’m the youngest of three girls. It was the 80’s and my parents were kind of like urban homesteaders. Everything was made from scratch; my mom baked bread, she made jam from our fruit trees and even sewed our clothes. We even had chickens. Every summer we would pick the boysenberries on our big boysenberry bushes and make jam and syrup, spending the summer canning. I loved it. Jam making still brings up nostalgic feelings and makes me feel like I’m part of something old-world. Canning was such a necessity throughout history and being part of it speaks to my soul.
In fourth grade, I was diagnosed with dyslexia and had a hard time with traditional education, I couldn’t keep up with the other kids. During my freshman year of high school it all came to a head as I was working so hard but still failing my classes. That was a low point in my life; I struggled with my self-worth and esteem. My parents and I decided that independent studies would be a better fit for my education.
It was during that time of independent studies that my Mom made a plan that as part of my school curriculum I would be responsible for planning and making dinner twice a week. In the process of learning how to plan a menu, shop, and make the meals – I fell in love with cooking. For the first time in my life I felt like I was good at something. I felt like I had purpose and I had never really experienced that before. Cooking and food just clicked. From there, I began culinary school at 17 and my first culinary job was as a private chef cooking for a husband and wife in their home. I loved it. Food was my passion and seeing people enjoy what I created only gave me more hope.
Fast forward to 2002, I got married and began having a family in 2004 and put my culinary dreams on the back burner to focus on raising kids. Finances were tight, so as a way to make extra money, in 2013 I launched Christiana’s Preserves; all while living in a condo in Orange County, raising three little kids, with my husband in grad school and working full time, it was a crazy season! But my little business gained a faithful following of people who loved the jam. Things were going well and in 2014 I got featured with Ball Canning as a local canner. It felt like the business was starting to soar.
But in 2015 my husband ended up getting a new job and we had to move. Everything changed. We relocated to the San Luis Obispo area but unfortunately the move was really hard on our whole family. I had to put my culinary dreams on hold again in order to navigate our family through a challenging three years. But we made it through those tough years and looking back it only made us stronger and closer as a family.
In 2017 I took a job as the Culinary Expert at Williams-Sonoma teaching culinary classes. All the while, I kept thinking in the back of my mind that I need to re-launch Christiana’s Preserves. The area we live in has vineyards and farms and the culinary community is tight-knit and welcoming; it’s an ideal place to launch a food-based business. So I resigned from my position at Williams-Sonoma and began planning and preparing for my re-launch in April 2019.
The past four months have been a whirlwind and super encouraging. I have the privilege of working with farmers, wineries, local stores and a new local restaurant. I’m so thankful for the response. People have been really supportive and uplifting. The community around us has really enjoyed the preserves I make and sell.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I would say that this road has definitely had its bumps and turns but I’m amazed at where it has taken me. When I started my business back in 2013 cooking jam in my little condo kitchen using fruit from the grocery store I had no idea that I would be where I am now. I had dreams of where I wanted it to be but I never realized that in order to get there it would take us relocating and actually letting go of my business in order to relaunch and build something better.
When we moved in 2015, I sacrificed my dreams in order to help my family transition the hard move and that was really hard for me. It felt like I was losing a part of myself and it took a lot of faith to let go. But in that sacrifice, I now appreciate the good that has come from it. The waiting period gave me perspective and a deeper focus. And I think it made me braver because the hardship we faced as a family made me a stronger woman. I’m not as fragile as I once was. I’ve experienced disappointments so when things in my business don’t work out I am able to keep going and not let it weigh me down. I think the biggest blessing is how supportive my family is. They know I had put my dreams on hold for them and now they are apart of what I do. We pick fruit together, they label jars, and they deliver jam with me. It’s truly a family business.
Please tell us about Christiana’s Preserves.
I make and sell small-batch gourmet preserves. All the fruit I use is straight from the farms I work with so I know exactly where my fruit comes from. And I also pick a lot of the fruit myself. So the fruit in my jars only passes from a few hands.
My purpose is to create unique flavors that people can use to pair with cheeses or charcuterie boards. It’s jams that go beyond Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches. Although I have some flavors that I call bread and butter jams, like my Strawberry Lemon or Blueberry Lime.
I would say the two flavors I’m most known for are my Peach Rosemary Jam and my Fig Fennel Bay. Those are my best sellers and the ones I get the most requests for. The Peach Rosemary Jam is really the reason I started my business. After first making that flavor back in 2005 my brother in law kept asking me to give him jars of it because he loved it so much. It really is pretty addicting especially paired goat cheese and served with crackers, it’s the perfect combination. I also use that particular jam as a glaze when I barbeque chicken. It’s super versatile.
Another aspect of my business is teaching culinary classes. I work with a local winery: Peacock Cellars and teach once a month at their tasting room. It’s so fun! I’ve taught charcutterie board workshops, Instant Pot Classes and I have a pickling class coming up soon. You can’t beat drinking wine and learning to cook.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I’m the youngest of three girls, all very close and still best friends to this day. Growing up, I was quiet and imaginative. I loved daydreaming or playing pretend and existing in my own little world of wonder. My sisters and I would play restaurant in the playhouse in our backyard and make the food from weeds or plants we’d find in the garden. I loved playing outside.
I also had a pretty developed pallet and most of my memories are connected with food. We hardly ever ate out as a family but I have a memory of when I was eight my dad taking me to dinner and I was so excited to order shrimp cocktail from the menu. I ate it all and loved it. My best friends parents growing up would take us to dinner quite a bit and let us order anything we wanted, so I took advantage of that and would order King Crab Legs or steaks and they would sit amazed that I would eat everything off of my plate.
I never felt like a normal teen. Most of my friends would go to football games or parties on the weekends and I would be at home writing poetry or making a quilt, I was kind of a big nerd! But I found so much joy in creating, it was my happy place. I even made a quilt at 16 and won best in show in the LA Fair.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.christianaspreserves.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @christianainthekitchen
- Facebook: @christianaspreserves
Image Credit:
Jennifer Disney Photography
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