Kami Medeiros is in a pickle. She’s a physical education and health teacher in Quincy, but what she really wants to do is get her hands dirty.

A Rochester native, Medeiros is a jam and sauce making foodie with the dream of owning her own small farm one day.

But for now, she’s content to can. “My grandmother made jams and jellies, but I never learned it from my grandparents at all,” said Medeiros.

So, when she got ready to make her first batch, Medeiros started off easy, making freezer jam that didn’t require a water bath to sterilize and seal the jars.

From there, Medeiros recruited the help of a more seasoned canner, her friend Kendra Furman of Cumberland, Rhode Island.

Medeiros and Furman decided to make to make blueberry jam, starting with a trip to Hiller’s Blueberry Patch for fresh ingredients.

“I learned from my mother-in-law how to make strawberry jam,” said Furman. “Blueberry was new for me, too.”

The blueberry jam was a success, and Medeiros was hooked.

“That’s when it started taking over our summers,” said Furman. “It’s an all day affair. We like to get up early and tackle this stuff the first thing in the morning. It does take all day for us to do a batch.”

When summer’s bounty subsided, Medeiros said they moved on to autumn foods. “We did apple sauces, cranberry sauce, cranberry jelly.”

Medeiros’ jam won a blue ribbon at the Rochester Country Fair, and then she and Furman took a jar of their blueberry mojito jam to the Topsfield Fair, one of the oldest and biggest agricultural fairs in the country.

“People had canned so many things we didn’t think of,” said Medeiros. Despite the competition, their jam won the blue ribbon.

When one woman asked Medeiros the secret to her success, she replied, “I go and pick the stuff fresh. The woman looked at me like I had two heads.”

Supporting the local community and keeping money in the community is important to Medeiros and Furman.

“When we give away our jams to people, we pass on the fact that this is made from local produce. We want to make an awareness that good things can be made locally. If I can make it, you can make it,” said Furman.

“We’ve gotten so far removed from community,” said Medeiros, a member of the Agricultural Commission in Rochester.

The group hopes to promote local farmers, keep money in the community and bringing back traditions. Eventually, Medeiros would like to see the commission hold canning and farming classes in conjunction with the town’s Grange.

The friends would like to turn their culinary pastime into a jam and sauce business one day as well, but said the biggest challenge is paying for commercial kitchen space while also purchasing local ingredients.

“We’re young people trying to start our lives,” said Medeiros.

Medeiros’ goal is to “grow my own, produce my own and can my own everything. Until such time, I will get local produce.”

And keep developing blue ribbon recipes, of course. Next up, Medeiros and Furman said they will be ladling carrot cake jam into their Ball jars. With flavors like that, these ladies will have investors in no time.