GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — After winning several awards at the Palisade Peach Festival, jam maker Julie Coleman caught the attention of orchard owners Carol Zadrozny and her husband Richard Skaer. They suggested Coleman go into business making jams using fruit from their Z's Orchard.

Coleman consulted with the Business Incubator Center, a nonprofit that provides entrepreneurial assistance to new and expanding Mesa County businesses, and in 2006 formed Just Delightful LLC. Her jellies, jams and preserves are sold at several Western Slope farmers markets.

Until then Coleman entered her homemade jams in the annual peach festival's recipe contest, which led to a spot on national television's Food Network All American Festivals show in 2003.

Festival organizer Dixie Burmeister contacted Coleman and asked if she'd be willing to be interviewed for the show.

Television cameramen filmed Coleman at home creating her deserts; took shots of her husband sampling them; and then filmed Coleman the day of the festival where she won two first place prizes for a cheesecake with peach-mango topping, and a peach mango sauce.

Coleman grew up in western Pennsylvania farm country with her mother's home canning.

In Grand Junction, Coleman follows the fruit, making jams as the fruit ripens.

“My special niche is my small batch, homemade style of making jams, jellies, sauces and preserves with as many local fruits as I can find,” Coleman said.

“When I come in Wednesday to cook I will do sweet cherry jam,” because the cherries are in season.

Following the sweet cherry comes the pie cherry jam — a “fabulous” tarter jam.

Most of the recipes are pretty basic, Coleman said, except for a few that contain chocolate, tequila or jalapeno peppers. She found a strawberry Margarita recipe on the Internet.

Coleman primarily uses fruit grown at Z's Orchard, although she also sometimes buys other local fruit — she has a local source for strawberries and rhubarb. She also gets a few items at the grocery store like mangos and blueberries to provide accent for certain flavors. Everything's made from fresh fruit, or fruit she froze herself from the year before.

When Coleman decided to go into business, she met with the Incubator's kitchen manager Annalisa Pearson.

“She gave me a list of things I needed to accomplish to set up a business,” Coleman said. “It made it really easy for a first-timer.”

Coleman cooks her fruit at the Incubator's “fabulous” commercial kitchen, at 2591 B 3/4 Road, where generally two or three different companies are working at a time.

“It's a great place to work, lots of countertops,” Coleman said. “There's plenty of space to share.”

Jam-making season goes from May through October, and in the winter Coleman creates homemade marshmallows and almond, cashew, and almond-coconut toffees which she sells at craft fairs and through friends.

“I'm not a threat to Enstroms however,” Coleman said. “I make several hundred pounds; they make several hundred-thousand pounds.”

Coleman's jams are sold along with Z's Orchard's produce at farmers markets Thursdays on Main Street, at Teller Arms farmers markets Wednesday and Saturday mornings, Sunday at the Palisade farmers market, in Glenwood Springs on Tuesday and Breckenridge on Sunday mornings.

Reach Sharon Sullivan at ssullivan@gjfreepress.com.