Stonewall Kitchen Jam Headed to International Space Station

Stonewall Kitchen Wild Maine Blueberry Jam will be flown to space this June, scheduled to ship to the International Space Station (ISS) on the space cargo vehicle designated as HTV4. The jam will be one of the food items the ISS astronauts will eat while flying around the world in low earth orbit. 

“It’s such a wonderful opportunity to have our jam, a delicious taste of Maine, sent to space,” said Janine Somers, director of marketing. 

To send the jam into space, NASA requested the Stonewall Kitchen research and development (R&D) team to source alternate packaging because the company’s standard glass jar was not permitted. 

“Our Wild Maine Blueberry Jam is produced in a glass jar, but for safety reasons, we couldn’t send glass into space. We also needed to find a suitable replacement that could withstand our hot fill required for shelf stability,” said Somers. “Our R&D team sourced a natural polypropylene container and used a metal plastisol-lined cap. Since this is not our standard packaging, we put our label on the front of the package to make it look like it’s from home. We loved creating a custom jam for space travel.” 

Headquartered in York, Maine, Stonewall Kitchen is a nationally recognized manufacturing, retail and wholesale distribution company that has been owned and operated by founders Jim Stott and Jonathan King since 1991.