Kyle Olsen has taken profits from selling jam to help pay for tuition at Saskatchewan Polytechnic next fall. (Submitted photo/Kyle Olsen)

By Derek Cornet

entrepreneurship

Teen turns jams into educational opportunity

Nov 13, 2025 | 4:00 PM

Selling jars of jam at trade fairs is paying off for Grade 12 Churchill Community High School student Kyle Olsen.

Olsen launched his home-based business Jamming With Kyle four years ago as part of his passion for the culinary arts. He sells about 50 jars each year at local fairs mainly in the tri-communities in flavours such as blueberry, wild blueberry, crabapple, raspberry, peach and saskatoon berry.

His business was given a remarkable opportunity earlier this year, however, when the Aboriginal Apprenticeship Board of Ontario placed an order for 150 jars.

“That surprised me when she requested that many. It was fun, but it was early mornings and late nights just trying to get all 150 jars of jam made,” Olsen said, adding it took about one week to prepare the order.

Olsen, who currently produces jam from his parent’s kitchen, explained his jams stand out from others because they tend to have lower sugar content or no added sugar at all. Some of his ingredients are also more organic as he picks the wild blueberries and crabapples himself.

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He sells his jams in three different sizes, and he will be present at a major trade fair in La Ronge at the end of the month.

Olsen has been an active member of The Ballantyne Project, which works to create valuable experiences and educational opportunities to support Indigenous youth. Since his first trip with the organization to Vancouver last November, he has made a second trip to Vancouver to study the culinary arts and another to Maple Ridge, B.C., to study entrepreneurship earlier this year.

Most recently, Olsen has used the money he’s earned through Jamming With Kyle to pay a deposit to join Saskatchewan Polytechnic’s Culinary Arts Project in Prince Albert next fall.

“My thoughts are excited I did get accepted because I get to follow my passion and just see how the culinary world is,” he said.

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com