Catherine likes to make and eat jam. This year she’s already made 28 jars and acknowledges that she might have a problem.

Kelda likes to open her home-made jams in winter and get a “little hit of summer”. She’s the kitchen half of Nikau Cafe, where she makes all the jams and jellies.

By day Sarah works with the incredibly talented team of people at Positively Wellington Tourism, and together they market Wellington, New Zealand as the Coolest Little Capital in the World. By night, she bakes, cooks and drools over cooking magazines and cook books.

Although Louise and Laura are jam novices, with a bit of luck (and a whole lot of sugar) they might develop a passion for making jam just like Mr Castle in Margaret Mahy's children's book Jam... minus the jam nightmares of course!

Demelza Woolston is a project co-ordinator by day and a baker/blogger by night. While her passion lies with baked goods, nothing better accompanies a freshly baked scone than an oustanding drop of jam!

When Craig’s not mixing up a pot of raspberry goodness, Craig is the CTO at Xero and enjoys a good haircut.

Some of Yana’s favourite past times involve making just about anything, including jam; foraging, hugging trees and being upside down. The best part is that many of these activities can be combined for maximum efficiency and fun.

Graeme finds making jam a pleasurable way to fill in time and be happy. His first-ever batch was made in 1966 and was carrot and lemon marmalade, a wonderful blend that he still makes today.

Anna lives in Island Bay and loves putting food in jars - what better sight than a pantry full of preserved deliciousness for the pending doom that is winter? She’s never really made jam, so this is going to be interesting and hopefully good enough to slather on a thick piece of buttered sourdough. YUM!

Catherine is new to the jam making game and loving all the fab flavours to choose from. She’s looking forward to meeting everyone at the jam-off :)

Rachael is an ex-Chemistry teaching stay-at-home mum of 2. She is not from a long line of jam makers, but rather got into it on a whim after reading about rose petal jam, which hooked her on the preserving band wagon.

Emma blogs as Make-do Mum and last year processed 96 grapefruit and a bag each of lemons and oranges from her Mother-in-Law's garden in two weeks! She says “nothing is better than giving away jam and preserves and receiving them back!”

Dan is a first-time jam maker, and is known for his love of Italian Amaro's, He has made his jam just to see if he could, and thinks that being able to cook is one of life's most important skills. His jam flavour as a ‘non cocktail’ has been kickin around with him for a while, and he still thinks it would make a beautiful Ice Block.

Oliver is a 17 year old budding master chef with a very sweet tooth - in fact it’s a wonder he has any - the amount of sugar he consumes. An energy fix to him is a tube of condensed milk. There's no recipe he's tried that hasn't turned out awesomely! So bring on the jam.

Jacqueline is a Mum of 2, and co-owner of Oyster Gallery in Petone. She spent several years in Devon, UK and sampled many a cream tea - so knows a good jam when she tastes one - hopefully.

Marie-Louise is a jam-making rookie, and has only four batches under her belt (unless you count the Kiwifruit Jam Experiment back in 2008). Fortunately, they've all been gratifyingly edible so far, and she's looking forward to whatever fruit season comes next.

Katie has never made jam before. She's really more of a cook than a baker - which is code for "she's not very good at following instructions" - but she does love a challenge. She blogs at What Katie Did.

Joe’s an artist, a teacher and a dad who loves the challenge of creating things. Whether it’s working with a welder, paintbrush, bread dough or a jam spoon, his attitude to life is ‘why not give it a try’?

Apparently Ania inherited the preserve-everything-possible gene from her mother. Her jam will almost certainly never taste as good as her mum's, but she sure can try

Simon is an artist and has just moved to Wellington with his family. He had to leave his bees behind when he moved so jam making can fill the gap until he get some more bees.

Viv says “there are blackberries therefore I jam.”

Bella and Henry are a sister and brother kitchen-loving team. Their dad Conrad is a happy forager and the whole family loves to make as much of what they eat as possible. Theirs is going to be jam Upper-East-Side style (Naenae, that is).

Kylie is a children's writer and excessive planter of fruit trees. Due to fruit overload she’s taken to jam making and preserving, and her next step is cider!

Jane is more into jellies and chutneys than jams. She loves the colours of jellies, especially quince. Her favourite jam is raspberry but she found strawberries so gorgeous it “just had to be done”. (By the way her flatmate loves this jam.)

Rochelle is a stay-at-home mum with a new passion for "stocking up for winter" so she’s onto her third attempt of jams and jellies. So far she’s given all the jams to family and friends, and there is an empty pantry... better keep cooking then...

Jackie works for Rural Women New Zealand, who have just published A Good Harvest – Recipes from the gardens of Rural Women New Zealand that you can buy from here – a must for all jam and pickle makers!”

Lucy is a writer, editor, cook and mother. She is always in the kitchen at parties, usually looking for something to eat. This is her first public foray into jam making, though she has previously annihilated the competition in the fruit loaf section at a West Coast A&P show.

Jenny was recently forced into making jam after picking 9kg of crabapples from her hitherto neglected fruit trees. Once the first batch was made there was no stopping her and the cupboard is now well stocked with stacks of assorted jams, jellies, chutney and marmalade. It will be a challenge to choose which flavour to enter!

Ian lives on a lifestyle farm in the beautiful Mangaroa Valley where they have heaps of home-grown fruit to make into cordials for Bees Blessing, as well as lots of jam.

Anna’s pretty much jam-obsessed. Her friends and family are mostly sick of hearing about her jam pursuits, so now she teaches preserving to spread the love.

George is a mild mannered public servant by day and a mad jammer by night. When she runs out of pectin, she makes makes a run on chutney because those scones don't just top themselves