Stonewall Kitchen
Jams, sauces and baking mixes from a Maine specialty-food maker that began at a farmers’ market
✓ American Manufacturing
Our assessment
Company details
Where Stonewall Kitchen products are made
Each Stonewall Kitchen product page has a Details panel, and on the food range it reads “Made in USA” — Wild Maine Blueberry Jam and Vidalia Onion Fig Sauce both carry it. Because the same panel names India or China on imported kitchen goods, a USA line there is a positive statement, not a default.
The York campus is “the home of our Company Store, Café, production facility and main offices,” and the company says visitors “can observe our operating production line year round through the viewing gallery windows.”
Tea towels, utensils and other kitchen goods sold under the Stonewall name are largely imported, and the family brands — Michel Design Works, Vermont Coffee Company, Urban Accents — carry no origin line. Their origin has to be read product by product.
What this emblem covers. Stonewall Kitchen states “Made in USA” item by item on its food products and names its York, Maine production facility. The emblem covers the Stonewall Kitchen-brand food range. It does not cover the company’s kitchen and home goods, several of which state a foreign origin, or the separately branded lines in the Stonewall Kitchen family.
The story
Stonewall Kitchen began in 1991 at the farmers’ market in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where Jim Stott and Jonathan King sold jams they made themselves. The company tells it plainly: they worked out of Jim’s family summer cottage, hand-wrote the labels, and relied on family to help fill jars.
The recipe that became the company’s signature, Wild Maine Blueberry Jam, was inspired by Jim’s grandmother Pearl’s blueberry pie. Jonathan King’s handwriting still appears on the labels.
In 2000 the business moved to York, Maine, where production, offices, a company store and — from 2003 — a café share one campus that the company says welcomes more than 500,000 visitors a year. The founders were inducted into the Specialty Food Hall of Fame in 2015, and 2026 marks the company’s 35th year.
Why they matter
Specialty food is a category where a regional name on the label often says nothing about where the jar was filled. Stonewall Kitchen does the opposite: its origin statement sits on each product page, in the same field that names a foreign country when an item is imported.
The production line is not hidden. Visitors to York can watch it through the viewing-gallery windows, which is about as direct a demonstration of domestic manufacturing as a food company can offer.
The company says it uses pure cane sugar rather than high-fructose corn syrup in its jams and samples a jar from every batch — its own description of a standard that is easier to keep when the kitchen is under the same roof as the office.
Shop Stonewall Kitchen products
Stonewall Kitchen jams, sauces and specialty foods, in the Buy American Campaign store.
Shop all Stonewall Kitchen products →Visit Stonewall Kitchen website →
Stonewall Kitchen questions
Are Stonewall Kitchen products made in the USA?
The Stonewall Kitchen food range is: each item’s product Details panel reads “Made in USA.” Not everything the company sells is — some kitchen and home goods state India or China, and the separately branded lines carry their own origin, or none.
Where is Stonewall Kitchen made?
York, Maine is home to the company’s “Company Store, Café, production facility and main offices,” and visitors can watch the production line through viewing-gallery windows.
When was Stonewall Kitchen founded?
1991, at the farmers’ market in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The company moved to York, Maine in 2000.
Who owns Stonewall Kitchen?
Stonewall Kitchen, LLC operates the company. Its own site does not name a parent company, so this profile does not either.