Step into history at Green Briar, home of the still-operating Ida Putnam Jam Kitchen—a true Cape Cod treasure. Ida Putnam was a pioneering entrepreneur and culinary innovator who founded the Green Briar Jam Kitchen in East Sandwich, Massachusetts, in 1903. Beginning with a single wood stove in her home kitchen, she crafted jams and jellies that quickly gained popularity among Cape Cod residents and visitors. By 1916, demand had grown so much that she expanded her operation, adding a long kitchen wing to her home. There, she installed rows of Glenwood cast-iron kerosene burners and gleaming copper-top counters where steaming, fragrant jam was ladled into Mason jars. In the 1930s, the burners were converted to propane, but the spirit of Ida’s original kitchen remained unchanged.

Ida was also an early adopter of solar cooking techniques. She used a method of "sun-cooking" strawberries and soft fruits by placing them in pans on a shelf exposed to sunlight, allowing the preserves to cook slowly over several days. Her innovative approach and dedication to quality helped establish the Green Briar Jam Kitchen as a cherished institution.

In a Gloucester Times article, Heather Atwood described the sun-cooking process when she worked in the kitchen as teenager one summer: "The sun-cooking system was a wooden shelf, maybe 5 feet long, that extended off the back room and the kitchen glass windows covered the shelf outside. From inside, one passed the pans of sugar, fruit and liquor through small doors opened to the shelf and rolled them out beneath the glass. The jams cooked over four days in the greenhouse-like arrangement, ending in a sweet, thick, regal preserve, rare with sunshine and time.”

Although no longer operational, the sun-cooking process was remembered by author R.A. Lovell, Jr. in his 1984 book, Sandwich: A Cape Cod Town. He credits Ida Putnam with having “the first kitchen in America to use solar cooking for strawberries and soft fruits.”

Awarded Best Jam by Yankee Magazine, the kitchen is a "living museum" and depending on the season, lucky visitors have an opportunity to view the cooking process first-hand depending on the season and schedules. Visitors still consider the jam kitchen a destination and come to Green Briar to savor the aromas of fresh fruits cooking on the stove.

Today, the kitchen offers Private, Family, and Adult Jam Classes where participants learn to make preserves the “old-fashioned way” in the very same turn-of-the-century setting Ida Putnam once used. It’s more than a class; it’s a hands-on journey into Cape Cod history. Every jar sold, every book or Burgess-inspired toy purchased from the Mercantile helps sustain the environmental education programs of the nature center—ensuring that future generations can learn, explore, and be inspired by the natural world, just as Ida was over a century ago.