Business

Making marmalade with Blue Chair Fruit Company

For 10 years, Rachel Saunders made jam on the side, mostly for friends. Then, she said, making jam “sort of became more of a hobby.” But ultimately it became North Oakland’s Blue Chair Fruit Company — see how they make one of their artisan marmalades.

Local IKEA builds an enormous solar array on its roof

Furniture retail giant IKEA is putting solar panels on its store roofs all over the globe, including the one on the Oakland-Emeryville border. If you drive across the highway overpasses nearby, you can see the array coming into shape.

After getting thumbs up from council, Oakland Zoo ready to expand

After the Oakland City Council voted its approval last week, the Oakland Zoo expansion that has been in the works since the mid-1990s is nearly ready to break ground, despite opposition from environmental groups. The expansion includes a veterinary hospital, camping area, and an exhibit for native California animals.

Ignite! expo helps Oakland business owners make connections

Food, handicrafts and live performances are not exclusive to street fairs—on Friday afternoon, more than 70 Bay Area businesses convened at the Frank Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland for the 2011 Ignite! New Business Expo, where participants could not only showcase their products but also get connected to various business service providers.

BART pushes back talks on pilot project for later trains on Friday nights

On Thursday BART directors postponed the discussion of a demonstration project that would allow trains to run one hour later on Friday nights. Under the proposed six-month tryout plan, which was presented to the BART board of directors on April 28, the last trains on Friday night would depart at 1 a.m. instead of 12 a.m., extending the service for all 44 stations for one hour.