Editor’s Note: Today is a BIG day in the Eat Real. Eat Local 30-Day Food Challenge Universe.
Besides the obvious continuation of date night at one of our featured restaurants, you can go check out Island View Lavender right on the Old Island Highway in Union Bay. Kathleen will be hosting a lavender extravaganza from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. This is a super family-friendly event with tasty treats and lavender clowns and, for the adult crowd, tours, tastings and lots of lavender love.
Be sure to take your passport with you as this is a stampable event AND you can cast a vote for the 2009 Yummy Awards.
Also, plan ahead for tomorrow when the first film in the Chew On This Film Series – the fantastic Vancouver Island food security documentary Island On The Edge – is on the schedule. The showing, which has limited seating, will be from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Courtenay Museum. You must show your food challenge passport in order to attend as it serves as your ticket.
Then go check out Karen McKinnon’s blog as her creative genius is bursting with her 30 Days of Local Food Photography project. Love.
Speaking of food security, read on to see what we’re up to in the food preserving universe and tools that make it a bit less daunting. Catherine won the Preserve 100% recycled food storage containers from yesterday’s greenhouse posting. Thanks to everybody who is jumping in and taking part:
I should have paid even the slightest bit of attention when I was a kid.
Seriously, if I’d taken one ounce of interest in all of the canning, sewing and other domesticity that my mom dug, I might not be here today wondering how the heck we are going to stick with our Locavore ways this Winter.
It shouldn’t be such a big deal, food preservation. But, holy crikey am I intimidated by spending what sounds like forever and a day in the late, hot Summer making sure we don’t run out of berries come February.
I’ve overdramatized the whole process of canning, freezing, etc., in my head just to make sure I don’t do it, I suspect.
My fellow local food lover Barb over at Green Wellies has seriously inspired me lately with her smart, sensible and fun preservation techniques like freezing herbs in ice cube trays to pop into soups and sauces in the Winter (see her above photo).
She makes it look so lovely and simple.
This year, I am buckling down and making it actually happen.
When my brain went into preserve mode, I discovered my new best friend - Robin Wheeler.
She seems to have plugged into my food-related anxiety (and more than a few other people’s too) and pulled together a genius of a how-to Bible on food preservation, eating local and making it as painless as possible with Food Security for the Faint of Heart.
From her slice of heaven on the Sunshine Coast, Wheeler writes like a normal person talks – no flashy catch phrases or pretense. She’s all heart, coming to you from familiar locations and from the perspective of a West Coast Canadian – which means that all of her tips, tricks and planning tools apply across the board – a rare find out in this neck of the woods.
I prefer a conversation over the dinner table about these sorts of things. You throw the words “food security” out to me and all I can think about is doom and gloom. Wheeler makes me think “If I do this, my body, my family and my sense of well-being will be well cared for all year long.”
I need that sensibility in my life.
Wheeler’s book is available locally at places like Blue Heron Books in Comox.
But, today, I’ll be giving a copy away.
Here’s the question: What would you love to learn how to preserve? And what keeps you from doing it?
This giveaway is closed. Heather is our winner!
(Photo courtesy of Green Wellies. Book cover courtesy of New Society Publishers)
The Eat Real. Eat Local 30-Day Challenge is Brought to You By:
We do a lot of freezing for the winter (corn, zucchini, pumpkin, berries of all types, even tomatoes), and I have canned fruit and jams before in a boiling water canner, but I would love to learn pressure canning. It scares the willies out of me, though! Plus, the stove that came with the house has a glass top, which is a no-no with pressure canning. I can remember my grandmother pressure canning, and I remember her telling me about the canner “exploding” a couple of times (which leads to the willies!).
Anything? Everything? LOL
I made jam a few times in my early teens, and I remember that being an absolute hoot so I’m not sure what’s stopping me from doing it now.
I really need to start canning my owning tomatoes, because we go through probably 5 cans of diced tomatoes a week between soups, chilis, spaghetti, etc.
What’s stopping me? I think it’s that my husband works a full-time and a part-time job, I work full-time, and we have two kidlets. In my head, I’ve got the time required built up to something just impossible to fit into our schedules, but it probably wouldn’t take nearly as long as I’ve imagined.
This book sounds awsome.
I’ve only jumped into the world of preserving once. It was slightly intimidating but luckily I had a fab friend who knew what to do (and instructions!). I would love to know ALL of it, but starting slowly I will suffice (tomato sauce, jams & jellies, and frozen veggies that taste fresh).
Like you, I think preserving is time consuming and loads of hardwork. But that part doesn’t scare me. The part that does is screwing up and wasting all that effort and food.
Off to check out Green Wellies…
I would love to can my own tomatoes. Granted I would also need to start growing enough to can or find someone to sell me cheap and fresh and local tomatoes. I guess that also answers one reason why I haven’t done it yet. Plus. I am fundamentally lazy.
I used to can tomatoes but now I wash them and put them whole into a freezer bag and freeze them. It is much easier! To use them, I run them under the hot tap when still frozen and the skin comes off. With a sharp knife, I cut out the stem and they are perfectly good to use in stews, sauces, etc.
What I would like to figure out is what to do with herbs. I have an abundance of basil, chives, mint, parsley, etc in the winter and the prices they charge for fresh ones in the stores in the winter is jaw-dropping. I’ve been wondering if you could get tasty winter herbs by drying or freezing them in the summer…….
My father in law is the king of canning. He preserves everything. Every year he makes tons of jams and jellies out of all of the fruits that grow on our property – blackberries, crabapples, plums etc. He cans pears and plums, makes sauerkraut and more. Every year I think this is the year that I will do the same and then the season passes by and I have done nothing. I’m trying to talk my husband into converting one of our sheds into a canning room – old stove, sink etc. My kitchen is so small that the thought of canning in there with two kids running around is overwhelming. One day, maybe, my kids will call me the queen of canning:)
I need to learn this year how to preserve considering my 29 tomato plants in the greenhouse. I’ve only ever done one quick workshop last year, but I am so intimidated. I need to know how to do tomatoes, eggplants and peppers.
I can’t seem to get organized enough to can. Last year I had the jars, but didn’t get enough from the garden to can. I feel like I need a special spot to do it on (and equipment…). I want to make sure I do it right so that I don’t poison someone! (which is my mother’s fear…)
PS- are you freezing parsley in cubes in that picture to preserve it?
I have learned to can a few different things. Pears, peaches, jelly, jams and sauces. My grandma made the best canned cherries. I would love to try to do them this year. I inherited a pressure cooker from my mom and have never used it (for reasons similar to Stacey’s!). I would love to do some salmon with it this year if I feel brave enough.
Only once have I preserved anything; we lived on a lovely plot of land with an abundance of marvelous things to smell and eat. We found a great recipe for green tomato relish in an old Mennonite cookbook. We still have a small amount in the last bottle in our fridge several years later.
Have never ‘canned’ anything and am terrified at the thought.
What is against me giving it a try? The same reason I should – children! Ours are fleet of foot and not totally responsive to parental direction so I would be quite scared doing this when they were home.
That said, I’m going looking for this book, it sounds just about my speed. I’m also looking forward to the Farmer’s Market session on canning. This *is* going to happen in our kitchen this year.
Since the age of seven, I’ve been lucky to experiencing “preserving” and “canning” pickles, cherries, beans, and jam with the my grandma, my mom, and my sister-in-law. My last canning experience was for our fall wedding 5 years ago. With my sister-in-law’s patient hand guiding me, I canned over 100 jars of pickles, as our party favour. It was a unique gift that was appreciated by all…
However, I have never attempted it on my own, though I would love to…I’m not sure what holds me back. Time is a factor, but more than that is confidence in my own domestic skills (which are often sorely lacking)… coming from a household where homemade was best, you’d think I would have picked up a few tips!
Perhaps this summer, I will muster up the courage to try again!
It is crabapples! They are so great fresh and so horrible canned and swollen and split. How does one can a crabapple and make it not only edible but delicious??
I have had a fair amount of canning experience – jams, jellies, pickles, antipasto, etc, but haven’t tackled anything like tomatoes yet (this year maybe?). I would love to know how to preserve my abundance of Kale. We LOVE it, but can not keep up with the garden… Luckily this one grows well in colder months too, but what to do with the abundance now? Herbs is also one I should take more advantage of. What’s holding me back? For canning I’d say it is the timing. To have the time to do it, as well as all the stuff, on the day when everything is ripe – well that’s a lot of planning! As for freezing, I suppose the only thing holding me back is freezer space!
Can’t wait to check out the book, and Green Wellies!