Blueberry time!

There's a high of 73 today and blueberries are on sale at the Co-op for $20 per case ($16 for staff!). It's time for some jam-making!
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Canning Demo #1

They just posted my canning demo on Kare 11!

I think it turned out really well, especially considering that my car had a flap of plastic/rubber under the bumper come loose on the way to the studio and I couldn't get it fixed in time. It sounded like my wheel was falling off if I went above 20 mph! Luckily Nikki came to the rescue and picked me up. {Thanks!!}

A Tale of Two Mustards

I'm a huge fan of most condiments, but mustard is one of my favorites. I love it sweet or hot or Dijon or stoneground...Just about any kind. In preparation for the Eat Local America Challenge in August, I'm getting my local mustard selection in order (Because a month without mustard would be a sad month indeed).

Silver Spring mustard is made by family owned business in Wisconsin and is really tasty. Last year I got a bottle of the dill mustard from either Lakewinds or Linden Hills Co-op for the Eat Local Challenge, but this year I wanted to try making my own. I was super excited to see a few recipes included in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving!

I couldn't decide between making the Ginger Garlic Mustard (p.272) and the Oktoberfest Beer Mustard (P. 274), so I made both. I ended up with a dozen 4 oz. jars of mustard in my pantry!

Mustard seeds soaking in Ginger-Garlic brine (L) and Mai Bock beer from Vine Park Brewing(R)

Sidenote: Anyone who lives in the Twin Cities should go to Vine Park Brewing Co. on West 7th street. You can go there to brew your own beer! And they make root beer, too! (It has honey, so beware if you're not a "bee-gan" vegan.).

And they sell their beer in refillable growler bottles. Pretty awesome.

Back to the mustard:

Here they are, boiling away!

I ended up with a little extra mustard to keep in the fridge to use right away, plus 6 jars of each canned.

Vine Park Beer Mustard

Ginger-Garlic Mustard

The beer mustard needed a bit more salt and sugar, but then I liked it a lot. I thought the flavor of the beer mustard was way better than the Ginger-Garlic one. The Ginger-Garlic mustard was REALLY spicy and a lacking in garlic flavor. Very horseradish-y. But maybe it mellowed a bit during processing, though- I'll have to wait to see because I have a lot of mustard to use up before opening a new jar!

Canning and Cake

This morning was pretty awesome- one of my stepsons agreed to can something with me! They're not usually interested in cooking with me, so this was suprising.

We had about 4 lbs. of green, wax, and purple beans to use, so we made Dilly Beans (big surprise). He did a pretty good job of participating- He did everything but use the knife or pour boiling brine! The purple beans lost their color during processing, so you can't really see them.

Stepson even said, "Canning is fun"! What more couple I ask for?!

Last night we had some friends over to play games and eat good food. I forgot to take a picture, of anything but the cake, though!

Strawberry filled peach cake (Hannah Kaminsky's Peach Melba Cake with strawberry instead of raspberry) made with last year's canned peaches.

We also had rockin' strawberry lemonade made with strawberries that Sarah picked the previous day; Last year's corn/squash salsa with Whole Grain Milling Co. chips; Basil Pickled green beans; Potato salad with local potatoes, garden herbs, and homemade pickles. It was all pretty delicious, I must say.

Herb Garden Tour

The garden tour continues...

Hopefully you can read the little labels.

The Left Side

The Right Side

The Deck

Next up is the berry patch

A Little Tour of the Garden

I think I'm in love with my garden.

I was so scared that things wouldn't grow as good as they used to before swapping my soil. I never did much besides weed and occasionally spread some composted manure in my old garden and it miraculously grew huge quantities of food. I feel like it was magic- totally not due to any gardening skill or training on my part. So I was nervous that this new soil, while not contaminated, might not be very good or would require a lot of time and attention. But now I'm not too worried. Here's a tour of my main garden:

The cucumbers are going crazy. I cleaned out the last of the radishes from the cuke bed, so now they have a little more room. I pulled in 2 pounds of pickling cucumbers today. On the right there are peas, a purple cayenne chile plant, tomatillos and then lots of tomatoes.

Here's a view of the green bean bed on the left and the basil/cuke bed on the right. This year I planted some purple, wax, and green beans- This is my first picking of them because they got such a late start. I got nearly three pounds of beans today.

In the back of this view you can see the other tomato bed and one of the broccoli/cauliflower beds. The mulberry tree is in the far back.

Aren't the beans beautiful?! I haven't decided how to preserve the broccoli- I got about 2 3/4 pounds today. Probably I'll freeze it. The beans are destined to be pickled.

Whoa.

I'm feeling just a little bit famous, ya'll. Really, it's Mississippi Market that's famous, but I get to be a spokesperson on TV 3 times next week!

On Monday, July 27th I'll be on Showcase MN on Kare11 doing a canning demo. Later that day I'll be filmed for the "Cheap Chick" segment on Fox 9 at our new store on West 7th St- Talking about how buying in bulk is thrifty. Then on Friday I'll be on the "In the Kitchen" segment on Fox 9 with more canning.

Tomorrow I'm being interviewed for an article on canning for Body + Soul Magazine, which in my mind means I'll be forever linked to Martha Stewart (and that's a good thing).

On August 29th I'll be on Fresh and Local KTNF950 talking about canning and local foods. This is my first media-thing that is for me, rather than through the co-op.

So I'm feeling a little overwhelmed at all this, especially since it all arose rather quickly. But I'm really excited to get to share canning information with so many people and spread the word about good food!

PS- Thanks to the folks at Haberman for making darn near all this happen!