Marketing Floyd: Farmers Market Products Have Their Own Page

I've been getting requests for a list of the products I sell at market to be published on Eating Floyd.  I've started a new page with that list but think of it as a work in progress.  Just click on the Rebecca Preserves tab at the top of the page.  More photos coming, a price list, and eventually contact information for placing orders and buying direct when market season is over.  Thanks everyone, for your patronage, input and enthusiasm!

Fermenting Floyd: A Peach Basket Full of Pickles

Bess and KC of Kester Clark Farm are my stall neighbors at the Floyd Farmers Market.  They had a flood of pickling cucumbers this year and just couldn't unload them all.  I became the lucky recipient of a peach basket chock full of these goodies and the dilemma of preserving them.  I was looking for fast and simple so I decided to try my hand at making crock pickles.

If you're from the Northeast and a member of my generation or older you may remember being able to buy a giant pickle pulled from a jar or crock that sat on the counter of your local deli or butcher shop.  Where I lived these were known as crock pickles or kosher dills.  If you lived in or near one of the big cities, especially the NYC area you might have known them as sours or half-sours.

Guided by Sandor Katz, I decided to make half-sours.  Most of my ferments are done in quart or two quart ball jars but for this I needed a much larger container.  Luckily I had picked up a 3 gallon jar at a yard sale.  You could also use a food grade plastic bucket which can often be obtained from a friendly local restaurant.  Or an actual crock if you're lucky enough to have one.

Preserving Floyd: Home Food Preservation & Culinary Arts Center is Gearing Back Up!

Preservation classes return starting April 12th at a new location in Floyd.  Click on the Home Food Preservation and Culinary Arts Center tab above for more information!

Eating Floyd: Coming Back

In the middle of last summer life as I knew and loved it ended.  As Amy Roloff says, "It came out of nowhere...and it feels like death."

But in the midst of such emotional devastation, love and support appears from the most unexpected places and people and I am so grateful to everyone who have and are helping me stand up and move on.
I wasn't totally curled up in a whimpering ball.  At least not all the time.  I had to scramble to get some income.  When you're 57 and have been out of the traditional work force for some time getting hired for any kind of job is pretty impossible.  I use to tell the boys that if they had kitchen skills they could always find work anywhere that would hold them over.  Little did I know how that would work out for me.