Fermenting Floyd: Wine Vinegar Workshop @ The JAX

Join me at the Jacksonville Center in Floyd on September 20th for a wine vinegar making workshop! 

It’s easy to save money and up the flavor when you make your own wine vinegars at home.  Don’t throw out that unused portion of wine- turn it into tasty vinegar!  Learn how to flavor vinegars with herbs, fruits, and spices.  Find out how to pasteurize vinegar and bottle it for gifting.

Sign up on the Jacksonville Center for the Arts website

See ya there!

Once in a Blue Moon

Off to market under a Blue Moon

High Summer at the Market

The produce keeps rolling in as we move into high summer.  I've noticed when making labels that I'm canning many products a month ahead of when they were canned last year.  I don't know if the produce is ripening ahead of schedule or if I'm getting to it faster than I did last year.  I know I'm offering more products because the crate set-up keeps expanding.

'Tis the Season!

The Floyd Farmers Market officially opened May 16th with a jam-packed (no pun intended) crowd in attendance.  I think this past weekend's crowd was even bigger!

I'm glad the season has finally arrived.  Fresh produce is rolling in (mmmmm....strawberries....), people hungry for fresh produce are rolling in, and I'm back to capturing those flavors for people to stash away and enjoy all year 'round.  Plus, it really is the social highlight of my week.

Quick Notes

Spring's Here!!!!  YAY!!!!

'Cuz I was getting really tired of seeing this

and this

which were the respective views from the front and back of my new home.

Now that the weather is (mostly) nice, I'm in the process of reclaiming an old, weathered, but still sturdy and dry, wooden shed that's on the property for the storage of my gardening gear.  The metal shed beside my trailer will hold household and kitchen gear and my chest freezer.  I'm kind of under the gun to get this all done because my ex has put our house on the market and I'll soon lose the storage in the garage.

I'm also waiting for the deed to my new home to be transferred into my name so work can begin on rehabbing the trailer into a more home-like structure.  Currently it looks like this

but I'm hoping to make it look more like this

front

back

My friend Phillip is coming to bush hog the field soon.  The multiflora rose has crossed the stream in places and must be tamed now.  Then I hope to be able to maintain it with my little Barbie lawn tractor.  I looked a couple of days ago along the stream and the watercress is greening up nicely and shoots of the native yellow iris are poking up. Hopefully Julius will arrive to turn the gardens for me.  They've both run wild and need to be brought back into the fold.

And the hens are laying.

 

In between all this I'm getting ready for the Floyd Farmers Market which opens May 16.  Since I'm offering more than preserves I've had a name change to Rebecca's Pantry.  I think it's more descriptive of what I'm offering to grace your tables.

Although I've had requests for classes, I need to put them on hold for a little longer.  But keep an eye out.  I've been negotiating with the Jacksonville Center to teach a class on fermentation and other techniques that don't require a stove.  The JAX doesn't have a range and would love to receive the donation of a sturdy kitchen stove (new or used) for cooking classes for their new Maker Series (hint, hint)!

So that's what's happening at the moment.  Not entirely out of limbo yet but I can see the exit ramp up ahead.

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.

Eating Floyd: Wow! All I hear are crickets!

Nope, I haven't disappeared, just working through a major life reorganization! The holidays are approaching so there will be gifts to be made and new dishes to try out for the upcoming feasts.  In the meantime, I think there will be Halloween cookies and candied apples showing up soon!

courtesy Country Living

Preserving Floyd: Pressure Canning Meat Class 9/14

I'm ironically following up the last post with an invitation for you to join me this Saturday, September 14 2013 for

Pressure Canning Meats

How do you guard against losing that freezer full of meat when the electricity goes out?
Want to have meat ready to add to other ingredients for quick meals?
How can you take advantage of meats on sale at great prices?

Pressure can it!

Learn how to safely preserve your meats in a shelf stable jar. Pressure canning can be used to preserve game, domestic meats, poultry and fowl, and fish. Ground meat, cubes and meat strip techniques will be covered.

Class is hands-on. Students will take home a jar of canned meat. Please wear comfortable closed toe shoes. An apron is suggested but optional. Class size is limited so please register early.
Date: Saturday, September 14
Location: Farm Bureau, 335 E. Oxford St., Floyd, VA 24091
Time: 1:00 pm-6:00 pm
Fee: $25 in advance, $30 at the door, space providing.
To register contact: Rebecca Shannon at 540-745-8514 or hfpcac at swva.net. Please make checks payable to Rebecca Shannon. Payment may be mailed to 153 Gracie Lane NW, Floyd, VA, 24091
 

Please remember, the only reservation is a paid reservation.

Feeding Floyd: Pink Slime is Back!

From the state that decided to punish drivers with a $64/year tax for trading in their gas guzzlers for a more responsible higher MPG hybrid fuel vehicle comes this little gift for your school-age children:

PINK SLIME IS BACK IN VIRGINIA SCHOOL CAFETERIAS

Oh sure, they call it "Lean Finely Textured Beef" but remember, what it is really, is the meat scrapings off the bones of thousands of cows, mixed together and treated with ammonia, then slurried to create a product that looks like this:

This LFT beef, or ammoniated Pink Slime, is then mixed with ground beef as filler in order to "stretch" it or make it appear to be more 100% ground beef than it actually is.  This is the stuff that is fed to your kids in school and it doesn't even come up to the quality and safety standards used by fast food restaurants like McDonald's (source).

So, one more time everybody, grab your ankles and say WOO-HOO!

Thank You, Virginia!

NOT!

Preserving Floyd: Attention Fermenting Folks!

Got an email from Brian Moss at the SustainFloyd model farm.  He has 2nd quality organic red cabbage for sale at .50/lb

Brian says, "I did make some sales..... to a kraut maker a while back. Heard that it worked out really well for him. The heads are super dense, and the color holds up great through the fermentation."
Contact Brian at 252-558-5636 or bmoss18 at gmail dot com.

Also, Farmers' Supply in Floyd just got in a full line of Ohio Stoneware crocks, weights and lids, including these really sweet fermentation crocks:

I'm trying really hard not to run down there and snag one for myself!

The root crops, cabbage family crops, and other fall fermentables will be hitting the farmers' markets soon.

get ready...get set...

FERMENT!

Cooking Floyd: Soup for Summer

Even though we've had some wonderfully comfortable summer days lately the heat and humidity still show up to remind us that fall temperatures are still a ways away.  You know.  When all you do is walk down to the mailbox and the sweat beads up and rolls into your eyes?  Those are days when I just don't want to cook or eat anything hot.  I want a chilled soup other than gazpacho.  This one came in the mail from a website called Tasting Table and since it was one of those days, I had to try it.

It's a keeper.

Cooking Floyd: Nectarine Salsa and Sweet Chili Glazed Salmon

The nectarines are amazingly good this year!  Sweet, silky, juice running down your chin good!  We've been greedily slurping them down one after another but I paused recently to note how tasty they would be as a salsa.  With salmon.  On a bed of greens.  Mmmmmm....

Teaching Floyd: Classes Are Back On Track

After a brief break to get my sh*t back together, classes are resuming with the Home Food Preservation & Culinary Arts Center.  Thanks, everybody, for your patience.

And Zack, out there somewhere in northern VA who called last week about the wine vinegar class, I got your email wrong and it bounced. Please email me at hfpcac at swva dot net and I'll get your info to you!

With no further ado, the class this weekend is:

August 17: Dehydration 101

Dehydration is one of the easiest of food preservation methods. Learn the basics for drying fruits, vegetables and jerky using a dehydrator or oven. Kids and adults love snacks like dried apples, tomato and kale chips, and fruit leathers. Here they are, guilt-free! Discover how you can make your own paprika, garlic powder, and other spices!  Class is hands-on. Please wear comfortable closed toe shoes. An apron is suggested but optional. Class size is limited so please register early.
Date: Saturday, August 17
Location: Farm Bureau, 335 E. Oxford St., Floyd, VA 24091
Time: 1:00 pm-5:00 pm
Fee: $20 in advance, $25 at the door, space providing.
To register contact: Rebecca Shannon at 540-745-8514 or hfpcac at swva.net. Please make checks payable to Rebecca Shannon. Payment may be mailed to 153 Gracie Lane NW, Floyd, VA, 24091
Please remember, the only reservation is a paid reservation.

Next up is:

August 28: Preserving Herbs

Store herbs in all kinds of ways- they all have their uses! We will be making herb pastes, compound butters, dried herbs, pestos, and frozen herb cubes and discussing the advantages of each.  Class is hands-on. Please wear comfortable closed toe shoes. An apron is suggested but optional. Class size is limited so please register early.
Date: Wednesday, August 28
Location: Farm Bureau, 335 E. Oxford St., Floyd, VA 24091
Time: 6:30 pm-8:30 pm
Fee: $20 in advance, $25 at the door, space providing.
To register contact: Rebecca Shannon at 540-745-8514 or hfpcac at swva.net. Please make checks payable to Rebecca Shannon. Payment may be mailed to 153 Gracie Lane NW, Floyd, VA, 24091
Please remember, the only reservation is a paid reservation.

Teaching Floyd: Class Cancellation

The class scheduled for this Saturday, August 3:

Roll 'Em Easy: Summer Rolls, Dolmades, Lettuce Wraps, and Cabbage Rolls

has been cancelled.

Sorry for the inconvenience and the class will be rescheduled at a future date.

Thanks.

Foraging Floyd: Peaches and Chanterelles

Our sweet little patio peach tree was loaded with little gems this year.

They were just this >< close to being ripe

Eating Floyd: Classes, Harvesting, Preserving, and the 2013 New River Valley Fair

July has been busy, busy, busy.  Not so much in the garden because for the first time ever since I've lived here we've had too much ongoing rain.  When the warm weather crops flowered it rained and the bees were unable to pollinate as well as they should have so a lot of people are noting that the small green fruits and veg are dropping from the plants.  As it kept raining blights, molds, and mildews came on.  But of course even though the veg and fruit are stunted from the rain, the weeds love it.  When don't the weeds love it?  And since it was difficult to not sink over the tops of your boots in the muddy beds the weeds have had a hey-day.  But all-in-all people are still managing to bring crops in, the farmers markets have some good looking stuff, and I've been buying in, supporting growers who do it better than I do.

Here's what I reaped this month:

Braggin' Rights.

The individual winners from the New River Valley Fair 2013 can be seen on the Canning Competition Winners page.

And then there were classes taught...

Teaching Floyd: Two Upcoming Classes

There are two classes coming up in the next week starting with:

July 13: Small Vegetable Fermentations

Make your own sauerkraut, kimchi, crock pickle, hot sauce or other fermented delight. Learn the basics of this age-old method of food preservation. Class is hands-on and participants will make and take home their own two quart fermentation jar.  Please wear comfortable closed toe shoes.  An apron is suggested but optional.  There are two spaces left in this class.

Location: Farm Bureau, 335 E. Oxford St., Floyd, VA  24091

Time: 1pm-5pm

Fee: $20 in advance, $25 at the door, space providing.

To register contact: Rebecca Shannon at 540-745-8514 or hfpcac at swva.net. Please make checks payable to Rebecca Shannon.  Payment may be mailed to 153 Gracie Lane NW, Floyd, VA, 24091

Please remember, the only reservation is a paid reservation.


                                                                           And

July 17: Nut Butters and Bean Dips

What! You’re still buying that overpriced peanut butter and hummus from the grocery store?
Come learn how to make tasty and nutritious homemade nut butters and bean dips at home for a fraction of the price. Create flavors with the additions you chose and none of the additives you don’t want. We will make classic peanut butter and hummus and then take them to the next level! These dips and spreads make great sandwich spreads as well as appetizers and light meals.
Class is hands-on. Please wear comfortable closed toe shoes. An apron is suggested but optional. Class size is limited so please register early.
Date: Wednesday, July 17
Location: Farm Bureau, 335 E. Oxford St., Floyd, VA 24091
Time: 6:30pm-8:30pm
Fee: $20 in advance, $25 at the door, space providing.
To register contact: Rebecca Shannon at 540-745-8514 or hfpcac at swva.net. Please make checks payable to Rebecca Shannon.  Payment may be mailed to 153 Gracie Lane NW, Floyd, VA, 24091.

Please remember, the only reservation is a paid reservation.