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Brickworks Picnic 2011: 2 Days and Counting

I suppose the cool thing to do would be to state how calm I am about this coming weekend.  To act like I’ve been here before (which I actually have).  But the truth is it’s our second year cooking at the picnic, I’ve been done most of the preparation work for weeks and I am nervous as H-E-DOULBE HOCKEY STICKS (well, not quite that nervous but I love the term).

In less than 60 hours we’ll be facing 1,000-1,500 hungry diners who are decsending on the City’s top Chefs, Farmers and us.  I like to think of us as the “+1.”

To give a bit of context, the Brickworks Slowfood picnic is an all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink food festival that pairs an amazing chef with a talented farmer.  The Chef transforms the ingredients into an amazing taste and, ideally, compliments the Chefs around him or her who are all grouped in a ‘pod’ representing a micro-region of our province.  When we attended the event in 2009, it was easily my favorite event of the year.  We had purchased our tickets for 2010 when we were asked to attend as Chefs (I beleive we were the only non-restaurant/ professional cook in the bunch).

While I am a passionate preserver who knows my way around a kitchen, it is foolish to think that I could ever plate anything close to the flavors of some of the cities best Chefs.  The opportunity and honour was a massive compliment of which we embraced (along with the help of a volunteer army of cracker makers) in making the tomato bomb last year.  In an attempt to avoid utter embarassment, I relied on two factors:

  • Because I would be making this on my own time and because my cooking is a hobby and not a revenue producer, I could put more time than people busy running a restaurant had available.  This effort wouldn’t make my product better – it just meant my less-practiced hands could compensate for some lack of finesse by replacing it with sheer effort.
  • As long as I stuck to preserving – a narrow focus that I have spent thousands of hours honing, I’d have a chance at being respectable.  I had to stay within that comfort zone to have a chance at looking like I was anywhere close to belonging (emphasis on ‘close’).

Last years dish was 7.5 minutes a portion (of manual prep work).  There were 600-800 portions.  I remember watching someone walk away with 4 crackers and realize that 30 minutes of my life was in their hands.

I knew I didn’t have the same time this year.  The Fall is our busiest time and there would be no way to find 100+ hours of ‘spare’ time – even if I didn’t sleep.  It would come down to a single factor (and i suppose the factor that brought us here in the first place): preserving.

I should also say that I wanted to avoid the ‘typical’ approaches – especially jam.  It’s not that I don’t like jam (I rather love it) but part of our message at this event is that you can use preserving to create ingredients to cook with – not just condiments (albeit awesome ones) that get put on toast.  I’m a passionate canner – but also a passionate practitioner of many different types of preserving and I wanted to share broader possibilities.

If I’m to be perfectly honest with myself (and you), it was really important to me to get the approval of others last year.  I’d never offered food to such a number of complete strangers and had no idea how I’d handle the feedback.  Getting some positive feedback was an essential mission of the day.  I’m quite positive I wasn’t confident enough to put somethign on display and hear it wasn’t worthy.  That’s changed this year.

This year I’m prepared that many people are going to avoid our table.  I hope they don’t, but I ‘m ok if they do.  I hope I find a few outliers that will be willing to try our dish and, if they like it, pull some others in.  But even then, we’re not going to be everyone’s cup of tea (it has occured to me that perhaps, subconsciously, I am preparing myself for the worst for the exact reasons I went for the best last year but I’ll get off my own couch now :) ) and some will likely think it’s pretty gross.  And somehow I think that’s going to be fun.

But it still makes me nervous.

This year we’ve pickled large cloves of garlic (in wine vinegar) and dehydrated leek and green onion bulbs (with umeboshi vinegar and salt) as well as a bunch of greens from green onions (they’ll be a powder).  I’m contemplating baking some bread in advance of the picnic to make them easier to pick up but it won’t change the fact that we are ultimatley offering garlic and onions at a public event.

As we get closer and closer to the event, I’m bound to get a bit more nervous (all under the surface) and excited.  I’ll fear that people will spit the garlic out, point and laugh or tell me we don’t belong there.  I’ll worry a little bit over our community and hoping that we are representing preserving well to the food community as a whole.  I’ll worry that we have enough or that we’ve done too much.

But the moment the first diner walks up, all of that will fly away and we’ll do what we do and see where it lands.  We’ll be sharing pictures through the day on our Facebook group and update the blog next week (of course there will be regular posts on the weekend as well).

If you’re coming by, make sure we know and be sure to say hi – our table is in the Guelph area. :)   There are still tickets available through their website.

Raw Milk No Longer Legal in Ontario – History of Canadian Dairy and a Global Perspective

I’m hoping that the following article might motivate people to share the story, add to the discussion and respectful debate.  I’m not asking you to agree with me – but am hoping that we can put all of the collective information on the table to share in an open dialogue to make sense of dairy in Canada, the US and many other places in the world.  The article is specifically about RAW Milk in Ontario but you’ll see that the issue (and confusion) is far broader.  The facts presented here are, to the best of my ability, factually correct and open to feedback.

I am not a scientist.  I do not regularly consume raw milk (although I do remember fresh cream on blueberries as a child) and I’m not sure I would if I could.  I don’t know the detailed risks and I’m not recommending that you should or shouldn’t consume it.

I am, however, very passionate that we should each have the opportunity to do our own research and make up our own minds and have the choice.

Before looking at the history, let us acknowledge that the reason raw milk is banned is because of the potential to make people sick with nasty things like Listeria.  Let us also consider:

  • 17 U.S. States allow the sale of raw milk
  • Provinces across this country allowed it until the early 1990s
  • Raw milk is considered the highest standard of milk in France
  • Raw milk is commonly sold in Germany
  • The regulations of the European Union declare milk safe for human consumption
  • Cigarettes, which surely cause significant health problems are legal in Ontario
  • It is legal, in Ontario, for a farmer to drink their own milk and feed it to their families (this point becomes important further in the article).
  • Multiple recalls of mass-produced meat, veggies and fruit are now commonly accepted (through the process of normalized crises) across the planet.  Common threats are lysteria and e. coli (the same threat that  keeps raw milk off the shelf here).
  • Pasteurization was invented in 1862 – certainly milk was drunk before that time.

A quick history of raw milk in Ontario:

  • The Dairy Farmers of Canada was founded in 1934 (as the Canadian Dairy Farmer’s Federation).  The mandate was to ‘pursue market stability policies and ensure fairer prices for producers.’
  • Raw milk was banned for sale in Ontario in 1938 – pasteurization became a requirement to ‘boost confidence’ in milk.
  • In the late 1950s and early 1960s, milk sales were made from individual farms to many different fractured milk producers.
  • The Milk Act was passed in 1965 which created the Ontario Milk Marketing  Board (OMMB).  The Milk act made requirements for farmers to sell their milk to the Marketing Board (passage 37; “requiring any person who produces a regulated product to offer to sell and to sell the regulated product to or through the marketing board constituted to administer the plan under which the regulated product is regulated”)
  • In 1987, Ontario (via Germany) farmer Michael Schmidt purchases 12 heritage cattle (Canadiennes) from a Québécois farmer.  He is frustrated with ‘modern’ methods and wishes to use biodynamic farming principles he learned and practiced in Germany since the 1970s (the entire article is here).  His beliefs include a high value for raw milk.  (The entire story of the Schmidt’s is ongoing but a comprehensive catch-up can be found here).
  • In 1991, RAW milk was officially banned for sale under Food and Drug Regulations.
  • 1992, Farmer Schmidt’s sales of raw milk have increased enough to create a small store on the property.
  • 1994 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation films a feature highlighting the farm and raw milk.  Police raids hit the farm 2 days before the piece hits television.  Various raids and legal proceedings continue from then through the present.
  • The OOMB changed it’s name and structure (absorbing the milk and cream bodies into one) called the Dairy Farmers of Ontario in 1995
  • In January of 2010, a stunning reversal of fortune occurs:  a Newmarket, Ontario court rules in Farmer Schmidt’s favour – he had been selling cow-shares where people could buy a significant percentage of the cow (therefore being able to consume milk from the cow they own).  I understand he sold 25% shares in each cow.  People could not resell the product and it was not available to the mass public.  He had 150 shareholders in total.
  • The Milk Act continues to be revised; the most recent version is from 2010 (here) – likely to accommodate though I am not certain.
  • September 28, 2011.  A higher level of court overturns the Newmarket finding – Raw Milk is once again outlawed and the only possible client to sell it to is the Dairy Board.

It is not without irony that on the same day that raw milk is banned for safety reasons that we have also experienced a recall of mass-produced meat in 6 provinces.  The fear?  Listeria.

Isn’t it time to ask why?  Perhaps it’s time to examine the role of the gatekeepers who are there to remove ‘inequities’ in the system  yet we have a system with a single buyer that lacks the competitive checks and balances of an open market. 

Why doesn’t the system doesn’t allow for competitive advantage for individual producers to offer an alternative product direct to consumer?  Perhaps it shouldn’t be on the free market – but what is the cost to stop this from happening?   Who is benefitting? What is the real risk level of a product that was consumed in its raw form for thousands of years before 1862?

3 Recipes I Wish I`d Preserved this Summer

We preserve year-round so this post is not an indication of the end of the year.  It is, however, an admission that I`m running out of time to preserve much of the summer harvest.  We are serving our pickled garlic (more than 600 portions) on Sunday, the following weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving (we`ll be deep in the woods) and three weeks from now is the start of moose hunting.  There`s also a global conference at work, a tight social schedule, 15 posts to pre-write before Thanksgiving and so forth.  The likelihood of preserving much more summer goods is thin.

Here`s a few things I vow to make next year (maybe you`ll still have time or perhaps you`ve already made them):

I`m sure there`s more but these are three that burn me – I wish I had them in my pantry.

What are the preserves that got away from you this season?

Chef Joshna Maharaj (Tedx Toronto) – A Food Hero

I`ll never forget my Father telling me stories of his youth, especially the ones which involved horses.  My Father trained race horses (dropping out of school very young to do so) and every horse he broke won it`s first race.  He was a real cowboy – the `real` Marlboro Man (although he gave up smoking early in my life).

My Father told me one story many times – he saw the legendary E.P Taylor (a man who was instrumental in horse racing as well as the design of our city and many communities within it) at the track.  Pops stared at the man from afar, jaw agape until my Grandfather noticed.  My Grandfather was a tough man – even won a boxing match at Maple Leaf Gardens in his day before becoming a real estate agent, jail guard and many other things.  He spoke of things like pride as often as I breathe and his vision of heroes was a realistic one as he turned to my Father and declared, `Son, we all wipe our butts the same way – even him.`

It was a crude lesson but one that I learned often from the story: pick few heroes and pick them wisely.  This lesson was easily lived in my family – my Father became a Fire Fighter and my Mother was a Nurse.  I certainly had a lot of respect for many people doing amazing things but the term `hero`was saved for pretty rare company (namely an NHL Hockey player who grew up on my street and an extreme skier who I tried to emulate).  I didn`t have the chance to meet either one it may be just as well – it`s tough to live up to the imagination of a very active mind and such expectations of strangers are rarely fair.

I had the privilege of attending TEDx Toronto on Friday.  TEDx events are independantly organized TED events.  More than 700 of us were given tickets (there was a brief application process) for 1 and offered the opportunity to attend, share ideas and interact with each other.

I found out that a friend of mine, Chef Joshna Maharaj was speaking.  Joshna is going to change how our city, province and country view hospital food.

Rather than blithering on about it, I`d far rather share the intro video that highlights her vision:

It`s rare that I pick a hero, rarer that you meet them and rarest that they live up to it.  Joshna is an absolute hero of mine – I hope you`ll share her vision and inspiration.

Click the video to get to the TEDx Toronto YouTube chanel – the team behind the event did such an amazing job in organizing and curating – it was an inspiring day all around.

Rye Flatbread Recipe – Perfect for Chilli!

Somethings are easier to see than to read – if you’re interested in learning how to make rye flatbread at home, take a look at the following pictures – we’ll explain what they all mean at the end (as well as showing you what it looks like).  Before you begin, know that this is a hearty flatbread that’s ideal for soups and stews that’s best served as it’s made (I keep them in a warm oven as I make my batch and serve at the end).

Know that this process is more akin to making pancakes than baking bread – you’ll see what we mean as you go through the pictures:

Read more

My Secret for the Best Chilli

Claiming to make the best chilli in the world is akin to a restaurant with `famous`soup or the world`s best (fillintheblankhere) – everyone makes the same claim and no one can prove it.  And because flavor is such a personal preference, 6 billion people could lay legitimate claim to making the best chilli in the world.

This post isn`t about sharing a recipe for the best chilli – it`s about sharing a simple trick to enhance your beloved recipe.

I never make chilli the same way twice.  Sometimes I`m very typical and play safe while other times you`ll find me shaving chocolate, moose, zucchini or other ingredients.  Sometimes it`s meat heavy and others it`s completely vegetarian.

But it always starts the same way:

We roast everything (except the beans).  Our veggies are spread across a cookie sheet and placed on the top rack of a hot oven (450-500 degrees with the broiler on).  When the peppers collapse, we peel the vegetables and throw them in.

We`ve also started roasting our sauce on the bottom rack.  It gets thicker, richer and darker.  I leave it in for an hour or so (or as long as it takes to get all my veggies peeled and chopped) before combining everything and letting it roll on a gentle simmer for a few hours to allow the rest of the flavors to get to know one another.

Do you roast your veggies when making chilli – or do you have any other tips to share?

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6165/6181597951_7462148f08.jpg

Update on the Brickworks Picnic

This years picnic preparations are much different from last years experience.  We’ve pickled more than 30 pounds of garlic this year and have a bunch of dehydration behind us – all that’s left is deciding how to assemble everything together and determine if we are going to add anything else (cheese and/or a cracker were both debated at separate points in the process).

We’re serving 500-600 portions next Sunday and are hatching plans for a few projects to be ready (including some shirts for a few friends, cards describing what we do and some ‘props’ to decorate our table).  It feels like things are moving along according to plan.

When we were asked to join the picnic last year (it features 60 Chefs from many/most of the top restaurants in our city), I knew that I had two advantages that I’d have to exploit in order to serve something that wouldn’t be completely lost amongst a field of such amazing talent.  The two advantages I had over many people that were there?

  • Preserving techniques.  I knew I’d have to showcase something preserved.  It’s obviously our niche and I’d have to ‘stick to my knitting’ (a saying our dear friend Paul taught me).
  • My time was free.  I didn’t have to pay support staff or even take time out of a busy restaurant kitchen in order to make my dish.  I could work a lot more than others (and would have to in order to present anything even close to the natural talent that flows from their kitchens).

Each portion last year took almost 7.5 minutes of manual labour to make in the weeks approaching the picnic.  We were pleased with the results and the reactions that came with them.  We served over 700 portions.

This year we’re taking a few more risks.  Namely:

  • We just don’t have the prep time to spend building our dish.
  • We committed to preserving again.
  • We’ve decided to go “ALL ALLUM” – using garlic, green onions and leeks.  Not everyone likes these things but that will be half the fun.
  • Ontario garlic cloves can be very, very big.  The dish will be intimidating for those new to it (placing a very large piece of whole garlic in ones mouth takes a leap of faith for the uninitiated).

Essentially, we’re relying that the technique will represent the food we have been trusted with in such a way that respects the amazing product we were given to work with.  We just have to trust that what we’re serving isn’t ‘too’ simple – it’s a risk that’s a little scary but has me more excited than anything.  I am certainly prepared that some will find the idea revolting – while I’m hoping that some others will find it exciting and worth trying.

We’ll share updates once the event is done and openly share our success – or struggles!

Are you a fan of pickled garlic?  If it’s new to you, would you try it?

 

WellPreserved Turns 1,000 – A Nod to the Past and a Path to the Future

I have been thinking about today’s post for more than two years.  Today’s post marks a special anniversary and the completion of a special goal – 1,000 days of consecutive posting.

WellPreserved was conceived and launched while I slept (the full story was shared back in 2009).  When Dana shared it with me, I committed (silently) to writing for 100 days.  When I reached that goal I made another silent goal of 100 days.  From there I tried to make it to a year and the idea of 1,000 days started to creep in my head.

The site has changed our lives.  The biggest change has been the people we’ve met (in real life and digitally through comments) as well as the sheer amount of learning we’ve had to do to stay current and share items we hope are relevant.  The commitment to writing 7 days a week has also meant a bond to learn something new 7 times a week in order to have something new to share.  This has changed our kitchen, the way we cook, eat and look at our food.  The biggest benefits of the project have been enhancing our connections with people and food.

The Brickworks Picnic (the fundraiser where we cook alongside 60 of the best chefs in our city) and Preserve Swap symbolizes the intersection of the two major benefits of this project.  Both events were a chance to interact with people and food and were things that we likely would have never been part of without the site bringing us there.

I really want to emphasize how grateful we are, especially to those of you who read, comment, share articles, and interact with us and the community here.  Without you, we would have walked away from the project long ago – receiving comments and seeing community members interact with each other is what this is all about to us and nothing can be more fun or more fulfilling to us.

I’m not going to risk boring you with any form of pity party but it wouldn’t be fair to leave the impression that it’s been all roses.  It’s been difficult to keep up at times and a severe commitment that is complicated even further when squeezed around 60+ hour work weeks, our awesome pup and life in general.

The time constraints have been frustrating at times.  There’s so much more we want to do here, including:

  • Redesign the site (it’s something that’s been on our list since 2009)
  • Enhance the usability of the site (i.e. an index that makes things easily accessible for you)
  • Building more of an interactive on-line community
  • Hosting more events
  • Finally get our poster sales going that you’ve all been so patient with (starting with the Periodic Table of Waterbath Preserving)

The Periodic Table is a prime example. 

When we wrote the original article, we didn’t anticipate the reaction it garnered (I remember watching our statistics jump more than 100 views in less than a minute, which is still a giant rate for us).  When we were met with flattering (and most appreciated) requests to buy a copy, we knew that we wanted to ensure that we had a quality print that would be archival (wouldn’t fade) and examined all sorts of options.  We then ran into more work than we ever expected – trying to figure out how to build an online store, process payments, figure out how to store shipping supplies, posters, ship and charge for shipping internationally, and even having to convert our free WordPress site to a self-hosted site to be able to install applications to help out… you get the idea: the onion kept getting bigger and while we were most excited, there just wasn’t enough time in the day. 

We never lost sight that the lack of time was only because we were fortunate to have so many opportunities and are thankful for that (I don’t want to sound like we’re whining!). 

Over the last few months, we’ve had a lot of conversation to try to determine the path after today.  We’ve discussed all sorts of radical ideas (everything from moving to the ‘middle of nowhere to’ shutting the site down for new content).  The possibility of shutting down was a very real discussion; something neither of us really wanted but we recognized a significant crossroads.

A few weeks ago we posted a cryptic message to the FaceBook group:

Dana was standing at the counter of one of the biggest professional photography stores in the city, buying a printer that took two of us to carry to the car.  It was a symbolic moment – the moment of no return.  A commitment to trying to take this project to another level and a journey we hope you’ll join us on.

In order to make more time in the day to dedicate to WellPreserved, we’ve decided to make it a client of Dana’s business.  What I mean by this is that we’ve decided to focus on getting our past design products available for purchase – as well as to produce more.  In essence, WellPreserved is going to try to hire Dana a few days a week.  The hope is to generate some revenue which will allow us to further dedicate more time to the project which in turn will bring fabulous design and even more free content to you in the form of the blog, our events and more.

We are indeed working on the items above, including migrating to a new site, building an index of the 1,100 or so articles (there were days when we posted twice), and working on a few more things:

  • Additional food swaps and events for those who are local
  • Pimp that Preserve will come back before the Holidays; an International contest of jar decorating ideas
  • A continued focus on building the FaceBook communityas a home for people to interact with each other, share their ideas, questions and inspirations.  It’s the Brunch table of WellPreserved – a casual place to pull up a table, share conversation and choose whether it’s time for a coffee or a Canadian Bloody Caesar!  More than 2,000 people have joined since January and the discussion is often rampant over there.

Photo Courtesy of Edward Pond

Daily posts will continue but for the first time since December 28, 2008, I have no goal related to quantity.    Today really marks the end of the original vision – and, for now, the future seems somewhat limited only by imagination and our willingness to risk committing more.  So we’re gonna give it our all and see where it leads and we hope you’ll come along!

A Sign That Preserving is Booming

It was within the last 3 years when the most common question we received on our site was, “where can I buy mason jars?”  It seems so difficult to imagine how recent that was considering we saw a whole lot of this in all sorts of different stores (grocery, hardware, mass retail and more) stores this summer:

Stores geared up for a preserving storm – that definitely came this summer.

I often wonder if displays like the one above actually create more interest in canning – i.e. seeing giant displays of jars must mean there are lots of people doing it which makes it seem somewhat more approachable and accessible.  I’m pretty certain it does based on conversations I had in the 1990′s with the owner of one of Toronto’s largest costume shops.  His story went like this:

  • His busiest time of year was Halloween
  • A large Newspaper in the city would contact him every year to find out what they trends were going to be for costumes for the coming year.
  • He painstakingly watched the city for the year leading to Halloween.  He watched fashion, music videos, movies and pop culture to try to grasp what the trend would be.  He felt that his business relied on his successful prediction as he would invest significantly in the trendy costumes of the year.
  • Just before Halloween he found out he couldn’t get the costumes he needed and felt would trend.  In a desperate move he purchased a lot of outfits that were overstock and cheap (they were something simple like Cowboys or Pirates).  When asked by the paper what the trend would be, he abandoned his approach of research and prediction of a trend observer and switched to trend setter (i.e. it would be popular “because he said so”).
  • His recommendation took off, it was his most successful year.
  • He continued that practice for many years after (and likely still does it).

It’s interesting to ponder whether the display above is in response to a demand for canning or whether it’s creating some of that demand (I’m willing to bet on both).

At any rate, there certainly is more interest in home preserving than I can recall in recent years.

As I prepared to make a batch of pickles recently, I realized I was out of whole grain mustard.  Being late on a Sunday afternoon, there were limited choices to get my fill so I headed for a rare visit to a grocery store.  I started with a mega-giant-superbig-mondo-hugo-giagantic store and was shocked to find that they were out of it in every form.  The bulk section was empty, the massive containers that sell as MEGA packs and even small over-priced packages of it were all gone.

I went to a second store.  They were also out of mustard seed.

The third and fourth were also void.

It appears that retailers accommodated the surging demand for canning with a lot of jars – but base ingredient needs (like mustard seed) were in shortage.  I settled on generic pickling spice to which I added many more spices to make it ‘my own.’

It’s an amazing time in the canning community.  I hope we are able to sustain the excitement and inspire each other on interesting and wonderful things to do with our larders and seasonal loot.  For now, it’s just fun to think of how much our inspired community across the world has put up in jars and how each of us are inspiring others to do the same.

Happy Thursday!

 

 

Preserve Tasting Party with Kate Payne – and Contest

We have had the absolute pleasure of having a roommate in the WellPreserved loft since Saturday afternoon.  Kate Payne who Dana and I had only previously known digitally has been sharing our house (and our Dog) since coming to the country on the weekend.

Kate has a wonderful blog (and a mailing list which sends you a weekly Hip Trick) to accompany her book and project – to modernize domestic pleasures.  I am delightfully biased in my support for her mission and really adore her book which is full of budget-conscious and practical tips to manage your life – and house – better.  Her writing is conversational and insightful and she covers everything from managing your indoor and outdoor spaces through preserving and hosting get-togethers to celebrate your hard work and share your successes.

In honour of Kate’s visit to Toronto, we hosted a small house party in a coffee shop (friend at F’Coffee generously opened up for us) last evening.  We decided to err on the side of simplicity and hosted a preserve tasting party – guests brought a jar (or a few) each or offered up a homemade treat to share with the group.  We had around 20 friends share their goods – and their stories – with each other.

It was a fantastic evening that was put together along with Kate and our friend Heather from the Backyard Farms blog.  It’s nights like these that Kate is a big advocate of (she is one of the absolute Superstars of the Food Swap movement that’s gaining strength across Canada and the U.S. (as well as the rest of the globe). 

Here’s a few photo’s from last evening:

We’re giving away an autographed copy of Kate’s book.  To qualify, simply share a domestic tip of your own with our Facebook Community (post it in this thread) and we’ll pick a random winner by the end of the weekend from the people who post (the technology may require you to ‘like’ us on Facebook first).  “Like” the post for a second ballot.  You can also purchase her book through Chapters, Amazon, many independent book sellers  and most major outlets.