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We’re looking forward to seeing everyone next monday (February 20th)! This post has all the details of the event at the Avro…our second ‘Home Ec’ night. I’ve been working on a poster this week, it’s been a bit of a rush as we had to change the date to February 20th, but I had fun with it and think we’ll keep it around for any forthcoming preserve swaps (change the colors etc.) I wanted to capture the fun spirit of the event. A sort of yin and yang of preserves inspired a little bit by the simplicity of Saul Bass’ work, and a lot by my current obsession with screen printing. In fact, I’ll be getting back into the screenprinting studio in the coming month (i hope) and am planning to do a small run of these….so if it works, there might be some ‘gig posters’ up in the store come spring.
Hope you enjoy…hope to see you at the Avro or maybe you’ll be inspired to throw a mid winter swap at your own local.
We’re pretty proud of this collaborative project. As you’ve seen in previous posts we’re big fans of our neighbourhood sustainable ethical fish mongers at Hooked on Queen Street East in Leslieville. The fish is the best we’ve ever tasted (a testament to their suppliers and how they handle the fish to get it to the store as well as how the store cares for it.
We’ve learned a lot by shopping there we’re also learning about the best sustainable fishing practices, how fish should be handled and hearing all kinds of great stories about where it comes from. Dan (owner of Hooked with his wife Kristen) have since become friends and over a bottle of wine they discussed an idea to offer his customers the opportunity to buy a gift certificate but wanted them to get more than a promisory note to give.
We decided a custom, limited edition print would fit the bill. So after some sketching, carving and a long night on the showcard press…they have only 50 of these 3 color, linoblock prints (less now, they’ve been selling a lot over the past couple of weeks!).
Each one hand printed on cotton paper, and framed for giving….$50 worth of the most amazing, fresh, sustainable and ethical fish and a piece of art…not a bad gift if I do say so myself.
Note: In the spirit of transperancy we have always stated that we would share any time we received something of promotional value/ for free as part of a post. Although Hooked and WellPreserved are working on this project together there was no such arrangement at the time of the previous postings – we have nothing to hide and don’t want you to think we would.
Well here it is! our last one…no shortage of ideas this year..just a shortage of time to have fun doing them. Once you get going…it’s tough to stop…but preserves make great gifts all year! This one feels a bit summer-y.
Joel made Honey Ginger Cordial…we keep it in a big mason jar in the fridge, but I wanted to do ONE pimpin’ idea that didn’t involve a jar…
I found this vintage soda bottle in a local hand made furniture store (Kimberley Jackson does indeed make ‘beautiful’ things…I wish I could fit them in our apartment!). I picked up a bunch for these type of occasions…and they look really cute with flowers in them too.
The re:cap was found in a store on West Queen West (a pop-up shop called BYOB). A really cool local brewery seems to be distributing them (I did some googling)…Here’s where you can get them in Toronto. It’s a great idea, not that there’s ever beer left over in our house…but it works on these vintage bottles just fine!
Only a few more hours to get your own ideas over to us! Entries will go up tomorrow and let the voting begin!! can’t wait.
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Reminder: the deadline for entries is midnight December 12th (EST), after that we’ll post the entries in an album on our facebook page and let the <liking> begin. For all the details check out this post if you haven’t already or check out all of the posts from last year and this year here.
We made tonnes of pickled garlic for this years Slow Food Picnic at the Evergreen Brickworks. It was also our contribution to “We Sure Can” - Sarah B. Hood’s fantastic book (and one of the prizes!). We’ve been bringing it to dinner parties and dressing it up for the past few months so I wanted to do something a little different….
What else is garlic good for? Staving off Vampires! Or in the words of wikipedia – an effective apotropaic to ward-off revenants!
So with this post I’d like to inspire you to do 2 things:
1. think differently about your preserves, (we told the kids that pickled beens were ‘witch fingers’ when we made a guest appearance in October at Joshna Maharaj’s cooking class). Make them even more fun, or inspire different uses. Garlic has a long history of medicinal and health benefits, which is why it also came to be known to ward off all kinds of evil.
2. use what you know: do you love to take great pictures, sew, sculpt, fingerpaint, doodle, knit? find a way to use what you like to do to dress up your jars. I’m not a ‘natural’ crafty person, it takes me way longer to come up with those kinds of ideas (and execute them) than it does for me to do something like this. I love an excuse to design without many constraints or use my beloved press to do a linoblock print.
Maybe jar of “Vampire Begone ~ a guaranteed effective apotropaic to ward off revanants” and a copy of “We sure can” would make a great gift to inspire a new Preservationist in your life.
We’ve been getting loads of entries..and can’t wait to get the voting started next week! keep ‘em coming!
Reminder: the deadline for entries is midnight December 12th (EST), after that we’ll post the entries in an album on our facebook page and let the <liking> begin. For all the details check out this post if you haven’t already or check out all of the posts from last year and this year here.
If you read the blog regularly you’ll know that we do a BIG batch of tomato sauce every year with Joel’s parents. It’s a staple in our house and we don’t give it away much (we usually run out toward the end of the summer and Joel starts to get a bit stressed). So I had to give this one a little special treatment….
I gave the lid ring a shot of gold spraypaint to glam it up
The jar top is a small circle of leftover gold and black paper from the Japanese Paper Place (one of my favourite stores in Toronto!).
- the gold “2011″ sticker is from my trusty labeller (i love that thing), I recently found out that gold label tape is available and was quite excited about that. I just nicked little triangles in the end to make it look ‘ribbony’ (call me Martha®)
The label is a two color lino block relief print. I carved 2 separate blocks (one for each color), hand inked and printed by hand on recycled craft paper using my (favourite possesion) little (100lb steel) Showcard Press. Lino block printing is easy and fun, you don’t need a press (I just love an excuse to use mine). The supplies can be picked up at any art store (for pretty cheap) and loads of tutorials can be found on good 0l’ youtube.
Reminder: the deadline for entries is midnight December 12th (EST), after that we’ll post the entries in an album on our facebook page and let the <liking> begin. For all the details check out this post if you haven’t already or check out all of the posts from last year and this year here.
Giving your peaches will be a nice reminder of summer, that’s why I went bright and fun with this one.
again with the red spraypaint on the lid ring (hey, if you’re going to do one, might as well do a few and some of ours are getting a little over used so needed a facelift)
The stripes are just colorful paper tape I picked up at Rotblotts (another favourite store…got the spraypaint there too). They have ALL KINDS of colors, including some jarring (pun intended) fluorescents. I went with these because they felt a bit retro. It comes off really easily.
The gold foil letters are from the local office supply store
The lid liner is more paper tape stuck down to printer paper and trimmed out.
super easy.
Reminder: the deadline for entries is midnight December 12th (EST), after that we’ll post the entries in an album on our facebook page and let the <liking> begin. For all the details check out this post if you haven’t already – our all-time list of posts in this series more inspiration) is here.
We’re getting LOTS of entries…which is awesome. Truth be told I extended the deadline last year because we were short of entries until the last second! So we’re pretty excited by what we’ve seen so far and can’t wait to get the voting started over on the facebook page next week.
Reminder: the deadline for entries is midnight December 12th (EST), after that we’ll post the entries in an album on our facebook page and let the <liking> begin. For all the details check out this post if you haven’t already.
Like last year, we’ve been working on some ‘Pimpin’ of our own…and thought we’d share to show you how fun it is and perhaps inspire some more entries! I’m going to be posting a whole bunch leading up to the deadline. Here’s the first:
Hot Chili Peppers. It’s pretty simple…
I gave the lid ring a shot of glossy red spraypaint (after the food was cooled out of the hot water bath)
The little tags are from an office supply store and are fed onto some divinetwine that’s wrapped a few times around the jar
The lid liner is just a scrap of thick white paper that i doodled on with a red marker.
The spraypainting was the hardest (and grossest) part, you could probably use model paint as well. My main objective is to not damage the jars so they’re reusable for preserving in the future…so playing around with the lid ring is okay.
For all the details check out this post if you haven’t already or check out all of the posts from last year and this year here.
We had so much fun with it last year so we’re bringing back “Pimp that Preserve”. If you’re anything like us you like sharing your preserves as much as you like making them and eating them yourself. A Jar of jam (or pickleschutneybeetpowderinfusedvinegarwhatever!) is like a blank canvas…make the preserves you give a little bit more special by treating them like a work of art.
I’ve been collecting up a bunch of stuff to use for ‘pimpin’ over the last little while…this year I’d like to challenge you to use as much vintage or second-hand or even stuff that would otherwise wind up in the garbage to give your preserves a little character. Get creative and have fun. We’re looking forward to seeing and sharing all of your creations.
Post 3 of 3 sharing small videos from deep within Ontario’s Forests which show ancient signs of our past…
Settlers were charged with building rock walls to claim their territory. The walls were specific sizes (both of the physical wall and the area they had to cover) – I don’t know the exact size of the plots in the land my family has hunted for more than 40 years.
This video (I appologize that the adio has somehow been eaten and will reshoot when back at the cabin next year) shows one of the rock walls now almost hidden by the forest. The wall is 3-4 feet high, 5 feet across and built of solid rock. It goes on beyond sight in 2 directions.
These walls are stunning to see – I hope the video captures the essence. Standing on or near it is an experience that’s tough to describe – the absolute reality that someone built this is so tangible; as is the realization that I will never know who did it and the world will forever keep that mystery.
I wish I knew the stories this wall keeps held within its cracks.
