Here’s 10 Ideas for Cooking Oyster Mushrooms:

1. Marinate just enough olive oil to cover them.  Add garlic, chives, salt and pepper.  Grill on high heat and serve hot or cold.
2. Poach them in butter (like this).
3. Dehydrate and make mushroom powder.  What they lose in looks they will gain in flavor.
4. Slow cook them with lots of butter.
5. Pickle them!
6. Fry them until they’re crispy in clarified butter.
7. Add them to an omelet.
8. Toss in olive oil and grill on high heat until charred (bonus points for using charcoals)
9. Chop them and add them to roasting potatoes in the final stages of their cooking (click for tricks on making the best roast potatoes).
10. They freeze well – especially if slightly cooked first (steaming them will extend the shelf life compared to cooking themin fat).

What do you do with oyster mushrooms?

The post What to do with Oyster Mushrooms appeared first on WellPreserved.ca.

10 Things To Do with Overripe Pears:

1. Eat them.  I know this sounds obvious but it’s a good reminder – sometimes fruit looks more ripe than it actually is or small bits can be cut off and the rest consumed with joy.
2. Freeze them.  Cut them into small pieces and discard the impurities.  Place the rest in bags or containers with a bit of lemon juice.  These can be used for baking, juicing or cooking later on.
3. Make fruit leather.  Cut off the impurities, toss the rest into a food processor and dehydrate the paste – you’ll end up with a homemade fruit roll-up!
4. Juice them.  Drink the juice or add it to marinades, salad dressings or more.
5. Peel, remove impurities and cook them with a small bit of maple syrup to create a fantastic sauce that will last for days (or longer) in your fridge (you can also freeze it).
6. Make jam and preserve it.
7. Infuse it in vinegar or booze.  Remove impurities, skin and seed.  Cover remains with vinegar or booze (i.e. vodka).  Taster every 24 hours and strain well when you are happy with the results.
8. Dehydrate slices.  As above, remove skin, seed and impurities and dehydrate the remaining flesh.
9. Add to smoothies.
10. Make ice cream (I don’t have an ice cream maker – but if I did…)

And a bonus item – what NOT to make with over-ripe pears:

1. Do not preserve the ‘good’ chunks (i.e. canned pears).  While it may work, the texture may be so soft that your preserved pears become a paste (though that’s not the end of the world either!)

The post What to do with Old Pears appeared first on WellPreserved.ca.

Some of my fondest memories involve mackerel jigging.  Jigging is like fishing except that you don’t use fishing rods.  Our equipment was basic: 10-15 feet of thick fishing line wrapped around a cork.  The cork would be loosely tied to the boat (so you couldn’t drop it) and the line(s) dropped into the water.  Most people would fish with two lines and the most skilled would have multiple hooks on a single line (my Grandfather would fish with 6-10 hooks at a time).  THe fisherman (or woman) would gently bob their line up and down (thus ‘jigging’ it).

Mackerel feed in swarms.  There were many a morning where we could see the fish and they wouldn’t bite.  There were also morning that they attacked so vigorously that it was difficult to keep up.  I was lucky to be one of 4 people who caught more than 600 pounds of fish one morning (the average weight of each fish would be around one pound).

Mackerel wasn’t a very popular fish for exporting.  We had two primary uses for it in our family:

• Eating.
• Selling for bait.

With the decline of our oceans, mackerel is appearing more often.  It’s graded as a sustainable option by OceanWise and it’s a wonderful fish.

Mackerel is very oily and dense.  Although we’d occasionally eat it by itself (i.e. a piece of fish on a fork), it was most commonly eaten with other things such as eggs or toast.  It was also a fish that was generally served for a late breakfast or lunch; I don’t remember ever eating it at dinner (though we likely did).

Mackerel is often smoked.  The dense texture of the fish holds up well to smoking and the fattiness of the fish lends itself to the process.  It stores well and is a delightful snack.  Here’s a few ways to eat smoked mackerel:

• As is.  Throw it on a plate or cut it into salad.  It’s fantastic as-is.
• On toast; especially with cream cheese and quick pickles (like these onions that you can pickle in 5 minutes or less)
• Quick-pickle it.  Warm it in sweetened vinegar (you can use the recipe for the onions above) and have a quick pickled fish.  This is also good in a salad.
• Warmed in evaporated milk.  Cover the fish with evaporated milk and bring to a gentle boil.  Remove from milk and serve (this was my Pepe’s favorite way of eating mackerel, as I recall).
• Warmed on the BBQ; bonus points if you use charcoal.
• As part of a cheese plate.  I like to pair it with mature/firm cheese (such as old cheddar).

What do you think of smoked mackerel?

The post What To Do with Smoked Mackerel appeared first on WellPreserved.ca.

When Dana and I studied Food Security in the fall I was struck by many things but the one that stuck with me was how urban farmers in the third world are able to grow significant crops with limited space and extremely limited supplies of water.

Water has been an issue for our garden.  We carry it 1-gallon at a time from a kitchen faucet in the coffee shop we live above.  It’s about a 70 foot walk and it takes a long time and many trips back and forth.  The course really opened my eyes to three factors:

• We are spoiled to have a seemingly abundant water supply so close.
• We are using more water than we need (and taking longer than needed to do so).
• The low-technology and high-innovation solutions being used in the third world could (and should) be used to conserve water and other resources here.

After taking the course I decided that I would spend a significant amount of time figuring out how to reduce our gardens dependency on water.  I’m hoping the first step was our commitment to square foot gardening.  The second step will hopefully be drip irrigation which we’ll introduce in this post.  Once we’re completed installing the system (in 1-2 weeks), we will share a walk-through of our system but this post will contain enough information to get you up and running.

Drip irrigation is remarkably simple.  There are few components:

• A water source.  There are two common ways to do this traditionally: connect to a hose or connect to a rain barrel.  The rain barrel sometimes requires the addition of a pump to increase water pressure.  Some people are proponents of adding timers or devices to limit water pressure at this point.
• Connect main lines.  This is slightly smaller than a garden hose (it’s the coil you see in the photo above).  You cut the system to meet your needs and connect various connectors (such as an L-connector which allows you to ‘bend’ the line 90 degrees or a T-connector that allows you to branch another line off the main).  Some of these allow shut-off valves so you can stop watering a whole section of your garden if you wish.
• Connect watering lines.  This is a tiny tube that’s very flexible and allows you to position the drip exactly where you want it.
• Connect watering device (there are different heads such as dippers, misters, spikes and more).  Many of these devices also have valves co control the amount of water flow needed.

Installation requires few tools – a measuring tape, something to cut the host and a plastic tool (that’s provided in most kits) to pierce the main line and add the sprinkler lines is all that’s required.

The concept of drip irrigation is simple: turn on the water source water will be delivered at the base of each plant.  Because you can control the flow with different attachments and because you can turn valves on and off to prevent unnecessary watering, you can precisely control where water is delivered to your garden.  A solar timer can automate the process so your garden is watered at the most efficient time of day (i.e. not in the middle of the roasting sun when it could quickly evaporate).

The biggest part of water conservation comes from the location of your sprinkler heads: they are under the leaves and close to the ground.  When we water our tomato plants, more than half the water appears to sit on the leaves.  Drip irrigation allows us to water just want’s needed.

Our plan is to feed our system using a raised rain barrel.  We’ll harvest as much rain water as we can but will need to supplement with city water (a more permanent solution would require a much larger tank).  I’m hoping we’ll have enough water pressure to avoid a pump but won’t know until we install the system.

Where to Buy Drip Irrigation

It turns out that the easiest place to find drip irrigation was online.  Major retailers as well as other websites offered solutions and kits that they would ship to my house.  I was hesitant of buying online for two reasons: I was hoping to speak to someone face-to-face who understood the system (and could help me solve problems) as well as wanting a source to buy more attachments should I need to (I’m learning on the fly and need the flexibility of adding a few pieces as I go).

I figured that I’d start to see the systems appear in nurseries and garden centers once Spring hit.  By the time I left my 10th garden center without a system, I knew I was in trouble.

Friends pointed me to Lee Valley, which did stock systems (thank you!).  Within minutes of that recommendation, I was advised to go to a hydroponics store.  I had overlooked them (foolishly reasoning that hydroponics wouldn’t need irrigation when it actually depends on it) and popped by a local store.  I was thrilled to find a complete kit as well as ample supplies, connectors and alternate attachments.  The initial kit (it has 25 sprinkler heads) was $59; additional attachments are around $1 each.

We’ll show you our system once we’re fully set up!

Would you/ have you used drip irrigation before?  Would you try it now?

The post Square Foot Gardening: Fundamentals of Drip Irrigation appeared first on WellPreserved.ca.

We are almost ready for the growing season!  The raised beds are built, gardens are in place and soil is ready to go! We have 66 square feet of gardening space and will be growing herbs on the fences around our gardens too.  Here’s a preview:

What’s left to do?

• Build a platform to raise our rain barrel off the ground.
• Install the drip irrigation (we’ll cover the basics tomorrow and have a detailed walk-through once it’s installed in our garden).
• We’re considering adding some eavestrough to collect more water for our barrel
• Plant!

All in all, it’s taken about 10 hours of building (plus an exponential amount of effort in research).  Thankfully the research and building are tasks that we’ll benefit from for years; if all goes to plan we will able to sustain this garden for at least 10 years and only need to add compost each year (in addition to planting of course!)

I can’t wait to see it start to come to life!  How’s your gardening coming?

The post Square Foot Gardening: A Preview of Our Parking Space Garden appeared first on WellPreserved.ca.

Today’s post will be the most controversial of this series.  It’s a topic that I struggled with as I researched through the winter.  I’ll try to explain my perspective and rationalization and encourage you to do your own as well.

For the last few years, we’ve had some success with our fence garden.  Here was our final harvest of last year (of course we had harvested through the summer as well):

And, as I’ve been candid about, we’ve had our struggles.

I would break down our three major stuggles as:

1. Lack of knowledge/ knowing what to do.
2. Producing enough yield to justify the effort.
3. Using water efficiently.

It was also abundantly clear that these three things were hopelessly connected to each other: I didn’t know how to increase my yield with a suitable amount of watering/ labor and because I wasn’t using water efficiently, I wasn’t getting the yield I wanted and I didn’t know how to fix it which meant…  I think you get the idea – I was locked in a loop of my own inability.

Two things happened in the fall that challenged me to get out of my cycle:

1. I realized that our use of mulch in the summer of 2012 reduced our water needs by more than 50%.  This made my garden more efficient, less work and led to greater production and happier plants.  t was the first year in 4 years that we had tried mulch and that simple step saved work – and water.
2. Dana and I studied food security.  I was inspired (and challenged) by how innovative urban farmers who had far less resources than I have were in growing food and using water.  Although it wasn’t limited to the third world, there was an amazing amount of low-technology innovation that created results superior to mine.  One of the notable challenges unique to those farmers (from a farming perspective only; I’m not trying to compare social, political, economic and other very real differences) was their lack of water and how they had to embrace it.  Our biggest challenge with water was needing to carry it one gallon at a time across the 80 feet of our backyard.  They didn’t have that option.  I knew then that I wanted to try to dramatically reduce our water consumption in regards to gardening.

Over the next few months I knew I had to battle all 3-parts of my cycle of defeat.  I read blogs and books and felt mostly overwhelmed.  That’s when I stumbled back to a book I had purchased a few years back; Square Foot Gardening. The book assumed I knew absolutely nothing and quickly solved many of my challenges.  It offered:

• A way to grow food off the ground.
• Step-by-step instructions on everything – including soil.
• Modifications that would allow me to build a cold frame for cold weather growing.
• It was very space efficient and claimed higher yields than traditional growing.
• It was designed to be water conscious.

The appeal of finding answers to all of my questions in a single source was exciting.  It continues to be.  I knew it wouldn’t answer all of my questions but I felt like it could get me a start, make me a ‘real’ gardener and give me a foundation I could grow on, adapt and change with.

Where’s the controversy?

Square Foot Gardening is very specific about the ‘soil’ that goes in the boxes.  To be clear: the author (Mel Bartholomew) does not have a proprietary soil and you can buy the components without putting a dollar in his pocket but he is very passionate about the effort and testing he has done that there is only one combination of things that will work best in these gardens.  He explains that this mixture (called “Mel’s Mix”) is the perfect mix to avoid clumping, retain the right amount moisture, provide drainage and allow for root growth.  He claims it’s so effective that most plants (including tomatoes) can grow in 6 inches of it.

What’s in the mix?

• 1/3 compost from as many different sources as possible
• 1/3 vermiculite
• 1/3 peat moss

The mixture is calculated based on volume (not weight).  All 3 are mixed together thoroughly and will provide a proper growing environment for 10 years (and I’ve read others who have used it longer).  Each year you simply add new compost to the mix; the other ingredients are only used at the start.

There is little (and likely) no controversy surrounding compost.  A great case is made in the book to use compost from many different sources and I think it’s well thought out.

I had 3 struggles:

1. The sustainability of peat moss.  I spent a lot of time reading about this and have read a LOT of information from people on both sides of this debate.  Square Foot Gardeners are quick to point out that Canadian Peat Moss is not the same thing as Peat that has largely disappeared in the UK.  They are also quick to point out the mass quantity of it in Canada, that it does reproduce and that very little of it is used and it is used very efficiently (i.e. for 10 years and in tiny amounts compared to a traditional garden).
2. I had never heard of vermiculite and didn’t know where to get it.  It became a real challenge to find – part of that was my reading ability and I was certain, for a while, that I was looking for vermiculture (vermicompost is the compost made by worms like we have at home).  Vermiculite is a mineral that is used to retain moisture as well as add air to the soil. It expands when warm and contracts when cold thus keeping your soil loose and arid and retains moisture; therefore aiding in water efficiency.  Despite the popularity of the book, I found it nearly impossible to find the stuff.  I should have referred to the official database earlier which provided me a source (note: it’s around $30 Canadian per cubic foot)
3. Once I had heard of vermiculite, I wondered about the health effects.  Vermiculite is related to asbestos and some vermiculite can contain trace amounts of it.  I found several articles claiming it could be cancer-causing as well as those which disputed it.  This article from Manitoba Health refers to Health Canada as well as the US EPA in it’s findings about using horticultural vermiculite.

In addition to considering other gardening methods, I also researched alternatives to peat and vermiculite.  For weeks.

I am not a scientist nor expert.  Much like canning, I can’t tell you what’s safe for you or what is or isn’t sustainable.  I decided, for my family, that this would be a starting point.  I’ll follow the system to a “T” as a way to learn and can experiment and branch out from there.  I’ve decided not to try to sell you on why it’s right or wrong and encourage those considering such a system to read both sides of each argument and make the decision that works for you.

Next week we’ll continue the series with picture of the assembled garden (without plants) and, hopefully some more info on our drip irrigation system (we’re installing part of it this weekend)!

The post Square Foot Gardening: Mel’s Mix (The “Soil”) appeared first on WellPreserved.ca.

Yesterday we shared the basics of Square Foot Gardening; today we’ll show you how to build the raised beds.  If you’re not comfortable with power tools, it’s best to shop at a store that will cut them for you (many large hardware stores will).  I’m not a pro with power tools but I found the following to be very easy for my skillset.  I used a skillsaw (also known as a circular saw) and a cordless drill with a drill bit and 3.5 inch screws.

The completed boxes are rock-solid and look like this (although I also have some rectangular ones as described yesterday):

Rather than starting with a tonne of text, here’s a series of photos from start to finish so you can see how it was done.  We’ll explain everything at the bottom but if you take a few moments examining each photo and seeing what you can figure out, it will make learning it easier:

This part is optional – I’ll likely re replacing the slats with string:

 Each 4 x 4 square foot raised bed took:

• Two 8 foot boards (2 inches by 6 inches)
• 1 sheet of plywood (4 feet by 4 feet).  This is 1.25 inch ply which I believe will be strong enough to bear the weight (I am raising them slightly off the ground).  You can omit the plywood if you are growing on the ground but should use a tarp or layer of plastic (with drainage) under the bed to prevent weeds.
• twenty-eight 3.5 inch screws (you could use less).
• Optional: Eight 4-foot boards (1 inch by 0.5 inch)
• Twist ties
• Circular saw (unless you have the hardware store cut it), drill, drill bit and screw bit

Do not use pressure treated, stained or painted wood!

Useful tips for Building the Square Foot Garden Raised Bed:

• Note how the 2×6′s are joined - screws go throw pre-drilled holes in the face of the board and into the end of another.  Each board has screws in one of it’s end and one of it’s sides (this is very important).  You can see this in the photo above (you can only see one end and screws in the other face).  This will keep it to the strength.
• Each board has 2 ends – one end is the ‘factory cut’ and the other was cut by your (or the store’s saw).  Unless you’re a perfect cut, the factory end is generally the straightest.  Therefore, I drill through the face of the board closest to the factory edge.  If you look at the pictures with the holes/ screws (the second and third), all four boards pictured are showing the end I cut with the saw.  This will allow them to connect flush with the factory end.
• Measure twice, cut once.
• Are you really fussy?  Here’s a trick – instead of cutting your boards in 4 foot lengths, do a quick calculation : 4 feet – width of the board (1.5 inches in my case).  When I cut each board I made sure to leave a factory end and made 2 cuts (both 3 feet, 10.5 inches from their respective end).  You will have a 3-inch chunk fall out (you can see it in the photos with the screws).  This will leave your frame exactly 4 feet by 4 feet because of how you screw the boards together – and your plywood will be an EXACT fit on the bottom (if you skip this step, you will still be able to succeed and your plywood will cover the bottom but there will be a small gap as your box will be wider than the plywood by the width of a single board).

How to Build your Square Foot Garden Raised Bed:

1. Cut your boards to the desired length.
2. Drill 3 holes in the face (width of the boards) nearest the freshly cut ends.  The holes should be slightly smaller than the 3.5 inch screws you are using (the hardware guy can help you choose if needed).
3. Loosely place the screws (it’s easiest to do this all at once)
4. Lay out the boards on the ground so they are roughly in place for assembly.
5. Starting on one end and working slowly, hold the boards together and drill the center screw in place.  You may need a second set of hands to help here.  Try to make the board as flush as possible.  Screw flush but don’t overly tighter (this will allow you some wiggle room before screwing the next two).
6. Wiggle the boards flush and screw the next two screws.  Tighten all 3 before moving onwards.
7. Complete assembly of the walls.
8. Place the plywood on top of your walls.  Adjust to make one corner flush and screw it in.
9. Work your way around the box, placing 2-3 screws between each corner (this is overkill but made me feel good).  Continue until all 4 sides are secured.
10. Place the optional grid on the top (I pre-drilled the ends, measured and screwed them in place) or tighten a small screw to tie a grid with string later.
11. Drill 1/4 inch drainage holes in the bottom; there will be one for every square foot (16) plus an additional hole in each of the 4 corners in case of pooling of water (20 holes in total).

Total time to build for one person is less than 1.5 hours.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about the most difficult and controversial part of Square Foot Gardening – the mix of soil!

The post Square Foot Gardening: Building the Frame appeared first on WellPreserved.ca.

For the last few years, we’ve dabbled in gardening.  We’ve had our share of mistakes, failure and even a bit of success.

If you’re new around these parts, Dana and I live downtown Toronto.  We don’t have a yard of our own but we do have a great landlord who has been generous offering us a generous share of space to use and we make the most of it.  It’s not ideal for gardening as the space amounts to part of a parking space and a lot of fence in the back of an alley.  But it’s our space and we think we can make the most of it!

This was part of last years fence garden:

If you want to see more of our fence garden and how it’s progressed over the years, check out our fence garden section!

This year we are making the biggest changes we’ve made since we’ve started the garden.  We’ve spent a lot of time reading and researching and planning and scheming.  Here are some of our challenges:

• We have no soil or space to plant within the ground.
• Even if we could plant in the ground, we probably wouldn’t.  Our garden is on a parking space; leaching from the ground isn’t exactly ideal.
• We have limited space and must make the most out of every square inch.
• Water is scarce (in addition to global ramifications, we have limited access to water with the closest source being 40 feet away and the easiest access being about 70 feet away).
• The alley is on private property but in a high-traffic area.
• We are fairly novice gardeners who are learning as we go.
• I want something that can easily adapt to multiple growing seasons.

After careful research, we’ve decided to build several boxes for Square Foot Gardening.  Square Foot Gardening is based on a book of the same name by Mel Bartholomew that’s sold more than 2,000,000 copies.  The original system was much more complicated than the current system which offers the promise of removing a lot of the uncertainty and learning curve from the process.  There is lots more info on Mel’s forums and in his book than I can share in several posts but this will give you a good start and enough info to decide if you want to try his system and book!

I wasn’t certain about the book when I first picked it up.  It reads a lot like one of the “Dummies” books (which I find bothersome).  Once I got part of some of the infomercial-like feeling (and I meant that with respect; it’s certainly competently writing just a little fluffier than I’m used to), I find it to be a reassuring resource.  I am very optimistic about the potential for success and time will tell how we fare.

Here’s one of our 4 units (by the middle of next week we’ll have the whole system set up):

We’ll walk through the design and instructions on how to build tomorrow.  Here’s the quick explanation:

• This box is 4 feet by 4 feet by 6 inches.  It is the largest size the author recommends as he rationalizes that most of us can only reach about 2 feet comfortably.  Since I don’t want to stretch longer than 2 feet, I’ve adapted his theory to suit my needs using the following rationale:
  • If a box is square, it can’t be more than 4 feet by 4 feet.
  • A rectangular box can be 4 feet by any length – as long as I can reach both sides of the length of the box (again limiting my reach to 2 feet).  I’ll have none of these due to limited space.
  • A 2-foot wide box can be as long as I want and only needs one free long side for access.
• The box only needs to be 6 inches deep according to the book (as long as we’re not growing carrots).  The soil mix allows for a relatively shallow depth.
• There is a bottom on my box – it will be raised off the surface of the driveway.
• Drainage will be built into the boxes.
• I am hoping to install drip irrigation to make the most out of a limited water supply.
• The grid allows you to organize planting and each square represents a square foot.  I’m likely going to replace the wood with string as string takes less room.
• We have 58 square feet of boxes built (so far).  We’ll likely add a bit more once we’re fully up and running and can’t wait to share more!

Tomorrow we’ll talk about the most difficult and controversial part of Square Foot Gardening – the mix of soil!

The post Square Foot Gardening: An Introduction appeared first on WellPreserved.ca.

It’s been quieter around WellPreserved these days; we’ve been slower to respond on comments, haven’t been tweeting, updating Facebook or Instagram.  Our posts and newsletter have continued to be published but we quietly snuck out the back door!

We’ve just returned from the trip of a lifetime to Spain.  Many people from the community that is WellPreserved helped us plan our trip by sending suggestions, advice and other ideas for our trip.  We’ll thank all in coming posts and are so appreciative – there’s so much to share on Spain, food, cooking and preserving!

Two quick trip photos (the one of Dana is in a Sheppard’s field; the one of me is in a cafe/ pub in Barcelona where Picasso and other artists hung out):

We’re fired up for summer and have so much to share in the coming weeks and months – both from Spain and from here.

Here’s a sneak peak of what’s to come:

• Gardening/ Growing.  Starting tomorrow we’re going to feature a step-by-step guide to square foot gardening.  By the end of next week you’ll know everything you need to know to maximize gardening in small spaces.  We’ve planned for months and are excited to share what we’ve learned, built and hope to inspire some others out there.  We’ve been hit and miss with our gardening over the last few years and we’ve got big plans for this summer!
• Spain posts.  We’ll be sharing a series of posts that relate to the glorious food experiences we had in Spain.  We’ve shot some video, a tonne of pictures and have so much to share that we think you’ll enjoy.  We’re going to spread the posts over a period of time so we don’t tire you out all at once.
• Small batch preserving.  Our larder is relatively well-stocked and it’s the start of summer!  We already have several hundred recipes for preserving on our site so we’re going to dedicate much of the summer to small batches to share really simple ideas if you want to preserve smaller portions, have limited time, space or budget.  Preserving doesn’t need to be a big ordeal with giant batches (though they can be fun).  Of course we’ll still have a few big batches.
• More.  I’m not sure what else – yet.  But am hoping to get some more foraging in soon as well as some fruit wine fermenting.

What would you like to see added to the list?

The post We’re Bacccckkk! Here’s Where We’ve Been – and What’s Coming appeared first on WellPreserved.ca.

A few weeks ago we were honored to co-host an wine tasting with Malivoire Winery that was arranged by the Ontario Wine Society.  It was my first Ontario Wine Society event and it was really great – we sampled 7 different local wines paired with 7 bite-sized courses.

As part of the event we provided 3 ingredients (dried mushrooms, wine jelly and wine salt) that were used for the meal and I shared our passion for preserving.  I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so many glasses on a table all at once!

We were tucked into the corner cafe of Whole Foods in Oakville.  It was the second time in my life that I’ve been to a Whole Foods and I appreciate much of what they do including their drive towards sustainable seafood.

I think I look like a madman in this shot – which is probably partially true:

The glasses lie in waiting.  When the group arrived they showed up with wine, coolers and cases of wine sampling glasses.  There had to be more than 200 glasses on the table when we finished setting up!

This course featured shrimp, brisket and an oyster.  Some of the preserves included picked beets and pickled cabbage.  And the wine is preserved as well, of course!

The next course included beef, duck and the most amazing quail (it was so good that I dove in before taking a picture).  The Quail was an elaborate dish (it was de-boned, the skin removed and then it was rolled in the skin, pressed and smoked) that seasoned with our wine salt!  The shaved beef included a reduction of our rose (wine) jelly and some of our dried mushrooms.  Chef Ruth made it all look so awesome!

I’m always amazed at how quickly the professionals put it all together!

Whenever I share our passion on preserving I often feel like I learn the most.  The biggest surprise lesson of the night for me?  I hadn’t planned to talk about how to use wine in or pair wine with preserves and, as I began to talk, I was surprised to realize how much I’ve thought about those topics.  We talked about making vinegar, wine salt, salad dressings, using wine in kraut, adding it to dehydrated items and more!

Working with Malivoire was also a thrill.  Dana and I have a sweetspot for wine from Prince Edward County and The Beamsville Bench (two separate areas).  Malivoire is from the Bench and it was fun to taste a few of their small batch wines that aren’t normally in the LCBO.

We’re planning a few more events in the near future; hope to see you out!

The post Recap of Ontario Wine Society Evening with WellPreserved appeared first on WellPreserved.ca.