When I, a complete food preserving
virgin, heard that there would be a workshop on how to make jams and pickle
your own food, I jumped at the chance. Preserving food is a great way not to
have to buy out of season produce and it can also support local growers and
create a sense of community. Additionally, it's a great new skill to acquire
and one that is definitely useful for a lifetime, especially a lifetime that
includes the possibility of future food shortages. Furthermore, knowing exactly
what goes into your food (because you were there every step of the way) is very
appealing in this era of unpronounceable chemicals and GMO-containing
ingredients being added to so many of the food products we buy at supermarkets.
The workshop I attended took place on
Nov 4th 2012 at the W2 Media Cafe on West Hastings Street in Downtown
Vancouver, and was led by Karen of Good Girl Bad Girl Preserves.
I know that the process of preserving
fruits and vegetables can get quite complicated because you have to be
bacteria-growth and chemical-reaction-savvy, as well as make sure that one of
your own fingers doesn't end up in the pickled carrot jar. These and other
things one needs to watch out for made me a little bit nervous about the whole make-your-own
preserves thing. However, Karen's solution to all of this was to work as a big
group and make the job fun while having multiple eyes and ears open to make
sure that the whole process was done just right. In our interview following the
afternoon-long workshop, she explained that working in groups non only creates
a sense of community and allows you to spend time with your friends, but that
it also makes the whole process of preserving seem less like work and helps
ease what she calls "pickling fear".
During the workshop, we successfully
created 17 jars of orange zucchini marmalade and 17 jars of pickled spicy beans
and carrots. Knowing that Karen would post all of the recipes online following
the workshop ensured that participants could enjoy themselves and observe the
different steps of the preserving process, such as creating the brine for the
pickle jars, boiling down the jam, and adding just the right herbs and spices
to make our creations delicious. I myself felt quite proud at the end of the
day as I clutched my still-warm jars of spicy pickled goodies and marmalade,
both of which turned out to be delicious.
Karen explained that food preservation
is something that people have started to come back to in recent years as a
means of getting back to more organic ways of living (and eating!). She
explained how she learned the process though her own family who has done
pickling and preserving for generations. This was especially true since she was
raised in a fishing community and canning fish was a means of preserving the
fish harvest that took place during only a few months of the year. Karen also
noted that many community centers and other organizations around Vancouver are
now holding canning and preserving workshops during post-harvest months - it's
just a matter of keeping your eyes and ears peeled. She also gave us a great
resource for do-it-yourself-ers: a book called simply "Preserving"
(around $30 dollars to buy new) which she deems the easy-to-read bible of food
preservation.
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| Awaiting the brine for the final stage of pickling! |
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| Cooking the brine. |
For more information about Good
Girl Bad Girl Preserves, go to: http://www.facebook.com/GoodGirlBadGirlPreserves?ref=ts&fref=ts
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