Manitoba Pickles - tried, tested and true

I recently unveiled a new seasonal product at the Farmer's Market called Manitoba Pickles and the most common question I get about them is "Why are they called Manitoba Pickles?". My answer is "I have no idea." Now it doesn't just stop there, see...there is a story behind this mysterious pickle.

Last year, I was at Withrow Market and this lovely lady came up to my tent and she engaged me in conversation. We were chatting away about the different samples I had out and she asked me if I ever made Manitoba Pickles. I told her flat out that I had never even heard of them. So she said she was going to go home and get the recipe and bring it to me. To be honest, I didn't think I would see her again. No disrespect to her, but you hear quite a few things at the market ;).

But within a half an hour she had returned with the recipe in hand. Now I don't recall if it was a family recipe or something she had gotten out of a magazine or from a friend. I was still working full time and doing Manning Canning part time, so my time was stretched pretty thin and I just didn't get around to trying her recipe last year.

But this year, we planted cucumbers in our garden and they have been producing like rabbits. I have given some away to neighbours, my in-laws and we have been eating them on a daily basis and still I knew if I didn't preserve them there would be no way to consume them all.

When I sat down to think about what I should do...I remembered the recipe tucked away in my recipe box and immediately dug it out. I had my answer. Manitoba Pickles here we come.

Ingredients

6 cups sliced cucumbers

2 cups sliced onions

2 cups vinegar

2 cups sugar

1 tbsp salt

1 tsp mustard

2 tsp tumeric

1 tbsp corn starch

Slice your cucumbers and place in a bowl. Sprinkle 1 tbsp of salt over them and give them a good stir. Let them sit for an hour and then drain and rinse.

In a medium sized pot, combine onions and cucumbers with vinegar and sugar. In a separate bowl dissolve tumeric, mustard and corn starch with a little bit of water to make a thin paste and then add to the pot with the cucumbers and onions.

Place the pot over medium heat and stir until the sugar completely dissolves. Increase the heat to medium high and bring the mixture to a boil Reduce heat and cook for 10 minutes stirring frequently.

Ladle into sterilized jars leaving 1/2" headspace. If necessary, wipe rims with damp paper towel. Centre lids on jars; screw on bands fingertip tight.

Process jars in a boiling water bath canner for 15 minutes.

When time is up, remove jars from pot and let them cool on a kitchen towel. When jars are cool enough to handle, remove rings and test seals. Place any unsealed jars in the refrigerator and use promptly. All sealed jars can be stored in a cool, dark place for up to 1 year.

Ontario Canadian Food Hero: Brian Hamlin

Photo: Fairmount Farmer's Market

There are only a few flavours that I have come across in my lifetime that no matter how many times I taste, I just can't convince my tastebuds that they are anything less than horrible. I have swayed them over the years that olives can be enjoyed and they are even starting to believe that venison is edible, but the two flavours resisting all attempts are watermelon and honey.

But now I have someone else on my side working to convince my tastebuds that not only is honey delicious naturally but once flavoured it can become otherworldly and his name is Brian Hamlin.

I have the pleasure of being at a couple of the same Farmer's Markets in the Greater Toronto Area with Brian and even though his honey hasn't fully convinced my taste buds to enjoy the flavour, Brian has my husband and I contemplating keeping bees ourselves. He speaks passionately and articulately about the importance of bees and breaks down any mental barriers one might have when it comes to the thoughts of keeping bees yourself. We all know how important bees are to agriculture and articles like this that came out earlier this summer simply reinforce their importance.

But honey is not only important to our local agriculture, it has huge health benefits, that Brian talks about in this article.

Brian is a self described hippy who has been keeping bees for almost four decades and his passion for his bees is completely contagious. His bees are raised as naturally as possible. He keeps them away from sprayed fields and uses no antibiotics or sugars. But it wasn't just his delicious honey which my husband eats by the heaping spoonful or his laid back personality that has us leaning towards beekeeping.

First off Brian has hives in suburban as well as downtown locations. They are not all out in the country as one would imagine. He has hives on the Toronto Islands, at the UTSC (University of Toronto Scarborough Campus) and even the 8th floor of University of Toronto's New College at College and Spadina. According to Brian, the diverse vegetation in the city changes the flavour of the honey leading to more complex tastes than honey from rural areas, where bees generally gather pollen from mono-cropped fields.

Photo: Fairmount Farmer's Market

He uses his beekeeping as an educational tool to promote awareness of local food sustainability and the importance of pollination for environmental health. Honeybees pollinate crops and flowers, and have taken on greater importance lately given the population decline of other pollinators like butterflies and wild bees. He is active in the Urban Toronto Beekeepers Association and the mentor of the University of Toronto students bee club.

He talks a lot about how even though bees are just small insects that they play a huge roll in our survival and when he talks, others listen. He may just be a small Ontario beekeeper, but he is collecting a hive of followers in his path.

Brian's passion and commitment to Ontario bees, his local presence at farmer's markets and his mentorship of students is why he is my Canadian Food Experience Regional Food Hero for August.

Photo: Fairmount Farmer's Market

The Canadian Food Experience is a collection of Canadian bloggers sharing our stories through regional perspective bringing clarity to our Canadian culinary identity.

 

Preserved Peaches and Peach Mango Chutney

I always look forward to my preserving classes at The Depanneur but next Monday's class is really blowing my skirt up. You see I LOVE peaches and I mean LOVE. For many varied reasons.

I could start with the fact that I HATE and I mean HATE winter. Having those jars of golden peachy preserved goodness stacked on my shelves in the basement makes me feel like I have somehow managed to trap a little bit of summer inside each and every jar. And when the snow is falling or the wind is whipping or even when it is dark at 4pm, I know I can crack open a jar and magically be transported mentally back to the middle of August.

The next reason is grounded squarely in nostalgia. My mom used to preserve a lot when I was growing up. But her two, knock it out of the park items were raspberry jam and preserved peaches. So each time I open a jar of preserved peaches it is like she is right there with me. Funny how something as simple as a flavour can bring back a wash of wonderful memories.

And then there is the wonderfulness of the smoky peach chutney we are going to be stirring up. My mouth waters just thinking about it.

If this all sounds intriguing, you are just a click away from learning more about the class.

Quick and Delicious Basil Vinegar

I have neglected my vegetable garden for several days and at this time of year that can mean numerous things await you. You can walk out and have vegetables that have grown past their prime, it can mean weeds have taken over places you wished they hadn't, that rabbits have eaten all of your carrots or that there is just a lot of stuff ready to be picked and consumed.

This morning it was the latter. There were green beans ready, so I picked them and they will be in this evening's salad. There were cucumbers galore, so I picked all of those and they will come with me tomorrow to the commercial kitchen and get turned into Manitoba Pickles (more on that in an upcoming post). The carrots are almost ready, so I picked one just for the flavour...delicious. And finally, the sage and the basil are in full swing. I already made several large batches of pesto and have that frozen for consumption at a later date. And I have plans for the sage. So what to do with the basil that is ready today and just simply can not go to waste?

The short answer - Basil Vinegar. It is a wonderful addition to pasta sauces and chicken stock and it is so simple that you can get it 50% completed in less than 20 minutes.

Basil Vinegar

2.5 cups lightly packed fresh basil leaves

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and slightly crushed

8 cups white wine vinegar

Rinse your basil thoroughly and then pat dry with paper towel. Once basil is completely dry, roughly chop and place in 2 separate clean and sterilized 1L jars. Add 1 clove of garlic per jar and set aside.

In a larger stainless steel pot, heat the vinegar, but do NOT bring it to a boil and remove from the heat.

Pour the hot vinegar over the basil and garlic into the jar, stir gently and then allow to cool. Once it has cooled down, place 2-3 layers of saran wrap over the top of each jar and screw on a jar lid. Place in a cool, dark place for a minimum of 2 weeks shaking the jar gently every couple of days to distribute the basil leaves around. NOTE: the leaves will float in the jar and this is ok.

After a couple of weeks, taste the vinegar and if you are happy with the intensity of the flavour move onto the next steps immediately. Otherwise, continue to let it sit until the flavour is where you want it.

Strain the vinegar over a bowl using a fine meshed sieve and disgard the basil. Rinse your sieve and using either cheese cloth or several layers of coffee filters, strain once again.

At this point in time you can pour the vinegar into your bottles (which you have of course washed and sterilized ahead of time, right?) leaving 1/2" headspace if you are using a screw cap. If you have a cork top, you will want to leave 1/2" headspace between the basil vinegar and the bottom of the cork.

Delicious basil vinegar that you will find no shortage of uses for through the fall and winter months.

Pickling Cucumbers - an important tip

It is cucumber season, which in my books means it is time to make some pickles! My cucumbers are in full bloom and every morning I walk out to pick more and more cucumbers. Last week I made Manitoba pickles, but I think the time has come to make classic dill pickles.

If you have decided to try your hand at dill pickles and are perusing recipes out there, you may notice that in a lot of recipes they instruct you to cut off the blossom end of the cucumber. Well what might follow in your mind are a couple of different questions, such as 'What is the blossom end?' and 'Why do I need to cut it off?'

The second question is easy to answer in a few quick words. The blossom end contains enzymes that can cause softening of your pickles.  Remove at least 1/16th inch from the blossom end in order to give your pickles a fighting chance at being nice and crunchy!

If you are picking the cucumbers from your garden it is easy to determine the blossom end...it is opposite to the stem. But what do you do if you are getting the cucumbers from a farmer and are just not sure which is the stem end?

The stem end is indented and smooth (left image), the blossom end is rough (right image).

Happy Crispy Pickling ;)

5 Time Saving Tips - Pickled Green Beans

My friend Kathleen attended one of my preserving classes at The Depanneur earlier this summer and it is like I have created a monster :). Her latest masterpiece was Blackberry Sage Jam. So when she mentioned that she was about to tackle Pickled Green Beans, I knew I had to throw some of the things I have learned when pickling green beans down on paper and get it over to her asap.

Top Time Saving Tips When Pickling Green Beans

There are a few very simple things such as, getting organized before you even start. Have all your ingredients and tools out and get them set up in a way that works for your kitchen that I will mention right off the start before I get into the tips themselves.

1) After clipping the ends of your green beans lay them out on a cutting board or flat surface near where you will be filling your jars. Ensure all bottom ends of the beans are facing in one direction. This allows you to grab handfulls of beans at once to fill jars and will mean less time fussing in the jar filling stage.

2) If your jars are too short or your beans are too long, don't spend a lot of time getting them to be equal lengths. Just put them into your jars will all the bottom ends of the bean facing the bottom of your jar. Then take a pair of kitchen scissors and trim the beans up to be all one length

3) Don't forget to use a rubber spatula to release air bubbles from inside of the jar after pouring in your brine. You will be amazed how the level will drop after doing this. Top up each jar to the headspace outlined in the recipe.

4) After the water bath if your beans look a little wrinkled, don't deflate and think they are ruined. Sometimes after a week or two of aging they plump right back up. If they remain wrinkled it could be because you used too much salt in your brine or the beans were old. Think of it as a life lesson ;)

5) And the most important tip of all - ALWAYS use a recipe from a trusted source to ensure you end up with a product that has a ph level that is water bath safe. Remember safety first!

Best of Ontario Market

They say you always remember your first. Well for me, I will always remember my first, second and third. And I will always be thankful to them for taking a chance on me.

Tomorrow I am headed up to MacTier, Ontario where there is a wonderful little store called Best of Ontario Market. They sell gorgeous home products that have been carefully selected by Robin who owns and runs the store with her husband. They have a wonderful selection of fresh flowers and their grocery store is filled with curated products that are organic, local, gluten free and artisanal.

Last summer I was thrilled to have Manning Canning join the line up of wonderful products that they carry for locals of the area and cottagers alike. They took a chance on me and were one of the first 3 stores to carry my product. That is something that you don't forget.

It will be a great way to spend a Friday afternoon. Hanging out in their lovely store, surrounded by delicious things and sampling Manning Canning jams and pickles.

Thank you Robin for taking a chance on me.

Family Style Preserving Day with Not Far From the Tree

Toronto Food Collaboration Offers Family Style Preserving Manning Canning, The Depanneur, Not Far From The Tree Partnership Highlights Food Talent in Toronto

TORONTO, Ontario, July 21, 2013 –  Beyond Toronto’s new food buzz around restaurant openings, bloggers and food trucks,  a wave of food-focused partnerships built on local cooperation and social innovation are emerging. A great example is a new partnership between newcomer to the Toronto canning and preserving scene, Christine Manning, The Depanneur, Not Far From The Tree and Chef Cheryl Torrance formerly of the Daily Bread Food Bank. The group will come together for an afternoon workshop of family style preserving on Monday, August 5^th hosted by The Depanneur.

“I heard Laura Reinsborough, the Founder of Not Far From The Tree, speak during TEDxToronto in September 2012 and their great work immediately caught my attention,” said Christine Manning, of Manning Canning. “I knew I wanted to create an opportunity to partner with them to explore how the beautiful local fruit they harvest could find its way into my jars.”

Christine has been involved with The Depanneur – both as a diner and as a workshop instructor for Manning Canning – for over a year now. This day of family style preserving represents the continuing evolution of this community partnership. “We will spend the afternoon turning an amazing harvest of fruit picked by Not Far From The Tree into preserves using recipes developed by Manning Canning and Chef Cheryl Torrance just for this event” said Len Senater of The Dep.

Each person in attendance at this family-friendly event, will take home the recipe, and have the option of buying jars of preserves (depending on overall yield) at a discounted price. Kids are encouraged to participate, whether it be prepping fruit or drawing custom labels for the jars of preserves. Not Far From the Tree will also receive a portion of the production to help with their fundraising efforts.

“This is a chance to talk to families about food – get them excited about homemade over store-bought,” said Chef Torrance. The workshop is an opportunity to spend time with your kids, learn a new skill, take home a delicious, local & organic treat, and help out amazing local organizations, and the partnership is likely one of many to come for these local food enthusiasts and entrepreneurs.

Adults: $40 +HST
Kids (up to 12 years): $20 +HST
Family (2 Adults+any # of kids): $100 +HST
Jars of preserves at the end of the day: $5 ea.

Monday, Aug. 5^th, 2013 at 1 pm

The Depanneur, 1033 College Street in Toronto

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Manning Canning makes a selection of jams, jellies, preserves, pickles and other products from locally sourced produce. Christine also teaches the craft of preserving in a variety of in class settings, including at The Depanneur in Toronto, and can be found participating in a number of local farmers’ markets. Each jar of Manning Canning product is made by hand.

About Manning Canning: /

The Depanneur, located at 1033 College Street in Toronto, exists to showcase culinary talent, promote innovation in the good food sector and collaborate with food entrepreneurs to expand the horizons for food in Toronto. It is located on College Street in Toronto and will be celebrating it’s 2^nd anniversary on the Toronto food scene this August.

About The Depanneur: http://thedepanneur.ca/

Not Far From The Tree puts Toronto’s fruit to use by picking and sharing locally. When a homeowner can’t keep up with harvest produced by their tree, Not Far From The Tree mobilizes volunteers to help. The harvest is split three ways: 1/3 is offered to the tree owner, 1/3 is shared among the volunteers, and 1/3 is delivered by bicycle to be donated to food banks, shelters, and community kitchens in Toronto neighbourhoods.

About Not Far From The Tree: http://www.notfarfromthetree.org/

Cheryl Torrance is a Toronto-based chef and community food organization expert. With over 15 years of experience in food management and services, she has created recipes and menus for shelters, drop-ins, in-store sales, catered events, and has extensive experience working in small and large scale production kitchens. She feels strongly about supporting sustainable food systems and finding ways to address systemic poverty, as well as forging new relationships within Toronto’s food community.

Adventures with 80lbs of cherries

It all started with a stop at Appletree Markets where I picked up 80lbs of cherries from PV Warner Farms. What do 80 lbs of cherries look like? Something like this.

How long does it take to wash, destem and pit 80 lbs of cherries. With 3 people it took about 4 hours.

But what can you do once all of that hard work is done? You can do this.

And now I have over 60 jars of brandied cherries aging in my basement and another 80 jars of cherry jam just waiting to get labelled and go to market.

Say NO to store bought salsa - PRESERVING CLASS

With my tomato plants in full flower, my tastebuds are already exciting about the upcoming tomato season. Nothing tastes better than seasonal tomatoes bursting with flavour. I love making tomato sauce but another long time favourite is salsa.

How many times have you bought a jar of salsa at the store and been disappointed in the results? It’s not spicy enough, or it is too spicy, or just plain bad. Well after this class you will never have to buy another jar of store bought salsa again. You will discover how easy it is to make it AND preserve it so you always have a jar on hand when you need it. It makes a great hostess gift to bring to all the summer bbq’s you have in your calendar as well.

As with all of my classes, you will walk out with the basic understanding of jar sterilization, safe canning practices and important do’s and don’ts of canning and preserving. You will also get a copy of the recipe to take home and at least 1 jar of salsa.

Join me on Monday, July 29th at 6:30pm. To sign up, click here