Christmas and the Holidays
This surely is the happiest and busiest time of the year! For me, the season kicks off with singing in the community choir. I live in a small rural community but there are 70 singers who come out to join the Christmas choir. This was the 37th year of the choir! Imagine. I was so happy to see several new members including teenagers. Singing traditional and modern songs of Christmas and the holidays inspires friendship, community, and the joy of the season.
I have recently posted a couple of special holiday recipes, one for gravlax and another for the celebration cake. These are fantastic recipes so give them a try. I’m just about to put the sugar, salt, and dill on another beautiful piece of salmon as a gift for my daughter-in-law. We also devoured the celebration cake at a lovely holiday lunch with friends. My husband was very disappointed when I offered to leave the last piece with the host! I’m making up today by making apple pie and pear tarte for our family celebration.
There is the biblical saying “to all things there is a season”, made popular in the Pete Seeger song of 1959. For me, this is season of change. If you have been following my website or column called “worth preserving”, you’ll know by now I have written more than 80 articles. So, after some thought, I’ve decided to take the winter off to focus on publishing the articles. A book perhaps! To liberate time to do this, I am scaling back on my production (and sales at the Kimberely General Store and Nottawa General Store) and on writing my bi-weekly articles. Be assured, I will be locked away in my office trying to put together the articles, recipes, and posts into some semblance of interesting reading!
Thank you for inspiring me to write and preserve. I’ll keep you posted as to how things are going.
Take care. Merry Christmas to those who celebrate and Happy Holidays to all.
You know you can always reach me:
preservingwithmartha@gmail.com
New Podcast
I recently recorded a podcast for Canadian Food Focus.
CanadianFoodFocus link to the corresponding article: https://canadianfoodfocus.org/podcasts/podcast-what-are-the-best-practices-for-preserving-foodpodcast/
Create Your Own Group
If you have a group of friends, colleagues or family members who would to organize a custom designed workshop, email me at: preservingwithmartha@gmail.com Do you want to learn to can high or low acid foods? How about making sauerkraut or kimchi? Want to make holiday gifts of preserved foods? Learn to make fruit leathers for the kids. Whatever your interests, we will design a workshop that is hands-on, very informative, fun, and always seasonally relevant. We cover the science of food preservation, evidence-based methods and you go away with a list of authoritative resources, recipes, and the products you make.
Stay and Learn
Why not come for a couple of days and enjoy the area and combine the visit with a workshop on food preservation! Kimberley is in the heart of the Beaver Valley which is about 2 hours north of Toronto. It sits in the Niagara Escarpment and has a 300,000 year old history. There are many trail systems easily accessed, the Beaver River for kayaking, and lots of opportunity for skiing and snowshoeing. The Village has the lovely General Store and two very good restaurants. Any season, Kimberley is a super place to spend a couple of days or more. Sound appealing?
If you have an interest in visiting the Kimberley area to hike, bike, kayak, ski and enjoy the many wineries, cideries and restaurants, a class on canning, fermenting or food preservation in general can be arranged as part of your stay. To explore places to stay check out these links:
Next to the Kimberley General Store is the “Rock House” which is available for short stay rentals. Here’s the link:https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/6858022
The Jasper Stuart House: jasperstuarthouse.com
The June Motel: https://thejunemotel.com/pages/beaver-valley
