Master Food Preserver Program Returns to LA - Upcoming Classes - Weekly Email

Greetings!

It has been awhile, too long, since I've sent out one of my preserving emails. I hope that everyone is well, and I do intend to send emails more frequently.

However, I do have a fairly good excuse: I've been doing a lot of food preservation and (although many of you have already heard) ...

Brenda Roche (UC Cooperative Extension Nutrition Family & Consumer Sciences Advisor), Dr. Rachel Surls (Director, UC Cooperative Extension Los Angeles) and I are re-launching the Master Food Preserver program in Los Angeles County.

Yep, after more than a 10-year absence, the Master Food Preserver program is returning to Los Angeles.

We were very excited to have received so many applications. Unfortunately, we could not take everyone who applied. We could have easily filled three or four classes with highly qualified individuals.

We have accepted 18 fantastic and enthusiastic volunteers for our first class. I look forward to introducing them to you down the road. And, perhaps, some of them will help with these newsletters.

I will be teaching the majority of the classes, but will also get some assistance from Master Food Preservers Delilah Snell and Kevin West.

Soon, there will be many more people qualified to provide information on food preservation in Los Angeles. And, hopefully, some of you on this list will also join the ranks of the Master Food Preservers through a future class.

For those of you not familiar with the Master Food Preserver program, it is similar to the Master Gardener program, in which volunteers are trained by the UC Extension to teach and train others in proper and safe food preservation techniques.

Here are a couple of posts on the relaunch of the program:
http://efnep.ucdavis.edu/?blogpost=4388&blogasset=17351
http://blogs.laweekly.com/squidink/2011/01/master_food_preserver_program.php

Additionally, I've been doing a lot of preserving as chef for the Farmer's Kitchen in Hollywood. I encourage everyone to stop by my restaurant, where you can see dozens and dozens of different preserved foods, both sweet and savory. Every week we are making new and interesting canned goods using farmers' market produce. For example, I'm doing a pickled carrot series using Weiser Farms carrots. Red heirloom carrots in a spicy brine, yellow heirloom carrots in a dill brine, and, next week, "Purple Haze" heirloom carrots in a fennel brine. Or, you can check my series of herbal jellies, such as mint, dill, and apple/sage (more to follow). If we're not too busy, I'm also happy to discuss food preservation and answer questions.

You can keep up with what I'm doing at the Farmer's Kitchen via our twitter: http://www.twitter.com/HollywoodFK

I'm particularly enthused by the response of our customers to preserved foods on the menu. Our fried egg reuben (with house made sauerkraut) is our most popular sandwich, while our "pickled egg" egg salad sandwich is also getting very good reviews and our Sunday fried sauerkraut and eggs is our second most popular egg dish.

We're also lining up classes on food preservation. A week from Saturday on March 26th, I'll be teaching a class on fermentation: how to make yogurt, sauerkraut and vinegar. Participants will taste a variety of preparations and take mother cultures home with them.

You can sign up here: www.hollywoodfarmerskitchen.org/events/

You'll also see some of the other classes we're doing, such as a class on mushrooms.

The next preservation class isn't posted yet, but in April I will be doing classes on pressure canning and a separate class on basic knife skills. I'm also scheduled to do a couple of demos in April, including on Earth Day in South LA and traditional food preservation for Ranchero Days at the Workman-Temple Homestead in the City of Industry. More information on these events in a future email.

That's it for this email - I look forward to seeing some of you at my classes and at the Farmer's Kitchen.

As usual, if you have any questions about canning, pressure canning, fermentation, dehydration, freezing, pickling, curing, smoking or brewing, feel free to email me at ernest.miller @ gmail.com.

Be sure to check out the blog, which hasn't been updated in awhile, but I plan to do some updating (probably):
http://preservenation.blogspot.com/

And/or join the Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=280846286958

Thanks,
Ernie

Happy New Year - Classes, Classes and Lots of Sauerkraut - Weekly Email

Greetings and Happy New Year!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday and new year!

Did you notice that food preservation was actually represented on one of the Rose Parade floats this year?

Discover's float, "A State Fair to Remember," represented many of the activities of a state fair; rides, pie-eating contests, and livestock judging. They also had some award-winning pies and preserves made from flowers. On the right side of the float, just behind the pies, is a blue-ribbon jar of preserves, which is mostly blocking a view of some canned pickles:
http://discoveratroseparade.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/img_7181x10.jpg

I was pretty excited about that. But then, I get excited about food preservation fairly easily.

Speaking of state and county fairs, it is never too early to start canning and making preserves for the LA County Fair ... don't wait until the last minute ... start making some of those marmalades, pickles and jellies now from in-season fruit. This year's forms aren't up yet, but they probably won't change all that much from last year's. Check out the rules for all their culinary contests here:
http://www.lacountyfair.com/2011/entertainment/Competition_CulinaryStyles.asp

I'm hoping to be involved in the judging this year.

Of course, maybe you want to learn a little more about canning before entering a contest. In that case, I've got several classes coming up.

This Saturday, the 15th, I will be teaching a class on pickling basics at the Farmer's Kitchen in Hollywood from 9am-1pm:

Sour, crunchy, spicy, tart, sweet, and aromatic, pickles bring exciting seasoning, piquancy, nutrition and interest to our meals. They are a flavor counterpoint; harmonically interdependent with the aroma and taste of the main elements of a dish. Eating would be much less interesting without pickles, chutneys, relishes, salsas and other such condiments. Of course, pickling is not only a means of creating flavor, but also of preserving food.

Learn food safety and pickle basics in this small, hands-on class featuring recipes using fresh food from the farmer's market.

Space is limited. Participants will take home one or more jars of what we preserve.

Cost: $75.00 (pay when you arrive)

Registration deadline is 1/14/2011 8:00 p.m..

You can register here:
http://www.hollywoodfarmerskitchen.org/events/event-info?event_id=4094

The Saturday after next, on the 22nd from 11am-2pm, I will be teaching a class on citrus and marmalades at Delilah Snell's Road Less Traveled Store in Santa Ana.

Learn about some of the more obscure citrus available to us in California (yuzu, calamansi, and buddha's hand, among others) and a couple of techniques for turning them into delicious marmalade.

Cost: $50.00

You can register here:
http://roadlesstraveledstore.com/shop/product.php?productid=16399&cat=263&page=1

On February 5th, I will be teaching a class on fermentation (yogurt, vinegar and kombucha) at the Road Less Traveled Store and on February 12th, I'll be doing another hands-on workshop at the Farmer's Kitchen in Hollywood in anticipation of Valentine's Day "Food Preservation for Your Sweetheart." More information on those classes in a future newsletter.

I've been keeping my food preservation externs busy at the Farmer's Kitchen. We've been making lots of sauerkraut as Tutti Frutti Farms keeps providing us with plenty of cabbage. We made 36 pounds of what I consider a spectacular red cabbage kraut that kept its' beautiful color with fantastic flavor. We canned 25 pints and served the rest as fried sauerkraut and eggs on our breakfast menu. I like the dish, a lot. The saltiness and tartness of the kraut pair wonderfully with the richness of the egg yolk. Even though I like the dish a lot, I was surprised when it sold out within a few hours. Don't worry if you
missed it, though, we've got a lot more sauerkraut on the way for future breakfasts, and we'll probably be making an egg Reuben with our kraut for the lunch menu.

One of the reasons I put the sauerkraut with eggs on the menu was to get people to think of kraut in new and different ways. It is culinarily versatile and darn healthy. Like many fermented foods, we should probably be eating more. Those visiting the Farmer's Kitchen should expect to see a number of different and interesting recipes using kraut for the near future.

I'm very happy with the flavor of the kraut we made, so I'm keeping the left over brine as a starter. One of our guests this Sunday liked our sauerkraut so much that they purchased some of our brine to use as a starter to make their own kraut.

You can, of course, purchase starters online, but I'm not that big a fan of those for this type of fermentation. The reason is that, though the starters will work well initially, over time natural bacterial flora will tend to take over anyway. That is why you can't make San Francisco sourdough outside of San Francisco. Boudin, for example, has bakeries in Southern California, but they ship in new mother culture to their bakeries every month to keep the bacteria strain pure and not taken over by local Southern California flora. So, rather, than purchase a starter for sauerkraut online, I prefer to make my own. When I do find a local, natural culture that works well, then I will keep that strain as a starter.

We've also been making lots of grape jelly from MB Farms grapes. The regular jelly is fantastic, but we've also been making flavor variations, such as Cinnamon-Grape, Ginger-Grape, and a favorite of mine, Rosemary-Grape. More on flavor variations in a future email.

That's it for this week - I look forward to seeing some of you at my classes and at the Farmer's Kitchen.

As usual, if you have any questions about canning, pressure canning, fermentation, dehydration, freezing, pickling, curing, smoking or brewing, feel free to email me at
ernest.miller @ gmail.com.

Be sure to check out the blog, which hasn't been updated in awhile, but I plan to do some updating (probably):
http://preservenation.blogspot.com/

And/or join the Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=280846286958

Thanks,
Ernie