Cherries really are the Cherry on Top!

So…after proclaiming sold-out-ed-ness last week we were doing a bit of reorganizing and uncovered 7 cases of organic cherry based products from Leberoff Farms.

So, we’re back in business until these 84 jars disappear.

Here are the flavours–write to us at thepreservery@gmail.com if you’d like to place an order and arrange for delivery or pick up:

• Organic Cherries in Light Syrup
• Moroccan Spiced Organic Cherries in a Light Syrup
• Organic Cherry Jam
• Moroccan Spiced Organic Cherry Jam

 

Back to the Land-And The Pursuit of Happiness

If you’ve never seen one of Maira Kalman’s beautiful visual articles from the New York Times today is the day to click through and enjoy something special.  In honour of American Thanksgiving, she has produced a truly inspiring visual article/short story that helps illuminate some of the opportunity that exists in our world to reclaim our food systems by applying educational support and democratic will.

We loved the line ‘It is bringing elemental things to the present time with optimism and commerce’ because that is very closely associated with what The Preservery is trying to do.  Elemental things+Present time+Optimism+Commerce.  A little more of this equation in our world probably would result in a more satisfied population.

Feast on this article and when full, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, please pass it on.

Thank You we are Sold Out…For Now

Thanks to everyone who purchased goods from us before, at and after the Eastside Culture Crawl.  Sales were fast and furious and it is with great excitement that we can say that we’re actually out of stock.  Not to worry, however we are back in the kitchen and you can expect more Pumpkin Marmalade, and a series of apple and crab apple jellies to be hitting the shelves before Christmas.

As you know, if you know us, all of our products are sourced seasonally from producers as close to our kitchens as possible.  This means that our winter production is about to be pretty limited as farms everywhere take a winter breath.  But, resting farms won’t make us stop!  We’ll keep busy this winter with a few other projects that incorporate the same philosophies in production, so stay tuned and keep visiting for new Preservery products.  They just may not be edible…other than that, our lips are sealed.

The Eastside Culture Crawl in the Globe and Mail.

The Globe and Mail has caused quite a stir in today’s travel section by writing about our neighbourhood and featuring a photo lovely photo of The Wilder Snail (purveyors of all things good).  We were thrilled to see such a comprehensive article giving Strathcona the love that it deserves.  Come by this weekend for the Eastside Culture Crawl.  We’ll be selling our preserves on Union between Heatley and Princess.

Porcelain meets Glass

How much do we love these vintage-made-modern jars?  A lot.

Vancouver based artist Claire Madill, owner of Heyday Designs is taking found vintage jars and re-imagining them out of porcelain.  Quite splendid indeed.  You can find them here in Vancouver at the Gallery of BC Ceramics (on Granville Island) and Walrus; in Toronto at Made and Distill and in Berkeley at Lola.

Open for business!

The day has arrived and we are finally able to publish our sales kits.  Take a look below and place your orders.  Best to email them in and we’ll ensure prompt delivery anywhere in Vancouver, or for pick up next weekend during the Eastside Culture Crawl.  Order with friends or for friends!

The East Side Culture Crawl

Friends! The East Side Culture Crawl is about to erupt on the East Side of Vancouver.  We won’t exactly have a studio opening, but we will be out on Union Street between Princess and Heatley next Saturday and Sunday, peddling our wares.  Please come on by and take a look.  With only 40 days until Christmas, the season is upon us and preserves make better hostess gifts than wine!

We’ll have the following jars in stock and for sale:

Come by for a hot tea and a taste.  We’ll look forward to seeing you then!

When a Pumpkin Fulfills Its Destiny

When the ghouls have gone to sleep and the candles inside of pumpkins everywhere have been blown out  tomorrow night, there will be millions of pumpkins that have fulfilled their destinies.

Well Halloween won’t be the end of the road for our pumpkins, that is for sure.

Here’s a nice, seasonal recipe adapted from Mary Anne Dragan’s Well Preservered that was featured over at Tigress in a Jam that we’ll be digging into this weekend.

RECIPE:  PUMPKIN MARMALADE

1 small pumpkin or winter squash (about 3 lbs)
2 lemons (preferably organic)
1 orange (preferably organic)
4 cups sugar (preferably raw)

Yields Approximately 1 1/2 pints1. Slice the orange and lemons in half lengthwise, take the pits out and save to the side. Place cut side down on counter and cut off the tip of each citrus end. discard ends.2. Very thinly slice the the oranges and lemons.  Then cut each slice in 3 or 4 pieces and then cut the stacks in 3 to 4 pieces. Ensure that the peel pieces are small and thin.

3. Place the pits in a little piece of cheese cloth & tie with twine.

4. Add cut & sliced citrus pieces, seeds in cloth, and 3 cups water to a non-reactive pan (no iron or aluminum) and bring to a boil. Once boiled turn it down to a low simmer and cover. simmer for approximately 30 minutes or until the peels get soft.

5. While the citrus is simmering, peel and chop pumpkin into 1/2 inch squares about 1/8 of an inch thick. You want about 8 cups/2 liters pumpkin once it is chopped.

6. When the citrus peel is soft remove the pit bag and squeeze out any excess juice into pan. Keep the heat low, add the 4 cups sugar and let it dissolve slowly. this will take about 5 minutes.

7. Add the pumpkin and turn up the heat to come to a rapid boil. it will take about 30 minutes to gel. After about 15 minutes you will want to turn the heat down a bit and to stir often to prevent sticking.

Hot water process and it is Halloween in a bottle for the rest of the year.

The New Tags

When you are busy preserving and canning pretty much everything in sight, there is little time for designing a marketing program.  But, due the to extraordinary talents and generosity of our friends, the task has been tackled and we are now the proud owners of some very  handsome labels.

Gavin Froome designed our beautiful logo earlier this summer.  It features the font Avenir–designed in 1988 by Adrian Frutiger.  Avenir is French for ‘future’ and we think it is tops knocked out on black (as seen above).  We just love the modernity it lends to the old approach that we are using in the creation of our preserved goods.  It is simple, honest and clean.  Thank you Gavin!

When it came time to get into the business of producing the actual labels Jamie Anderson came to our rescue.  A few lovely evenings were spent lingering over small details at the kitchen table, and we couldn’t be happier for the outcome.

Because we produce all of our products in small batches, we weren’t able to economically create and print attractive, high quality, labels for each individual batch so…we had to get creative.  Jamie solved all of our problems by creating a really simple tag template that allows us to hand label each batch–adding a little personalization and handmaded-ness to every group of products.

Each label includes a harvest date, preserved date and a batch number as well as spaces for the product name, ingredients, and recommended pairings.  These little tags pack a punch and the nice thing is that we’ll be able to use them for a whole host of different products (new, non-jarred products are coming).

Not only is the design exactly what we were looking for but all of the labels were printed locally and on a reused card stock that originally served as a separator between reams of paper.  Thanks to our conscientious, and problem solving printers Bonnie and Lee at Printing Ink.

So all-in-all our tags are the most thrilling thing going on this raining Vancouver Sunday.  They are local, handmade and beautiful.  Hopefully you’ll find what’s inside to be the same.

Jar Decor

Some beautiful DIY jar decor over at The Kitchn today.  Take a look after the jump, but stay tuned for our new packaging…it’s coming…