Still preserving for 1,000 people – 4 days to go

10.50PM.  Near delirious.  Smiling.

I have really neglected to say how thankful we are for all of the encouragement and support we`ve had from people in the last few weeks. Friends, strangers, new friends, old strangers and those near and far have offered hands, cheers, comments, emails and tweets.  I hope it sounds genuinely humble to express that we real feel we`re representing a far bigger community than just ourselves this Sunday. I`m not quite done loading the dehydrator for yet another night and I`m still smiling.

Speaking of dehydrating, it`s time to humiliate myself again.  I get an odd kind of joy doing so…

We loaded 5.5 pounds (2.5 kilograms) of sweet onions into the dehyrator last night.  10 ounces (a pound has 16; it`s also 283 grams).  Almost 90% of the weight of the onions has evaporated into the air and has left us with sweet onion chips that are going to be in our veggie crackers.

If you read that last sentence carefully, you`ll notice I mentioned `evaoprated into the air.`  That’s a key part to the rest of this story…

I arrived at work this morning.  It was a busier day than normal (this says a lot) and we had a meeting with 2 other organizations that is kicking off a rather large undertaking that will affect 100’s of our employees.  My role, in today’s meeting, was a pivotal one.

I arrived in the office and noticed a faint smell of soup.  Kind of like Mr Noodles.  I entered my office and the longer I sat, the stronger the smell got.  I figured someone was eating a really early bowl of soup.

It didn’t take me long to figure out that it was me who was actually the main course.

The temperature has dropped considerably in the last 24 hours in our fine city (Toronto for those keeping score).  When I dropped to the floor at the end of a long day yesterday (to cuddle with the dog), I noticed how cold it was on the floor.  I shut the windows and fell asleep hiding under a blanket-fort that I shared with our pup.

I stumbled to bed about an hour later with the windows still snug.  And it happened overnight – 5 pounds of  onion water evaporated and consumed the air of our apartment.  It filled the air, the carpet, couches and my closet.  Including my suit.

I was lucky I didn’t get stuck in the rain – I may have been attacked by a wild herd of noodles and served as some form of exotic lunch to onion loving purists (it’s not that far-fetched since people serve sushi on top of nude models for some unknown reason).  I was fortunate to avoid such a cruel fate and was instead lavished with attention from my team who were rather delighted at my amusing fragrance.

It wasn’t really all that bad.  See if you can find me in the secret security footage from work below:

A very funny moment happened when the CEO asked me if I could smell soup (he also saved a bit of ego when he stated the smell arrived more than an hour before I got to work – my team informed me this was likely the cloud in front of my vehicle as I drove 100 kilometers per hour on the way to work.

The onions are worth every bit of it – they can be eaten like the sweetest of candy

There’s another 3.5 pounds in the dehydrator tonight – along with 1.5 pounds of hot peppers and roasted garlic will follow as soon as this post is complete.  At that point we’ll be done all of our cracker ingredients and move to the last of the tomatoes which should finish almost 8 hours to the minute after we started dehydrating (Friday to Friday).  In that time our unit will have been turned off less than 12 hours in total.

Tomorrow night has to create the final project plan, recipe for Sunday, ensure we have everything we need or a plan to get it and put some checklists together for Sunday.  In the meantime, it’s time to squeeze some garlic, grab a beer and stretch on the floor or couch.

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Preserving for 1,000 – day 5

We’re in the homestretch.

We’ve been preserving for 5 days now and there’s 5 days to go before the picnic.  Of course work and life are also keeping us busy (a disappointing soccer game for our TFC tonight) but we’re living an extreme balance and making it all work for a week.  I’m writing this at 11.50 after loading the dehydrator with almost 6 pounds of onions (the dried onions will be part of our vegetable crackers).

Dana pulled the dehydrated roasted garlic (which will be turned into garlic powder) and whole hot peppers out of the dryer this afternoon.  I pulled out the slices of green and hot peppers from the dehydrator in the morning.  Things are really starting to hum.

It’s odd that we’ve been cooking for 5 days and are still making the ingredients we will cook with.  Our house is quickly being overtaken with jars (incoming and outgoing), veggies and other supplies.  It’s going to get even more full as some swag starts to roll in through the week and I still haven’t figured out how we will store (and transport) the 1,200-1,500 crackers I hope we get made on Friday night.

I have figured out that we must be mad.

Last night I described the aromoas of our house as being reminiscent of a bath house filled with tomatoes.  A new friend smiled and then pointed out that my description didn’t sound entirely appealing – much like the smell of our house.  We’ve evaporated a lot of tomato water through the air we live in – I’m sure it’s permeated my skin by now.

I also had an absent-minded moment in the morning when I sampled the wrong dehydrated pepper.  The tiniest flake of dried pepper lit my mouth for 2-3 hours (to be clear, I adore hot stuff – this is simply crazy hot).  I’ll add a bit more care the next time I blindly grasp for a taste of something in my own kitchen at 5AM.  This is proof-positive that I’ve learned something today.

I’m absolutely smitten with the garlic.  We’ll partially freeze it right before making our crackers and then pulverize it with a blender.  The slow dehydration really brings out a sweetness in it that can’t be matched – something that has also happened with our carrots and will transform our onions as well.  Tempted to find a bunch of celeriac to make a mirefois cracker.

That’s the recap for today.  I should mention that if the writing sounds choppy, it likely is.  We’re largely going on adrenalin these days and haven’t had much of a sit down and chill for about 2 weeks.  If all goes well we should have a really chill day on Saturday before the big day that will require rested minds and bodies.

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Preserving Continues

We had planned to get back to our Autumn preserving posts but based on comments, emails and conversation with others, it appears that there is still interest in updates on our preserving for 1,000.

It’s getting trickier.  I am out of the house for almost 12 hours for work.  If food gets too dry in the dehydrator, things become a crispy mess.  I’m trying to time things to finish when I’m here – and at a time that I will have time to fill the beast back up.  We also have a busy social calendar this week – tonight was an awesome preserve swap with 40+ local preservers.  Was a great night; super people, lots of new friends and great tastes.

I needed something that would dry through the day and complete when I was home for less than 90 minutes.  It’s like throwing a dart at a target a mile away.

I loaded it with carrot slices (4 liters) around 6AM – they were complete when I got home at 6 this evening.  That was a strong success!

I opened the last 2 liters of carrot slices which were sitting in water – as I opened the jar I was crushed (but only a little) to see bubbles coming over the rim.  This means fermentation and that means bacteria and there’s not enough time to salt and ferment them for the weekend (would need about 6 weeks).  It’s not the end of the world but I do hate the waste (since they had no salt I am also hesitant to ferment them into pickles).

We did have some roasted peppers from last night (peeled, thankfully) and they’re in the dehydrator with some other sweet and hot peppers we had in the house.  So far the air is very breathable – I often worry about some hot peppers making the air acrid and my eyes teary.  It can be overwhelming and since it’s 11.30 when I write this I really hope to be done messing about the kitchen.

Garlic is roasting  as I write this – also plan to add it the the dehydrator. The garlic and pepper should take 5-6 hours and be ready to be pulled out by 6AM.  The dull sound of the dehydrators fan will mercifully rest for 12 or 15 hours tomorrow.  Our house smells like pizza and the incessant buzz of the fan is delivering some sort of Hitchcookian horror treatment to our collective subconscious.

It is intended to become garlic powder which will be incorporated with our carrot and pepper powders into our crackers.  I’m hoping to pick up a few more ingredients (including onions) at our CSA tomorrow.

My last concern (other than the 1,600 crackers we’re making on Friday night with friends and a LOT of wine) is the sauce.  It’s the only thing I wasn’t worried about and it turned to a challenge last night.  The entire process went to plan but the tomatoes are extremely acidic.  We’ve used carrots to lower acid in the past and heard that adding honey and baking powder may help.  We’re going to experiment some more through the week but open to ideas.

The biggest challenge ahead will be finding time to get the last 400-600 piece of tomatoes put in the unit.  Another social event tomorrow evening will make finding the 2-3 hours of prep time more difficult than manageable.  I am hoping I can load them tomorrow night as they’ll take the best part of 18 hours and would work out for my return from work on Wednesday.  This would allow for 3 more well-timed batches of ingredients for the crackers and put is in great shape for the weekend.

I get the feeling a lot will ride on the hours of about 10-12 tomorrow night.

Also, if it’s not obvious, we’re still having a lot of fun.

We’ll make sure to get some pics of whatever this final product ends up being – I’ll be proud regardless; but hope the flavours give us real reason to be.

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48 hours of preserving…and counting

We’re continuingto get ready for the Brickworks Picnic next weekend.  A huge pile of the work is done though there will be some early mornings to fill the dehydrator for the day ahead – and of course there is the matter of this Friday night when 4 of us take on 1,600 crackers but we’ll worry about that later.

It’s just before midnight.  The low hum of the dehydrator is the only sign of work being done after a 16+ hour day of preserving.

The weekend produced 20 more jars of sauce, 1,000 more tomato slices, 6 liters of diced carrots (waiting for the dehydrator in the morning) and some smoked/roaster peppers which will join the orange dudes.

Dana (and friend Peter) helped with the sauce today – so much fun to be able to ssit with those you love and working your way through baskets of tomatoes.  Dana’s also been busy with all sorts of WellPreserved Design stuff – we’re really using this event as a kick starter to take the site to another level.  It’s been super fun.

The next step is an early rise of 5:00AM. I’ve sliced carrots with a mandolin and have 6 liters of carrot slices keeping them fresh until they can jumpinto the heat.  We’ll pull those out tommorow night and see how we’re coming along.  I’ll likely add somemore dehydrating after our CSA (Communite Shared Agriculture) so we can crank the flavour into our crackers Friday.  Saturday should be fairly restful before the controlled chaos of Sunday.

I have to admit that this has been both fun and odd.  I generally stay motivated through the work by remding myself that what I’m creating will feed many through an entire winter.  To think that all of this is meant for 3-4 hours is a very bizzare feeling.  The challenge has been a lot of fun and it’s really great to get to push ourselves this hard and see what will happen.

After 2 days of sprinting, we’re that much closer to being ready.

We’ll return to our Preserving Autumn series in short order – time to get some needed rest.

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Preserving for 1,000 (continued)

It`s almost 1 AM.  I wrote out last post 24 hours ago – at that time we had a dehydrator full of 18 pounds of tomatoes and a lot of hope.

24 hours later we have 262 dehydrated tomato halves. a dehydrator with some of the thicker product from yesterday and  7 trays of fresh tomatoes that were placed under the gentle heat just over  hours ago.  We`re a long way away from 800 tasting portions.  We still have no sauce, crackers or veggie powders.

The next 24 hours will be essential.  We`ll need to have our sauce done and know that we have enough tomatoes for the sauce that`s required.  I alternate between thinking that we have too many op vflb                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 13to marvel

Thee above turned to gibberish as I fell asleep on the couch.  It`s now 10.45AM Sunday morning.  Things have been progressing nicely.  I pulled an additional 700 tomato pieces out of the dehydrator this morning – my target of 1,600-1,800 pieces seems feasible.  I have to get the next load on before noon if I`m goint to get 2 rounds in today.  It`s going to be a race.

I`ve also been up to the suburbs and back.  All of the tomato sauce equipment is now here – two burners, 2 60 liter pots, propane, the grinder and a spoon that could double as a snow shovel.  It looks like we`ll be aiming for about a bushel of sauce though I`ll know a lot more once the dehydrator has been refilled.

So far we`ve dehydrated 32 pounds of tomatoes.  Each piece has a quick bath in cider vinegar before a touch of maple syrup is added.  The net effect raises both the core acidity and sweetness of the tomato and these are bursting with flavour.

There`s still a lot of work to do – roasting and dehydrating peppers, carrots and other veggies for the 1,200-1,500 crackers we`re making on Friday night will have to be fit in some time soon.  For now, I better get cutting some more tomatoes…

Still excited, still having fun.

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More than we can chew?

Today was supposed to be a continuation of our Preserving Autumn series.  It`s just the way it works – we post an article and then demonstrate recipes from it for the next 8 or 9 days.

Except this time I`m changing the rules.  We`ll be back to regular scheduled programming in by Tuesday at the latest.

I thought it may be a bit of fun to have some insight into preserving for 800-1,000 people (one taste each).  The picnic (we`re participating in a SlowFood Event in Toronto and preparing 800 single tastes as part of the Brickworks Picnic) is next weekend and we`ve been extremely busy in the WellPreserved House.  Dana`s done some amazing work for us – I can`t wait to show some of the goodies coming our way.  Stay tuned for several announcements in the net week or so as different packages show up at our house.

We`ve finalized our menu as well – more or less.  A lot of the final adjustments will happen in the next few days as I get a really good look at our ingredients.  We`re dehydrating tomatoes (they`ve had a splash of cider vinegar and maple syrup).  We`re also making more tomato sauce to rehydrate the tomatoes in and serving on a homemade vegetable cracker (using more dehydrated veggies).  There are a few other possible twists and turns coming but this is the general idea.

I left Newmarket around 5.30 tonight and headed northeast to Durham county.  It is ironic that my pairing with Wheelbarrow Farm is very close to where I spent 4 of 5 formative years of my youth.  It felt good to be driving through many of the country roads that I still consider to be a key part of where I`m from.  I`ll freely admit that the challenge of cooking quality food for this many people is both exciting and scary to me.  Driving in Durham was very comforting and oddly inspiring.

I pulled into the farm around 6.30.  Tony greeted me with a warm smile and a significant limp – a sprain that will soon heal.  We had never met before but I was thrilled to meet a young first-generation farmer who was passionate over what he was doing.  I am certain we`ll cross paths again in the future.

We loaded almost 200 pounds of tomatoes and a bunch of other veggies into the truck and I drove back in the middle of a beautiful sunset (this brings our total tomato yield to more than 600 pounds this year).  I got home at 9 and ate some dinner, spent some time with Dana and the little red dog.

The tomato washing started around 9.30; the dehydrator was full and humming by midnight; at which point I decided to get my saurkraut fermenting (this is for personal use; it wont be ready for weeks).  It was 1:00PM before I sat down for the first time today – it`s now almost 2:00 as I write this.

I did spend a brief moment contemplating if this challenge is going to be the one that`s just too much.  We both work 50-60 hours a week , we have a busy calendar this week and there are some clear obstacles ahead.  And of course there is the golden rule of preserving – a whole lot makes a whole little.  Preserving for 1,000 is going to require an extreme amount to make a whole lot.  The majority of Dana`s prep is done – the next 36 hours is key to getting the bulk of our preserving done.

And I`m having so much fun!  I have no doubt we will do this.

If you`re coming next Sunday, be sure to say hi.  If you can`t make it out (and are local), we`re also planning on being at the preserve swap hosted by Ivy Knight Monday evening.  We`ll have some buttons on I`m sure and would love to say hey.

What`s the point of this post?  I`m not sure there is one – other than sharing our excitement and sharing some insight into the 30-40 hours of work that will be consumed in less than 10% of that time next Sunday afternoon.  We’ll see if it amounts to a warning to never try this type of thing or if it’s a call to say you must!

http://wellpreserved.ca/2010/09/17/preserving-autumn-our-third-preserving-poster/

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Preserving Autumn – Cabbage and Making Sauerkraut

Many of us start preserving with commercial pectin, following recipes that we think are easy and, for the most part, are.  I remember thinking that fermentation, pressure cooking and dehydrating were far too complex and I would eventually learn how to do them.

The truth is the `more advanced` preserving techniques are often the easiest.

Here`s the complete list of ingredients to make sauerkraut:

• cabbage
• salt

For every 5 pounds of cabbage, you use as little as 3 tablespoons of salt.  A large head of cabbage is about 5 pounds and the freshest cabbage you can find, the better.

There are many recipes on the web – unfortunately not a lot of variance between them and I`ve found many that seem to have copied and pasted the recipe from the National Center for Home Food Preservation.  Rather than just copying and pasting we`ll send you there for the fine details if you are interested once you read a high-level walk-through below.

The process is simple:

1. Clean everything well
2. Grate your cabbage – most recipes work about 5 pounds at a time
3. Toss with salt (most add it as they grate)
4. Pack into a large crock or similar vessel.
5. Push down hard; this begins to draw the liquids out.
6. Cover the entire mess with a plate, weight it down (a clean jar filled with brine often helps).  Ensuring all of the product is covered with brine is critical.
7. Within 24 hours you should have the complete cabbage covered with natural brine (if not, you`ll add more brine – more info will follow)
8. Cover tight
9. Skim any `scum`off that appears every few days.
10. Depending on the temperature you are storing it in, fermentation will be done in 3-6 weeks (warmer temperatures finish earlier though may be softer).  You`ll know it`s complete when the bubbling is finishes.

You can add other vegetables – hot peppers slices, shredded carrots, red cabbage and more.  You can keep the kraut in it`s crock, fridge, freeze or waterbath – the former techniques will tend to have a better texture while the later ones will last longer.

There`s something magic about seeing fermentation in action – it`s like a delicious, controlled rot that seems so counter-intuitive to consume that it`s delightful.

It`s ironic that the `advanced techniques` I avoided for so long are actually so much easier than many that I started with.

For the full details on how to do this, check the link above – would love to hear any of your experiences.

This is part of our series of posts linked to our Preserving Autumn article in Edible Toronto.  The posts will update daily from September 18th and you’ll be able to see all of the posts in the series by clicking here.

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Preserving Autumn – Preserving Pears

Pears are, to me,  the anti-asparagus.  One is short, plump, has a heavy skin and soften when it ages.  The other is lean, long and gets `woody`as it matures.

But that`s not what makes them each others antithesis to me.

One ushers in my second-favourite season of year (Spring) and the other brings my favourite (fall).  I`ll admit Asparagus is really mid-late spring and pears are late (sometimes mid) summer and early fall but it`s what it represents as much as when it actually happens.  Remember, this is about my perception and in my own head these things are pretty much always right :).

We preserved several different types of pears last year.  I was surprised to find out that they didn`t dehydrate nearly as well as apples.  There was so much water in slices of pear that the dehydrated product was a little thicker than the thickness of a shadow and, therefore, mostly unusable.  Imagine trying to peel a piece of tissue paper that had been soaked and then dried on top of a piece of sandpaper and you`ll know the obstacle.  I`m open to tips if anyone else has had some success (I imagine a leather or roll-up would work if the pulp had been cooked long enough and applied thick enough (more on leathers when we cover apples).

The easiest form of preserving is, in a way, cheating.  Infusing vodka with pears requires as much work as consuming the pear in the first place so it`s very easy.  The cheating part is that you are preserving the taste of the pear and small pieces of it`s tissue but the actual fruit is discarded in days.

Infusion takes as little as 3-4 days (any more and you risk ending up with a bitter product).  It really is as simple as cleaning, cutting and covering before waiting a few days.  We have more details on infusing vodka with pears as well as what to do if infused vodka becomes bitter.  I am pleased to report the final results remain amazing to this day.

Preserving slices of whole pear is slightly more work – you have to peel them after all (the peels will become tough otherwise).  We preserved them in a simple syrup last year and added a touch of Kahlua.  It was a heavenly combination – here`s a pic of our results:

For the simple details of pears in Kahlua (this involves pear, Kahlua, sugar, water and a bit of lemon juice) click on how to preserve pears.

As always, feel free to ask any questions, share your own links, ideas or recipes in the comments!  We love to hear from you.

This is part of our series of posts linked to our Preserving Autumn article in Edible Toronto.  The posts will update daily from September 18th and you’ll be able to see all of the posts in the series by clicking here.

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Beets – Pickles and Powdered

Beets are a lot of fun.  I`ve had a funny relationship with them since childhood.  I forget to put them on my plate (or outright avoid them) thinking that I`m not a giant fan of them.  When I have a weak moment and plate some up I rediscover that I love them.  This can happen several times per week.

When I peel beets for dinner, I find it`s pretty quick and easy.  When I peel 5-10 pounds of them for preserving, I find the work tedious.  The easiest way to peel a beet is to trim it`s top and bottom, quickly blanch it in boiling water and when the skin appears lose, dump it in an ice water bath.  We then use gloves to quickly`rub` the beet into submission.

When you peel by blanching, make sure the leave the beets whole.  I foolishly cut them up last year and it changed peeling a single beet from 1 smooth motion to 10 or 12 steps (one for each piece).

We made beet powder last year.  It`s a stunning way to transfer 5 pounds of beets into a quarter cup of powder.  It`s also an amazing soup topping, flavour enhancer, colour changer (think of darkening sauces) and, according to Readymade Magazine, an ingredient for DIY-lipstick.

Rather than re-writing what we’ve previously posted, click for how to dehydrate beets and how to make beet powder.

Beets are very easy to pickle (you can find a base recipe at the National Center for Home Food Preservation that’s actually very good).  There’s not a whole lot to say about them other than you cook, peel, slice, add them to jars with hot brine and process them in a hot water bath.  We’ll do a complete walk-through the next time we do a batch (still have some from last year in the pantry) but that link will walk you through the process in one-paragraph (rather than stealing their work I’ll send you there :)).

We  also love to add a bit of thyme to our pickled beets – it’s like introducing earthiness to dirtiness.  Almost sounds like Scotch…

As a parting gift, here’s my favourite trick for cooking different colours of beets without having their colours run into each other.

This is part of our series of posts linked to our Preserving Autumn article in Edible Toronto.  The posts will update daily from September 18th and you’ll be able to see all of the posts in the series by clicking here.

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Preserving Autumn – Pickled Beets (though not what you may expect)

For those who don’t know – Dana represents all things graphic here and I do a lot of the writing and cooking.  Neither of us are particularly thrilled about our writing styles (I am a much more articulate speaker) but that’s been half the fun of writing for the last few years.

But the fact that Dana is the designer is important to this post.  I draft the content of our preserving posters, she presents me with drafts.  We both provide feedback to the other but each has their area of expertise and we are confident the other will do an awesome job.

This is a very, very long tale to explain that I don’t have a lot of input into the graphical elements of our posters.  Which is why I laughed when I saw the graphic above.  It’s from one of the most humiliating personal stories I have (which makes it fun to share). We’ve shared it on Facebook in the past but not here; I’m never shy about embarassing myself (I was, after all, a very unco-ordinated competitive jazz dancer for several years as a preteen).

Today’s post explains why the graphic above was chosen; tomorrow we’ll share some posts about preserving beets for the winter.  This is more of a silly story that is connected to the topic at hand – and the poster above so I thought I’d share.

I have a fairly corporate job; one with a fancy title and grown-up responsibilities.  I don’t shirk from these things – it’s a lot of fun and I enjoy it a lot.  I just have a tough time remembering that I’m not 22 anymore (37 and a bit for those keeping score).

We have a wide variety of people at work (there are 800 people).

A young man approached me – he was in his first few weeks of work.  He asked me for some personal guidance – I could tell his question was tough to ask for him.  I provided some guidance and promised I’d follow-up with him in a few days.  It looked like he thought I was blowing him off.

I returned to his desk a few days later and shared what I had learned about his question.  He was elated – I could tell I made a difference in his day.  It felt good to see such earnest appreciation and I felt like I had made a difference.  He mentioned that he was impressed that someone with my Seniority would actually follow through on something ‘so small.’  I’ve never been much for hierarchy and although I understood he was speaking of my role, I chose to interpret that it was also intended at my age.  I felt really good at the favour, but I also felt a little old.  I had to prove to myself that I still had ‘it’ (to this day I have no idea what ‘it’ is or was).

I tried to make small talk.  “You’re most welcome and you deserve answers to all of your questions.”

“Well I really appreciate it, it will help me this weekend.”

“Great.  What are you up to?”

He got excited and instantly passionate.  “I’m going to that guys [he points, guy #2 nods with excitement] and we’re gonna make some beats.”

Now I know the kids today have this hip slang that makes me so legit I quit long ago.  I know that beats is cool for music.  (This is both true and tongue-in-cheek).

It’s just that I chose to hear “beets” and I got real excited.  I remember thinking how cool it was that kids today are into pickling.  It was surprising but it did mean that I was cool like they were.  It meant I would be accepted.  It meant I wasn’t as old as I thought…

“Pickled or dehydrated?”  I began to panic as the words came out of my mouth.  I clawed desperately at the air and tried to grab them in the time after they left my mouth and before they hit his ears.

I knew I’d made a mistake and I knew what was coming next.  It was the look.  The look you, as a young dude, give to the old guy who thinks he’s your age.  It’s a look that says he’s both delusional and so wrong that the goggles of youth is the only vision strong enough to see just how wrong he is.

So I did the only thing I could think of.  I panicked and dug the hole deeper.

“I mean…I mean…you’re spinning records..”

They actually giggled a little.  I could hear a small twinge of compassion and they weren’t being mean.  It was, after all, pretty funny.

Funny like those video of penguins trying to get out of the freezing water only to slide back in the ocean because they couldn’t jump high enough or hold onto the ice.  It’s funny but it’s a little sad all at the same time.

I ducked away from the conversation and wished my DJ friends some luck.  I was, after all, 35 and now understood why I had entered a different demographic on those annoying surveys from magazines and trade shows.

I went to find my team and told them the story.  I was both humbled, laughing and a little bit proud of how it didn’t horrify me not to be one of the cool kids (not that I ever was – but a benefit of ‘experience’ is that these things end up being of less and less concern each year).

My team was compassionate.  Until they came up with my new fancy title (one that I still prefer to anything more formal and have used for fun since).

I am indeed, “MC Pickled Beets.”

When Dana showed me the first draft of the poster, I knew it was time to share this story.  I hope it’s as fun as our normal posts and that we’ll avoid a full blown beet riot as long as we post tomorrow.  🙂

This is part of our series of posts linked to our Preserving Autumn article in Edible Toronto.  The posts will update daily from September 18th and you’ll be able to see all of the posts in the series by clicking here.

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