Most people have framed pictures, posters, other traditional kinds of wall hangings in their room. I believe in art as much as the next person, don’t get me wrong, but my walls aren’t exactly covered in impressionist prints. I love colour and eye candy, but at heart I’m a very practical person, and my personal form of whimsy comes in sour cherry red, peach white, blue berry, apple ice cider gold, and…pickle green.
This is what I think is beautiful – my wall of homemade preserves and pickles. You can find all the recipes for my organic strawberry-rhubarb jam, peaches in Quebec dessert wine, sweet summer turnip threads pickled with Szechuan chili peppers, and mango-tamarind chutney on this blog, and you can make them for yourself, but they’ll never taste like the ones in my room. That’s not my ego kicking in. It’s just that I bought a crate of sweet summer turnips from a local organic farm when the turnips were at their peak. I bought organic strawberries from a little roadside stop just outside of Ottawa in June when strawberries didn’t have to be trucked from California, I picked rhubarb from the backyard of my house, and I recruited a friend to help my bring home 4 pounds of white peaches and 2 crates of imported mangoes from Jean-Talon market one day in summer when they were bursting with flavour at the height of their seasons.
Now it’s cold, and though you can still get mangoes, they’re not as good as those mangoes, and good luck finding a summer turnip. My sweet and sour pickles are still possible because of a local almost organic greenhouse, but getting enough in your weekly Lufa Farms Fresh Basket to make a jar isn’t likely. I got lucky back in July when my friend magically ended up with an extra 20 lbs and needed to use them up before leaving town in two days…
My point is, please buy my pickles and jams and help me spread their joy. Because as happy as they make me, decorating my room as they do, I’d like to share a little taste of summer, a little piece of my summer joy making them, from me to you, or to your friends. Like Christmas in July but reversed. More presents, but less heat.
Let me know if you need them dropped off or delivered. We can work it out. I’m bringing $30 worth of jam and pickles to a book club Monday night. Who would have thought?
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