Local shopping maven Allison Kaplan just published an article about Rectangle in Sunday’s Pioneer Press. Check out the article online here or pick up the paper today. Thanks for the shout-out, Ali!

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Tonight I was treated to a demo and tasting of homemade kimchi and raspberry homebrew in a what felt almost like country revival for Lactobacillus. “You’ve changed my life!” exclaimed one  lady as she sampled the cabbage, bok choy, garlic-ginger-horseradish concoction offered from Jar 1. Jars 2 & 3 offered even more exotic combos of garden veggies–carrots, chard, burdock…

The seminar, held at Mother Earth Gardens in South MPLS, was put on by Russ Henry of Giving Tree Gardens. I was stunned to learn that making kraut and kimchi is not only easy, it’s delicious and excellent for your health.

Referring to his own Bible of wild fermentation, Russ showed us how, in just a few minutes, to reduce a head of cabbage to a tightly packed, lightly salted jar unit that could be “cooked” on top of the fridge in under a week.

Kimchi/kraut basic recipe

Chop your veg up (5 lbs cabbage, peppers, any other veg plus minced garlic/ginger/horseradish) and put it in a big bowl

Squish it a good with the bottom of a jar or your hands to break up the cell walls a bit, and then mix in 3 TBSP sea salt

Fill several clean glass or ceramic pint jars and then pack it down with your hands until it juices

When there’s a layer of juice on top to cover all the veg, put the lid on and put on top of fridge

Check daily for taste and to make sure the liquid covers the veg. Squish down more if needed to make more juice

Ready to eat in 3 days — or let it hang out longer for other flavors. Put in fridge when you like the way it tastes. It’ll keep there for a good long time.

The possible combinations are endless. But, simple as it was to learn, I recommend checking out the book yourself to make sure you understand the specifics. Then get thee to the altar of wild fermentation and enjoy!

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I love my neighborhood, Longfellow, here in Minneapolis. It’s a stark contrast to the suburban setting I grew up in which featured a large house with a big lawn and river in the back, with the neighbors an acre away, no sidewalks, and any sort of entertainment or shopping requiring a drive. Though I loved the nearby woods and river, I dreamt of the kind of neighborhood Beverly Cleary wrote about in her Ramona Quimby books.

Dreams do come true. Since 2001, I’ve enjoyed a nearby river (the Mississippi) and abundant woods, but my 900-square foot bungalow is close enough to my neighbors to pass veggies over the fence. The cream on top is the vintage movie theater just a couple blocks away, the Riverview. A salute to the folks who keep this gem vibrant and life in Longfellow sweet.

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One of the joys of summer for me is fresh berries. I grew up picking every kind of berry imaginable–blackberries, huckleberries, marionberries, and, of course, raspberries. My family picked tons of berries every year to make jam. To this day, there is no store-bought variety I can consume with as much pleasure as homemade jam, which is easier to make than you might think. Here’s my simple, tried-and-true recipe, good for any kind of fruit or berry.

Start with clean, dry berries (if you do u-pick and need to rinse off dirt, lay the berries out in a single layer on a cookie sheet and let them dry before making your jam or it will be watery). Farmer’s market berries are always the best and freshest next to ones you buy at the farm.

Only process 4 cups of berries at a time. You’ll need 1 cup or a little less of sugar per cup of berries to make a nice consistency jam.

1. Put 4 cups berries-whole, or quartered if they are strawberries–into a heavy-bottomed pot along with half your sugar (2 cups if you use a 1:1 ratio). I usually measure the strawberries whole and then slice them up willy-nilly once they are in the pot.

2. Stir the sugar and berries together over medium heat until they start to soften and juice up. Then use a potato masher and mash them up to your desired chunkiness.

3. Bring to a rolling boil (see photo above) and allow to boil hard for 2 minutes, without stirring. Then stir in the rest of your sugar.

4. Bring to a rolling boil again and boil for 2 more minutes, stirring the whole time.

5. Turn off the stove and let the jam sit (no lid) to thicken overnight. Pack into jars and freeze.

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I was dropping off Johanna at daycare this morning, and as I was leaving I saw an enormous bird sitting atop a garbage can in the back alley. He/she just sat there a minute or two before swooping down the alley. I found this photo pool on flickr this morning that helped me identify it as a Cooper’s Hawk.

Since the 2004 sighting that spurred the search for the believed-extinct ivory-billed woodpecker, birding has gotten more play in the headlines than ever before. Birders, like all nature enthusiasts, play an important role in conservation by supporting eco-tourism and raising awareness of issues. More data on the subject than you can imagine is sliced and diced in this report from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. As the report states, “Although there is a certain irony in people becoming enthusiastic about birds as they disappear, it also presents an opportunity: birders may be the economic and political force that can help save the birds.”

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