The soul of my kitchen isn't in my kitchen at all. It is down the hall in a room lined with shelves packed with jars of pickles, jams, jellies and other experiments in preserving, these shelves radiate with possibility. When I need inspiration I take inventory, this provides me with a snapshot of the growing seasons. Early spring yields jars of lemon preserves, white turnips and asparagus soon followed by glossy pints of strawberry jam. Summer comes in like gang busters with green beans, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, snappy snow peas and more. By the end of September the shelves bulge, emanating primary colors as carrots, dill pickles, peppers, eggplant, cherries, summer squash and red and green cabbage. Then comes autumn with ruby hued cranberries and winter squashes quietly signal an end to the harvest.
I stared preserving a few summer staples to extend the seasons. But that was well before I realized how many flavors I could capture in a jar.
I started with pickles because I could not give away all of the cucumbers that were produced in my garden. (The neighbors would see me coming with a basket full and turn the other way). Soon I was reading everything I could find on preserving. Especially memorable were the archaic methods outlined in old cook books and the phrase "my grandmother didn't do it that way".
My garden is organic and chemical free, my seeds come from my own crop and I only purchase from seed banks who sell only Heirloom seeds which are Chemical Free and GMO Free. I grow competition roses as well making a bee friendly yard. I manage my gardens, both flower and vegetable, with soil management to prevent disease, composting to fertilize, and I rely on the lady bugs, birds and lizards for pest control. During rose show season I do use an insecticidal soap, 1 part Ivory dish soap to 3 parts water for bugs and 1 part Apple Cider Vinegar 3 parts water for disease.
Being in Florida my garden grows year round and with the help of Local Organic Farmers my experiments have expanded and here we are. The Florida growing season is all year round which allows us to highlight many seasonal limited small batch preserves. Our products are preserved using traditional methods so you won't find any artificial ingredients of any kind in our jars! All my recipes were Beta-Tested for a year before opening shop. I would like to THANK everyone of my taste testers for lending their taste buds to the process (mostly my family, who were the hardest critics especially when it came to my Grandmothers recipes). Just in case and to remove all bias I entered into some Agricultural Fairs to see how my recipes stood up to competition. After my first Blue Ribbon & Best in Show BeaulieLand Farms was legit!
Fresh produce deserves to be savored and saved, I hope you enjoy my Jars of Possibilities as much as I enjoy creating them!
All the Best!