Introductions!

[mary...@mac.com]

Hi Everyone,
I am so glad to meet everyone soon through our various classes. It's
so refreshing to find others who feel the same way about food that I
do.
Eat Local, Know Your Farmer!
Mary

[TeacherPatti]

Hello everyone, and happy Valentine's Day! I'm Patti Smith, live in
A2 with my husband and dog, teach school (spec.ed.,visually impaired)
in Detroit Public Schools (no, it's not too long a drive)...former low-
income, public interest lawyer (both clients and I were low income!
HA! :)). I know Emily through our lady food blogger group--my blog is
semi-food (http://pattimst3k.livejournal.com). I am delighted with
this group! I had a great childhood in the 70s/80s, but it was the
days of Hamburger Helper and Wonder Bread...my mom would rather do
almost anything than can, freeze, garden...I'm excited to be picking
back up with what my great-grandparents, etc. were doing!

Looking forward to meeting!
Patti S. :)

[Wendy]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for letting me be a part of this awesome group!

I found out about Preserving Traditions at the Local Food Summit this
past month in Ann Arbor. I wish I didn't miss the "noodle making"
class. Darn! Hope you have it again. Looking forward to the class
on "Intro to wheat, flour, and home grain milling" though.

I'm the garden coordinator at SMLC Community Organic Garden in
Superior Twp. and hope to learn some new skills for preparing
wonderful meals from scratch and especially food preservation with all
my home grown veggies. You don't mention "fermenting" in your section
"about" Preserving Traditions at the website . So I'm hoping that is
a subject others will be interested in too.

Thanks again, and see you all Mar. 8th.
Wendy

[espring]

Hey, Wendy! Welcome!

We'll be doing noodles again in the fall, probably. I think we'll do a
pierogie class, actually! So we'll make the noodles, stuff 'em with
mashed potatoes, and have a bit of a carb coma. :)

Fermenting is definitely on the docket, too. When the cabbages start
coming in, we'll make kraut and talk about the basics of home
fermentation. BTW, if anyone knows of a good pickling expert, I'd like
to tap someone with a little more experience than me to lead that
class, so let me know!

Would you say more about the SMLC community garden?

Emily

[Wendy]

Pierogies! Sweet! They were a big family favorite when I was growing
up. My grandma would spend an entire day making a huge batch for
freezing. She made three different fillings, kraut, potato, and
farmer's cheese. Glad you will be doing the noodles again too and
getting into fermentation as well. How cool is that?

Here's a link to the SMLC Community Organic Garden website page:
http://smlcland.org/garden.php
It will have all the info regarding location, history, plots, etc. If
anyone is interested in a plot, just drop me an email. As soon as the
weather clears up, I'll be contacting new gardeners to arrange for a
tour of the farm where the garden is located. It's a beautiful
setting to have a garden. It's peaceful with lots of wildlife on a
historical farmstead. The original settler's cabin built in the
1830's is still there along with an old barn, corn crib and carriage
house. It sits on 79 acres and is adjacent to the 325 acre LeFurge
Woods Nature Preserve.

If anyone is interested in land preservation, just click on the "home"
link from the garden page and it will take you to Southeast Michigan
Land Conservancy's website. We are a land trust that has protected
over 2400 acres here in the southeast Michigan area. Most of the
protected property is right here in Superior Township.

I'll keep my eyes and ears on the scout for a "pickling" expert.

Peace,
Wendy