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If you’re ever in a jam, here I am.

Posted on September 11th, 2006 – 2:14 PM
By Jaime Chismar

I am a bad, bad blogger. I’ve been so busy setting up blogs for other Strib folks that I haven’t had a chance to work on my own damn blog. (New bloggers are all so eager and enthusiastic. Soon they will experience the frustrations of blogging under deadline and managing an onslaught of blog spam — Whee!)

Our hostess, June and Barb (left) serve up a delicious chocolate cake.

It has been a busy two weeks outside of the office, too. The Minnesota State Fair, Bob Dylan, and Snakes on a Plane, the highlight of all this extra-curricular activity was bumping into Barb Schaller at a dinner party.

Excuse me, Barb Who?

Barb “State-Fair-Canning-Queen” Schaller is the Samuel L. Jackson of the Creative Arts Building. Make no mistake, this sassy dame ain’t Susie Homemaker. Her spicy cherry chipotle jam will spank you in your seat faster than you can say, “Enough is enough!”

Chances are you’ve tasted the fruits of her labor, too. Ever try Gedney’s peach-raspberry jam? That’s Barb’s blue ribbon winning recipe. She gets half a cent for every jar sold.

The Gedney pickle hat and state fair medals should’ve tipped me off, but instead, I talked her ear off about my heirloom tomatoes (I brought along a salad fresh from my garden and got a little too big from my britches).

“I really want to learn how to can. I got a little lesson from my friend Danika, but…”

Barb smiled wide. I suddenly put two and two together, shut my mouth and opened my ears. Jar sterilization, botulism, food safety classes, heirloom plums, and more botulism — Guests got up for seconds, but I was glued to the edge of my seat.

At the end of the evening, Barb gave me her card. Barb’s avatar looked nothing like her, but her slogan said it all: If you’re ever in a jam, here I am.

“Give me a call if you need some jars. My husband is dying for more storage space.”

This entry was posted on Monday, September 11th, 2006 at 2:14 pm and is filed under Preserving. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

6 Responses to "If you’re ever in a jam, here I am."

laura says:

September 12th, 2006 at 9:00 am

my mom used to always can peaches and pears when we were kids, and my brother asked her to teach us how to do it this year. we canned 70 pounds of pears, maybe half that many peaches, and even tried our hand at pickles. now my mom has the canning bug and made her first ever jam. i really enjoyed canning the peaches and pears, eating my ‘mistakes’, goofing around with my brother and mom, and taking home jars and jars of glorious fruit to snack on in the dead of winter.

Jon says:

September 12th, 2006 at 10:00 am

Having grown up with home-canned goods always around, I asked my mom earlier this year a canning question and she sent me the book “Putting Food By” by Janet Greene. It has been a pretty handy guide for storing up all the summer’s bounty.

Though it isn’t written locally, the book references the U of M’s Extension Service - it seems like we’ve got some good local experts who know quite a bit about proper acid levels, etc.

Greengirl says:

September 12th, 2006 at 11:13 am

Barb raved about the U of M

Brenda says:

September 12th, 2006 at 1:59 pm

I was learning to can tomatoes this weekend. I had a great time learning (okay re-learning) how to can.
My mom did a lot of canning when I was little but as much as I helped her then I did not pay attention to more than what I had to.
My next project is jam.
Where are good places to get fruit in bulk?

Greengirl says:

September 12th, 2006 at 3:59 pm

Fruit in bulk, eh? You could try your local farmers market or a local orchard. My friend Lee goes apple and raspberry picking every year. His eyes are often bigger than his stomach.

debw says:

September 13th, 2006 at 11:59 am

Sometimes small batches of preserves are more managable. For example: a bag of oranges will make 6 or 8 jars of marmalade, just enough to make a good afternoons work. Same deal with a large bag of apples.
Otherwise, go the the farmers markets or a pick you own place (probably too late for strawberries but blueberries, blackberries, elderberries, chokecherries, and that old favorite of my grandmas: green tomato are right in season).

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