Happy birthday to my maternal grandmother, Ruby Marie Ingram. “Nanny” turned a young 86 today! Huxley and I spent the day with she and my mom, enjoying a grand lunch at the Switzerland Cafe (Hubs and I usually pronounce the tiny town’s name as ‘Lil Switzerland, like it’s a Dr. Dre production), shopping at Books & Beans next door, and then swinging back into Burnsville (where they both live, about an hour from me) for pecan pie at Mary Janes Bakery & Cafe.

Short notice, I know, but I was asked just a little bit earlier today if I’d like to be on Martha Stewart’s Sirius XM program “Morning Living” tomorrow. I’ll be chatting about canning the end-of-summer bounty around 8:30 a.m.-ish.

Tune in and check it out!

*Even if you don’t have a subscription to Sirius, you can listen to the show via a trial subscription. For details, go here.

The Canning Queen of the Desert from Etsy on Vimeo.

Check out this video sent to me today by one of the producers of Etsy. It’s on Classie Parker (AMAZING NAME, yes???!!!), an urban farmer and canning instructor toughing it out in the wilds of NYC.

She’s a joy to watch. I especially love when she proclaims “Canning is sexy, baby!” Given that I’ve been sweating something fierce in my kitchen lately as I can plums, nectarines and peaches sent to me by the Washington State Fruit Commission (more on this to come…), I can only hope she’s right!

Enjoy!!!

It’s coming up, folks! In just three weeks from today, I’ll be in St. Paul, Minnesota, teaching a class on making, and canning, jam as part of Mary Jane’s Farm Food Day at The Creative Connection Event.

Want to try your hand at winning some beautiful custom-printed labels to festoon your canned goods with? Well, then, head over to Felix Doolittle, a stationary purveyor in Massachusettes.