Can-Do Real Food

04/16/2025

Outside getting the gardens cleaned up. The blue sky today is a great contrast to tte various sheds of red leaf trees I have. Apple futures blossoming on the right.

04/16/2025

Food Preservation 2025

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Class Preference (starting April 24th and 25th)
□Thursday 5-7:30 pm
□Friday 9am -12:30

The classes will be held inside the kitchen at McMinnville’s Cooperative Ministries. From the parking lot, look at the building on the right. There is a door facing the parking lot that has “KITCHEN” on the outside.

You will receive an email and/or a mobile phone message a week before the first class and again the day before the class. This message will remind you what to bring with you. For example we will be making strawberry preserves at the first class. You will need to bring a quart of strawberries, 4 half pint canning jars and lids, and $5.

At this time, if you already do not have one, please pick up a copy of the Ball Blue Book published 2006 or after. This is important as recipes and canning instructions were revised that year to reflect the changes in crop varieties and pathogens from decades before. Also, start buying canning jars for the canning season. We will talk about how to estimate what you will need, but at this time buy at least one each of half-pint, pint and quart jars. If you are buying new jars, the lids come with them. If you are reusing older jars, make sure you have new lids. You will also need a water bath canner and a pressure canner.

Send a message to learn more

04/16/2025

A bunch of people are participating in providing a series of classes so people can feel able to feed their families this year.

First and foremost is McMinnville Cooperative Ministries, which is renting the kitchen at an amazingly low fee. I'm asking everyone to chip in $5 for each class. This will cover the rent of the commercial kitchen and a few supplies.

For each class I will ask you to bring a small amount of some fruit or veggie. I will also ask you to bring a few half pints or pints or quarts, depending on what we are going to be making, so you can carry it home and give the family a taste of your skill.

We will start the end of April with a class offered Thursday, April 24th from 5-7:30pm and again (same class) on Friday, April 25th from 9-noon.

To sign up please contact Beth Rankin at [email protected] or leave a message for me here with your contact info.

Send a message to learn more

04/10/2025

One way to reduce the cost of food in 2025 is to take advantage of locally grown fruits and vegetables in the growing season and learn how to preserve enough that you can eat through the fall, winter, and spring, until the earth turns enough to the next harvest in 2026 to preserve more.

Beth Rankin, who ran a commercial food-processing service for five years before the Pandemic, is offering small group classes to teach the skills needed to safely stock your pantry. These classes will be held in the kitchen at McMinnville’s Cooperative Ministries on Thursday evenings (5-7:30pm) and Friday mornings (10am -12:30). Classes will include techniques in hot water canning as well as pressure canning. IN addition, skills needed for dehydrating food will also be covered.

Once you sign up for the classes, you will receive a list of things you will need to obtain before you can successfully can. These items can be purchased at local stores (BiMart, WalMart, and Wilco, for example), online or at numerous yard sales.

The cost for these classes $5 each class,, will cover the cost of the kitchen rent as well as some ingredients and supplies in case someone forgets to bring something to the class. If you can pay more, that will help support someone taking these classes who may not be able to pay.

If you are interested contact Beth Rankin at [email protected] or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/CanDoRealFood.

STARTING
Thursday April 24 5-7:30pm
OR
Friday, April 25 9am-12:30

Send a message to learn more

06/03/2024

A healthy food, avocados presents a challenge if you are not eating the whole thing at the time you cut it open. Thank you America's Test Kitchen for checking out the various methods to keep it from turning brown.

https://www.americastestkitchen.com/cooksillustrated/articles/8203-keep-avocado-from-turning-brown?

Leftover avocado browns quickly. There are plenty of tricks for staving off this unsightly change, but do any actually work? We went to the kitchen to find out.

12/22/2023

Yesterday's broadcast about best restaurants in the US included McMinnville's Okta. A friend called me to say Can-Do was ahead of its time!!!

Oregon’s ōkta restaurant is one of the New York Times' 50 best restaurants in the country, but it's taking the farm-to-table movement one step further with an on-site larder, focusing on food preservation.

08/15/2023

So, NEXT question we have to ask our farmers who feed us is: do you use municipal biosolids on your farm to provide soil nutrition? (Basically, the treated solids from the sanitary sewerage treatment plant) If so, and you have few choices, you have to accept the fact that your body, also, will have plastic in it.

By Branaavan Sivarajah, Carleton University; and Jesse Vermaire, Carleton University | - (The Conversation) - Microplastic pollution is a global …

08/01/2023

We are so so so lucky here in the mid-Willamette Valley to have so many food producers right here!! Check out this tasting at one of our local coffee roasters!!! (Full disclaimer here: we LOVE Caravan Coffee)
Flight & Tour Experiences at Caravan Coffee

THE CARAVAN COFFEE EXPERIENCE

Join us in our tasting room and experience coffee like never before. Choose from our three flight options that showcase our featured coffees:

Espresso Flight - Experience our featured coffee prepared three different ways

Sampler's Flight - Experience our featured coffee across three different brew methods

Chemex Flight - Experience our featured pour over coffee brewed in a paper and metal filter

Accompanied by a production facility tour in which you can meet our skilled production team, discover the intricacies of our roasting and packaging processes and experience our Coffee Lab first hand.

Schedule your flight now by emailing [email protected]

Caravan Coffee
2750 E 9th St
Newberg OR 97132
United States

07/31/2023

When I was asked by one of the local w**emakers here if I could do anything with many cases of old w**e that was no longer quite as drinkable as it used to be, I tried. Regular pectin did not work but someone suggested Pomona Pectin and that Pinot Noir W**e Wow!!! was the best-looking jelly (and yummy also!!) I ever made.

People always said that it is "so expensive", but consider the price off sugar and also the health advantage to reduce the sugar content and yes, some value is not financial and should be recognized. If you value a low-sugar opportunity, the slightly higher price of Pomona is within your reach.

Can I use regular pectin for low sugar jam? If you are looking for low sugar jam recipes at home, we've got you covered.

07/27/2023