Lawrenceville’s Cherry Grove Farm and Kim Rizk of Jammin’ Crepes in Princeton will teach the art of canning and preserving at the creperie on Wednesday evening, October 14th.
Participants will be guided through the steps as they chop and cook, the Jammin’ Crepes website explains. They will learn the basics of water-bath canning.
Cherry Grove’s cheesemakers will pair their cheeses with Rizk’s preserved apples and squashes for participants to taste.
Participants will go home with recipes and canning details, as well a jar of each recipe made that day, at least one being shelf stable.
Jammin Crepes, a year-old creperie, began five years ago with Rizk selling crepes at local farmer’s markets. The restaurant is known for using ingredients from area farms in their jams, preserves and pickles.
“Our mission is servin’ and preservin’ local flavors,” says Rizk, a Cornell University Cooperative Extension Master Food Preserver. The hands-on classes, which she teaches monthly at the restaurant, are “a way to inspire people to enjoy the harvest throughout the winter months.”
Kim Rizk of Jammin’ Crepes in Princeton.
At the October event, she will help students make the pickled butternut squash featured in her winter house salad. Her savory apple jam will most likely be made with an assortment of local hot peppers, including cayenne and spicy Thai peppers.
Savory preserves go well with cheeses like Brie, Jack and Fromage Blanc that Cherry Grove produces from the raw milk of their grass-fed dairy herd. Rizk’s preserves and Cherry Grove cheeses turn up in many of the 15-inch breakfast, lunch and dinner crepes on the Jammin’ Crepes menu.
“It’s all about fresh local ingredients, and the crepe is our vehicle for serving them,” Rizk says.
Cherry Grove Farm has been in the same family since 1902. When the latest generation, three Hamill brothers, inherited it in 1987, they decided to preserve half the property as forest. They turned the rest into pasture to rotationally graze 13 breeds of cow that create the milk for their farmstead cheeses.
The cheese, along with pork, lamb, chicken and beef raised on their 480 acres, can be purchased online, or at their farm store and at various local grocers. They also conduct hands-on seminars at the farm throughout the year.
The Jammin’ Crepes class on preserving runs from 6-8 pm. The price is $50 per person. Advance registration is required.
Other October events at Jammin’ Crepes include:
Homemade Ricotta and Mozzarella Stretching – Oct 10 – 12-2pm – $65 per person
Pate & Pickles – Oct 24– 2-4 pm – $50 per person
Jammin’ Crepes
20 Nassau Street
Princeton
609-924-5387
jammincrepes.com
Cherry Grove Farm
Lawrenceville Road
Lawrenceville
609-219-0053
cherrygrovefarm.com