ottawa foodies

Just throwing this out there - do you think there would be interest in a home canning teaching service that comes to your house to show you how to can? What is a reasonable rate to charge?

Perhaps it would be more cost effective, if there was enough interest, to have a group of people come a convenient location.

The problem with that Francis is that you need a commercial kitchen. You can exercise a loophole by going to someone's house. But yeah, I would like to do that too, if I could find a kitchen.

Interesting Idea...
What about talking to Algonquin or Citi to see if you can teach a class using their facilities?

Or talk to Andy at Acorn Creek Farms... you could bring people to the farm to pick their own veggies and possibly arrange with Andy's and his wife to use their production kitchen for a fee.

zymurgist I for one would be interested. If you choose to approach a kitchen the Urban Element is in your 'hood and the superstore in Westboro has a community kitchen available. Not sure what the rates would be for renting their facilities but it's a thought. I'm not sure how much others would be willing to pay but I know the Urban Element charges in the $100 range for their classes. I think the superstore classes are less than $50 although it's been awhile since I've taken any classes with them. The OSDSB also offers cooking classes. The instructors are not necessarily professional chefs they just have a keen interest in a certain aspect of cooking and would like to teach their skills to whomever is interested. I think the classes are less than $50. Perhaps you could approach the school board about teaching a class? Good luck with it and keep us posted.

I teach through the continuing ed program at the OCDSB, and they are also looking for people to teach weekly or biweekly classes as well as individual workshops. Unfortunately the guide for the fall has gone to press already, but they will be publicizing again for winter 2011/2012 later in the fall.

I'd be interested! I used to help my mom can, but it's been many a year. And, my kitchen is small enough that I'm scared a bit to try to can multiple quarts by myself, much less the super-mustard pickles my husband wants to make

@zym,

Another idea would be to create instructional videos similar to what this guy is doing:

www.slate.com/id/2299863/

I don't know if people will pay, but it has the potential for more scale than in-person classes. A website would have to be built around it.

For inspiration read this:

www.cringely.com (Parrot Secrets)

In a similar vein to "parrot secrets" above, here is another one:

www.cringely.com (FreshJerky)

Maybe it's not trivial to make good jerky, but it can't be rocket science either, and there are endless variations to be created with local flavorings.

zym, there is a woman in town who offers canning courses, amoung other things. i'll send you her details via pm. i don't want her to get in trouble if she is doing something she shouldn't in her kitchen.