Profit Model : Lie to the Customers

Today, as I was walking from the Oregon Historical Society to the Multnomah Public Library, as part of the Portland Archives Crawl, I stopped in a store which advertised bulk vinegars and olive oil, Benessere Oils and Vinegars.

The place looked nice, filled with row upon row of urns filled with myriad flavours of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. The employees seemed friendly. I was greeted immediately upon my entrance by a smiling woman who invited me to sample as many of their wares as I desired. The prices seemed outrageous - most being $10 for 6.76 fluid ounces. But I like to support bulk vendors, so I asked the smiling woman how they felt about people bringing in their personal bottles to fill up... and got a stuttering non-answer about the health department and how I'd have to buy a bottle from them.

Now, I can understand if it's their policy not to allow personal bottles. Some places want to force you to give them extra money. It sucks, but if that's how they want to play, you can't argue. You just don't shop there. But to pretend it's health code? That's insulting and manipulative. I have entered many a fine purveyor of coffee and used my own mug. I have entered many a grocery retailer and filled my own containers with bulk goods. If that's a violation of health code, then a lot of establishments are in great danger of getting shut down.

I simply smiled sadly and said, "that's unfortunate" and walked out. At least I got to sample a couple of vinegars.

Oh, and the Archive Crawl was fab. I didn't win the raffle, but I got a free Buffy comic book! And knowledge. Lots of knowledge.

Rosemary Vinegar: Success

It's as delicious as it looks. Kind of sweet, actually. Which surprised me, but it shouldn't have, because I am a huge fan of the Rosemary Mochas from Pix Patisserie.

(For a few months I was adding rosemary to my coffee every morning, until I switched to cinnamon and nutmeg, until I switched to ginger, until I switched to cardamom, until I switch to roasting my own coffee).

In fact, I threw a splash of this vinegar into my morning coffee. Yum!

I'm sure this vinegar would also be excellent for marinades. I've yet to try making marinades with any of these vinegars, as I don't really cook meat all that much. But eventually I may try marinating some squash or tofu... What else does one marinade?

This was the last vinegar to be made this summer (my vinegar shelf is quite full now). I'm moving on to canning for the next few months (hmm... rosemary vinegar for pickling?).

In the meantime, here's my rosemary vinegar recipe (I don't remember where it came from):

A bunch of rosemary
White vinegar to cover

Wash rosemary and place in a tight-sealing jar. Cover with vinegar. Seal, and let steep in a sunny window for 6 to 8 weeks.

6 to 8 weeks later, strain contents into a saucepan and bring to a simmer (DO NOT BOIL) for 5 to 10 minutes. Allow to cool, then pour into a pretty bottle. If desired, place a sprig of rosemary in the bottle for extra pretty-ness and identification. A label works too.

Since rosemary is pretty much an evergreen (at least up to zone 9, such as Portland) you can gather enough herb to make this vinegar any time of year... although the sunny windowsill might be problematic for cloudier climes.

Lavender Vinegar: Success!

Sorry, no photo this time, Boyfriend has taken the digital camera with him on his Fabulous California NINJA tour.

A couple of days ago I decided that my lavender vinegar was ready to be strained and bottled, I didn't get around to testing this light purple concoction until today: YUMS.

If you've ever had anything lavender flavoured and enjoyed it, this is the vinegar for you. It's strongly flavoured (unlike the too-subtle Rose Vinegar), so the tart vinegar flavour takes a backseat to the taste of soothing lavender. I also took a little and mixed it in a bottle with distilled water (approximately 1:8) and put it in the bathroom for use as a toner, so I can be beautiful AND smell great (thus making me even more beautiful).

Lavender grows in great abundance pretty much everywhere. Around Portland, everyone has a bush or two in their yard, so harvesting is a cinch. I recommend using English Lavender for this recipe, as I believe it has the strongest aroma.

Recipe (taken and adapted from Tipnut, a fabulous site):

• Fill a jar with lavender (both flowers and stems)
• Pour white vinegar over top, seal jar and refrigerate
• Shake daily for two weeks
• Strain the vinegar and use

Next to be ready: Rosemary Vinegar.

I want to try making some mint vinegar too, but I've yet to find any recipes, so I'll have to make one up. However, I'm all out of white vinegar for now. Does anyone know where I can buy white vinegar in bulk (as in, bringing my own bottles)?

Rose Vinegar: Slightly Less Sucessful

This morning, I decided that the rose vinegar had been steeping on my windowsill long enough. I strained it and poured it into a fancy looking bottle, mixed a little bit with some water and ice, and gave it a taste.

I think this is a vinegar that needs to be used very sparingly. At first I put a wee splash in the glass, and I thought the flavour was too subtle. So I added a bigger splash, and the flavour gave me a headache.

However, the recipe I used said that rose vinegar can be used for marinades and cold compresses for headaches. Also, I used cheap distilled white vinegar. While the cheap stuff worked fine with the blackberries, the rose flavour isn't strong enough to overwhelm the vinegary-ness. Perhaps if one uses white wine vinegar, the whole thing would turn out much more refined. It's also possible that I used too much vinegar. Further experimentation is merited.

In the meantime, I intend to try making marinades with this batch. I also want to try adding it to hot black tea (when the weather cools down).

Here is the recipe I used, taken from Country Pickles and Preserves (one of the more useful preserving books I've used yet):

The petals of 6 roses (preferably red, cause, pretty)
1 pint white wine vinegar

Pull the petals from the roses and wash them. Snip away the bitter white part at the base of each petal. Put into a glass jar or bottle.

Scald the vinegar by heating it to just below boiling and allow to cool. Add the cooled vinegar to the jar of petals. Cover tightly and place in a sunny window for at least 3 weeks.

Try making your own. Let me know how it turns out!

Blackberry Vinegar: Success!

Yesterday evening, after a long hard day of bowling, I strained, decanted and sampled some of my freshly finished blackberry vinegar while attempting to watch last night's meteor shower.

While the Perseids were a bust, the blackberry vinegar was an explosion of tarty fruity refreshy-ness!

As promised, here is the recipe (taken and altered from Preserving Nature's Bounty.)

A whole bunch of blackberries, washed
Enough apple cider vinegar to cover them all

Place fruit in a non-reactive bowl (I used a ceramic casserole dish) and pour vinegar over them. Crush fruit with a potato masher to release the sweet sweet juices and leave, covered, for 48 hours. Strain through a cheesecloth (though I only have a sieve) and then decant into bottles. Cork and label the bottle. Enjoy!

A note: many recipes I've looked up warn to NOT use apple-cider FLAVOURED vinegar, but to use the real junk made from apples. I didn't realise until after I'd started this process that I have the cheap flavoured variety. While I'm sure my vinegar would have been even more delishuser with real apple cider vinegar, my cheap knock-off store brand didn't ruin anything.

New Obsession: Vinegar

So, a few months ago, boyfriend and I went into our favourite local Japanese bar (Miho Izakaya) and the fellow behind the counter said, "We've got some new drinking vinegars right now. Wanna try some?"

My brain said 'wtf? drinking vinegar?' My mouth said, "Hells yea!"

And.

It was delicious.

It was like drinking a cocktail, but slightly tart, and without a buzz. A much less embarrassing non-alcoholic drink to order than a Shirley Temple. In fact, I did some research (being an Information Professional), and it turns out that drinking vinegar cocktails, called Shrubs, was a huge trend among proponents of the Temperance Movement about 100 years ago. I'm against prohibition of any sort, but temperance is something I can get behind.

So, being crafty and thrifty, I've been frantically making tasty vinegars of my own to put into Shrubs using whatever is growing around my neighborhood. So far I have some Rose Vinegar and Rosemary Vinegar steeping in the sunshine on a windowsill, some Lavender Vinegar chilling in my fridge, and some Blackberry Vinegar hanging out in a covered container on my kitchen counter. If any of them turn out well, I'll share a few recipes.

In the meantime, I've been daily enjoying some Coconut Lime Shrubs:

1 pint glass
1/2 ounce Coconut Vinegar
a splash of Lime Juice
3 ice cubes
Fill the rest of the way with distilled water or soda water.

Refreshing!