"The most coveted dining award in NE WI!"

That would be the Golden Fork Award, that we've been talking about for the past couple weeks, and asking for your support in voting for Stumpjack in a few categories.

I was chatting with Alison Fiebig, Assistant Editor of Fox Cities Magazine, about the award and voting. She said that they've been getting a good number of ballots in, which is fantastic, but that some are only voting for one place and ignoring all others. That's ok, if that's how you really feel...that is, if you have only one place that you really like to eat or drink. But if you do have other places you like to go to please take a few extra seconds to type those in too. Your votes really do help small businesses to keep doing what they do. It provides much welcome affirmation and validation that they're on the right track, and believe me, that kind of feedback is very important and very much appreciated by any small business.

Alison's message: "We used to require that the ballot be 25% filled out (and not "stuffed" with votes for one particular establishment). We aren't enforcing it this year, in part to better promote the contest. All I can do is encourage you to have your regulars & supporters vote fairly & take an extra 30 seconds to nominate restaurants in other categories."

So please, check out the other day's blog post and vote for Stumpjack Coffee where you think we deserve it (for example, Best Coffee and Best Cafe), and for your other favorite dining establishments as well. Thanks a lot for your support.

Roots music Friday night

Go here to this minimal though very sharp-looking website of John Statz: http://www.johnstatz.com/. John will be performing at Stumpjack Friday night at 8pm. When you get onto Jon's site (and it does look good doesn't it) click on the "Press" link. Read a few reviews...John is a musician who a lot of people clearly think has some muscle in his songwriting. One review snippet: "...quirky, funky and fresh, without any pretense. But his own songs pack a quiet punch."

John performed at Stumpjack once before. His rendition of "Will the Circle Be unBroken" was one I put on out youtube site (it's also the song that earned him the "quirky, funky and fresh" description above). He's good, and you should see him Friday night of you can.

Then Saturday night our resident songstress, Becky Markvart will be singing and telling bad jokes at 7pm. We love Becky...shoot, everybody loves Becky. It's a double header weekend of music at the Stump.

Canning & pickling

Canned some fresh blueberries yesterday, just to get my canning groove primed. My Mom used to can like a freak. We had a little root cellar in the basement (still there but now it's a storage cubby I think). No doubt my folks saved some money off the grocery bill by canning their own garden produce. My grandparents were even more fanatical about canning, fermenting, salting, smoking and pickling. My Mom's folks, who were farmers, had 11 kids. It was all old school self-sufficiency. So, while I know how to can and helped my Mom do it a little when I was younger, this is the first year I'm really doing it all by myself (as we prepare to live off the grid more and more).

Pickled some green onions & pearls today (martini onions!). Here's a few small jars (I think stuff like this that is used primarily as a garnish should be done in small jars, because you probably won't be using a whole lot of it all at once). I love the color.

My pickling recipe: malt vinegar/dark brown cane sugar/sea salt/thyme sprigs/chunk of jalapeno/lime zest/basil leaf (decided to toss the basil leaf in at the end just for kicks...put a sprig of rosemary in one jar too, just to see how it turns out).

Bought some nice apricots the other day too. Thinking of making an apricot, cherry, blueberry chutney.