Can It & Ferment It – A Year in Review and Look Ahead

July 18th, 2018 marks the one year anniversary of when my first cookbook, Can It & Ferment It was published. Never having written a book before, I had no idea what to expect when I signed my first book deal. The time spent writing, cooking, recipe developing, taking photos, editing, etc… is impossible for me to measure. It took hundreds upon hundreds of hours of work and thousands of dollars to create. I never really thought about how much work went into a cookbook before writing one.

When it was time for my book to finally release, I was nearly petrified at what everyone would think. Would it be well-received? Did I forget an ingredient or direction? Were my photos good enough? The night before release I was almost sick with nerves over it, I wished I could some how make it stop. Then, the day of release, the book didn’t even ship out to all my pre-orderers because it sold out upon release! Had all my wishing for it not to release come true? My editor said she hadn’t experienced that with a book before. Suddenly, I was more eager than ever for my book to get into everyone’s hands… I needed to end the suspense already! Within a couple weeks, reviews of my book started to trickle in. Bloggers posted reviews, messages popped up in my inbox with praise and I started to receive feedback – and you know what? It was good! Why had I been so afraid? I suppose that’s a normal reaction to the unknown.

Now a year later, I have hundreds of photos that people have posted, of recipes from my book that they have made and liked, or even LOVED! I have made so many friends all over the world, online and in person. The best feedback is that people feel I have written an easy to understand cookbook that explains the methods of water bath canning and fermentation without being too wordy, too technical or too overwhelming and that was my goal. Food preservation is something that everyone that has a desire to do, should have a chance to learn – and I’m happy to teach. I get messages almost daily, most days multiple messages, of people asking questions or wanting advice and I LOVE THAT! I am happy to be a resource, so please do not hesitate to reach out to me. I am most easily reachable on Instagram FYI (@minnesotafromscratch).

Anyway, reaching the one year mark of my release has me thinking a lot about the past year and all that has happened.

Here are some highlights from the last year:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are a list of other media and blogs that wrote about Can It & Ferment It:

• New Jersey Monthly Magazine 
• BrokenTeePee.com
• A Frugal Life
• Interview on PicklesTravel.com
• TwoClassyChics.com 
• LynchburgTNMama.com
• KellysThoughtsonThings.com 

Also, within the last year, I also managed to write my second book, WECK Small-Batch Preserving: Year-Round Recipes for Canning, Fermenting, Pickling and More. My new book is currently on pre-sale and will release on Sept 4th, 2018. In this book, I teach you all about the beautiful variety of WECK jars and different ways to utilize them. The WECK company has been around for nearly 120 years and their jars are wildly used all over the world, but especially in Europe. Being that the jar and lid are both glass, it makes them completely non-toxic (no chemicals leach into your preserves) and that’s what initially drew me to them over 10 years ago. In this book I have written water bath canned recipes, fermented recipes and even some infusion recipes. I included lots of colorful photos and “notes sections” on nearly every recipes and in the back of the book, as I did in Can It & Ferment It. Fortunately, I am not experiencing the nerves I did with my first book release; I am eager and excited for this one the hit the market! I definitely don’t want summer to end, but Sept 4th can’t come soon enough.

Throughout the rest of the summer and into the fall, I will be doing several meet-and-greets around the Twin Cities as well as teaching some classes in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Keep an eye on my social media for updates and class notifications.

Connect with me:

Twitter: @StephLovestoCan

Facebook: Minnesota from Scratch Blog Page

Instagram: @minnesotafromscratch

In celebration of the one year anniversary of the publication of Can It & Ferment It, I’ve collaborated with my favorite fermentation crock shop, Stone Creek Trading to giveaway a gorgeous, handmade 5L crock! The giveaway is posted over on my Instagram account and ends today (7/19/18), so hurry over and get entered to win.

Thanks for a wonderful year!