Broadcasting from Studio A here at proven winners Color Choice Shrubs. It's time for the Gardening Simplified radio podcast and YouTube show with Stacy Hervella me Rick Weisten, our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well Stacey. Today we're going to talk about eating your landscape. Sixteen percent of the American population moves every year. I thought that was an interesting statistic.
Suburbanites have become transient while chasing the American dream. And something I have learned is edible plants and the occasional chocolate chip cookies help you meet your neighbors. Increasing regional food security is another issue. People are thinking about existing vacant lots, flat rooftops, and residential yards. What about your
yard enter the suburbs, what about your lawn? Studies have exclaimed the lawn as the largest crop in the United States, and that was a wake up call for many people in water stressed areas of the country. The lawn is as an abundant in the suburbs as corn is in Iowa, and yet Stacy and I are living examples of simply put, you can't eat your lawn. Well, actually you can if you have dandelions, clover, and plantain growing in your turf like many people do. You can eat elements of your lawn.
But edible landscape design is a type of gardening that emphasizes the production of food crops while still maintaining a visually pleasing appearance. Often used in small spaces, city gardens, suburban yards where traditional gardening methods may not be practical, so edible landscape design. I have an example, and we'll show a picture on YouTube of the frames that I build to grow my cucumbers so that they're just not sprawling all over the ground. It's healthier for them. We
get good air movement. These are wire frames that are put at a forty five degree angle. The cucumbers grow up. It keeps them nice and clean. I don't have big problems with powdery or downy mildew. There's a method to growing food in your own yard.
States, Oh, there absolutely is, whether you're talking about just you know, a standard vegetable garden or at all landscaping like you said, where instead of having things like you know, boxwood and crab apples, you have apple trees and blueberry shrubs exactly.
And a thought that stimulated this whole eat your yard thing in my mind was thinking about garlic. Of course, you grow a lot of garlic. Stacey and I grow garlic also, and part of the reason is because it's fun and it's easy to grow in your own yard. But I was once again reading statistics, China accounts for seventy three point two percent of garlic production in the world. That's amazing to me. The top three countries hold an
eighty six percent share of garlic growth. That's China, India, Bangladesh, and then South Korea and Egypt. What about growing garlic in your own yard?
Yeah, I mean that is that is very interesting. And that is also why if you are interested in growing garlic in your own yard, I generally don't recommend that you just use regular store about garlic and throw it in the ground, because all of those climates are a lot different than the mess of the American Midwest, and they're probably growing varieties that are very specific to their climate conditions, have resilience to you know, the various challenges
and things. So I and also why if you're growing garlic, why would you want to buy the same garlic that you can get at the store when you can grow many more interesting varieties. And once you start shopping for garlic, wow, like it's mind boggling. How many really cool and unique different airloom varieties from all over the world and throughout history you can grow. And you know, I'm glad we're talking about this right now, because it is almost time
to buy garlic. They usually, it's very often the interesting varieties will get sold out by mid to late September, so it's a good time to start shopping. Reserve your garlic and they'll ship it for you at the proper time, and then you'll be like, oh good, I get to plant garlic this weekend. This is going to be great. It's so easy to.
Plant exactly, and that's why I use it as an example of each your yard. Or let's talk about a beautiful flowering shrub that I love. Quints Yeah, now, how many people grow it? For the actual quints fruit? It's as of itself. Quints fruit is full of pectin. It's often found as a jam, jelly, or marmalade.
Yeah. And you know, a lot in North America we do not have a quince culture. In Europe, quince is much more popular. There's a Spanish membryo paste, which has I think maybe made some inroads here in the US because of charcuterie boards. People like to have that with their cheese and salami and so forth. But there's actually
two types of quince. There's a quince tree and that's the one that is normally used for eating, and the quince shrub, like our double take quince, which actually don't set fruit for which for some people is a good thing. That one is used more for a jam and has a really beautiful yellow hue. Now when you see a quince shrub laden with fruit, it's kind of like stops you in your tracks.
It's stunning, yeah.
Because it's all very closely born to the stem and it just looks like this sort of like alien thing with like these yellow eggs stuck to it. It's pretty cool.
So we can be decorative and functional as far as eating our landscape or our yard. Let me do a limerick here for you a minute to kind of create a synopsis of the topic. I'm out for a late night snack. It's growing right out back. I'm wearing my bathrobe and slippers, holding my favorite clippers, my munching by moonlight neck I did it. I ripped up my lawn and now have something to feed on for all of
my labors. I'm the talk of the neighbors, a suburbia phenomenon, my buffet on the boulevard for all to see, no holds barred. I'm developing better habits and eat better than the rabbits right in my very own yard.
Oh that was lovely, very nice.
And part of the reason for doing this, Stacey, is that there's there's a real sense of accomplishment when you're able to both improve your landscape decoratively and derive the benefit of feasting off your landscape.
Also, yeah, you know, there's something about having the produce from your own backyard, whether again it is a landscape or an herb. There's just something that is really magical about running out back and getting it and serving it. And you know, if you know, you know, and if you don't know, you know, it doesn't have to be an all out kind of thing. You can do this
in steps. I think basil is a great entryway plant, you know, for people who just kind of want to start getting to know the luxury and joy of growing animals in your own backyard.
It's beautiful I'm thinking basil and chives. Yeah, I love going out there clipping some chives, putting them on the potatoes or whatever it may be. So we're talking about service berry, blueberries, chives, and garlic, something like colengula or nasturtiums of course fruit trees. And then I think that I want to use as an example. I mentioned garlic earlier, but what about rubar. Rhubarb is the perfect example of an edible decorative perennial.
Such a beautiful plant, you know, big lush leaves. You can almost think of it as like an edible hostile. Actually hostas are edible, but it kind of has that same effect in the garden, but for sun and you know, big beautiful red stems. I love reubarbara. And you know what I'm growing this year that I am also loving is horse reddish. Oh yes, and that is a really lovely plant too. But it has these elegant leaves on these long stems and just makes this clump and it
has a beautiful color. And I'm very very happy with that, and I plan to harvest it and replant. That's how you do it. You dig up the whole thing, take the roots, put them back in and repeat as necessary.
Yeah, and let me add to the mix. When we're talking about healthy and colorful, what about Swiss chard?
Oh?
I love that.
You know, when I first started gardening, my very first vegetable garden was the year that bright Lights Swiss charred kind of came on to the scene and I saw that on the cover of the Johnny Seed catalog and that was it. I was just like, I need that plant. At the time, nobody had any earthly idea on what to do with Swiss chard in North America, not really a vegetable that people ate. But I was in love with that plant and I grew in and that was kind of what got me hooked.
Yeah, yeah, you know, along the lines of rhubarb and the beautiful leaves, I do want to mention ganera. Oh yeah, so there. In other words, there are rhubarb plants that you don't eat. They are grown specifically for ornamental purposes. Now, ganera is not a rubarb, it is not in that family. But when I've visited gardens and seen these huge plants, Wow, talk about an impact plant. And there's some very interesting articles too on how folks are being told don't plant
this plant, it's invasive. We'll put those links at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com because it's an interesting plant to know, known as giant rhubarb. But again invasive and controversial.
Yeah, well, we don't really have to worry about that here in Michigan. It's not warm enough to grow it, and it's certainly way too dry. This is a plant for swampy, wet areas and mild climates. And when it looks good, it is gorgeous, so incredible.
You bet. Let's find out what Stacy has on her mind for plants on trial. That's coming up next here on the Gardening Simplified Show.
Prooven Winners Colored Choice Shrubs cares about your success in the garden. That's why we trial and test all of our shrubs for eight to ten years, making sure they outperform everything else on the market. Look for them in the distinctive white container at your local garden center. Greeting's gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show.
We're talking edibles, and you know, I had a dream that when I did buy a house, I would have an edible landscape that I would do exactly what I was just talking about where, you know, when I would if I would say to myself, okay, well I want a groundcover here. You know, instead of choosing say, pacassandra, I would choose cranberry, and you know I would be able to err, yeah, I would be able to make
all of these swaps. Well, I unfortunately have run against the reality of deer in rabbits, which is making that hard because very often a number of edible plants that we enjoy are widely relished oh right, deer by deer and rabbits, and that can kind of put a little bit of a kaibash on your dreams, certainly for me, you know, having to have my vegetable garden enclosed in some sort of you know, prison to keep deer out. But I did want to talk a little bit about.
About vegetable they are, Yeah, what.
Else are you going to do? You can't have them otherwise, Gotta do what you gotta do. We're talking about lawns, and you were talking about how dandelions edible, and there's certain you know, lawn weeds. But one of the interesting things that I have found in my garden is I have grown more and more edibles. Is that my weeds become edible plants.
Now.
I mean, of course I still get regular conventional obnoxious weeds. Who doesn't. But you know, for example, I've talked about it on the show before, but when we moved into our house, the previous owners had at one point planted arugola, and itself sows all over my garden. And it's a great weed to have. I don't have to do anything to grow it, and I can pretty much go out
anytime around my yard and scrounge up in a arugola salad. Meanwhile, they're selling it at the grocery store for like fifteen bucks a pound, and it's just growing in my backyard like there's no tomorrow.
I know it's something else and so healthy, so nutritious, but what do I know. I'm only a rugola guy.
It's it's very nice, it's very tasty, you know, and I have herbs self sewing. It's a good problem to have. So the more you fill your yard with these kind of plants, the more you're going to find that your yard becomes sort of more of that kind of habitat.
So we're on the edge of our seat.
I know, I've built up a lot of suspense here in the studio on what today's plant on trial is. And you know, we do have some edible shrubs here in the proven Winter's Color Choice line. But I always love whenever the subject of eating, you know, plants that people don't expect to be edible. I love bringing up this plant because people, really people are always surprised when I tell them, And I was very surprised when I found out myself, which was not actually all that long ago.
This is not knowledge that I've had for years. Today's plant on trial and it is edible is paraplue pink ink hibiscus, also known as a rosa sharon. And of course, roses of sharon are in bloom right now here in Michigan. Roses of sharon are one of those ubiquitous summer plants that we're well familiar with.
So are you eating it when it's in bloom? Or are you eating the buds? Or are you eating the foliage? Or are you gnawing on the stems? What's the deal.
Well, if you're a deer, you're gnawing on the stems. But if you are human, the flowers are edible. So yeah, it's so what you eat them when they are in what I would call the tube stage. So if you're familiar with what a rosa sharen looks like when it's coming out, you know, first day it's kind of in a tight pointed bud, very close to the plant, and then the following day it extends into a tube. The next day it opens, and then usually a couple of
days after that, it goes away. So you want it when it's gone out of that pointed bud stage, but before it opens and it's in this tube, and yeah, you can eat them fresh straight off the plant, and they to me, they taste very good. But the reason that they taste good to me is because I like okra. Oh oh, you do like okra. That's good.
I love it.
And okra is very polarizing vegetable.
I'm wondering, so could you deep fry these things?
So I don't know about that. That's a good question. They are definitely more delicate than okra because of course they're you know, flower petals instead of a vegetable, a seed pod as it were. But they taste like okra. They have a slight kind of sliminess, which I think is a good thing. Like okra, But yeah, they're good enough to just put on a salad. I've only ever had them fresh, and I chose pair of blue pink ink today because it is, to me, one of our
prettiest and most interesting varieties. I am crazy about it. But the fact is that all roses of Sharon are actually edible as flowers, and you can eat them. Surprise your friends bring them over to your house, just you know, casually pull one out and shomp on it and see their face when they do. Now, one thing I would say in terms of selecting roses of Sharon to actually eat in your garden is I would generally, probably maybe a matter of personal taste, shy away from the double variety.
So like our Chaffon series where you have a lot of extra petals, and this isn't really because of flavor or anything, but my concern is just that when they start opening into that tube phase, that's a lot of hiding places for bugs. So if you are squeamish, all those extra pedals can give them a lot of places
to hide. And you know, if you're trying to be all, you know, macho and eat a hibiscus in front of your friends and family, and you bite into some horrible ant or something might ruin your facade, and we don't want that. Yeah, a lot of people are really surprised to find out that roses of Sharon are edible. And so if you have a rose of Sharon, whether it is paraplue pink ink, or any of the other number of roses of Sharon out there, congratulations, you have edible landscaping well.
And you know, it does make sense when you look at how pollinators, bumblebees, hummingbirds are attracted to the blooms of rows of Sharon, it seems to make sense that, yeah, maybe this is kind of a tasty snack.
I think it is.
So.
Paraplue pink ink is just as tasty to the eyes as it is to the tongue if you are an Okra kind of person. The flowers are so The Para blue series in general is characterized by extra large open flowers, So a lot of roses of Sharon they're kind of more bell like, they don't fully open, like a big
old satellite dish. So the Para blue series has really large flowers that open fully, and paraplue pink ink the flowers are so pretty if you have to go to Gardening Simplified on air dot com and look at photos of this plant. So they are white flowers and the pink ink part comes in because the center is pink and it has these what's known as eye extensions on the hibiscus world that come out into the petals, So it's like a pink kind of swirl in the center.
And a single flower is beautiful, but when you have, you know, dozens of flowers, which is one of the strengths of Rows of Sharon is that you have a lot of flowers at once on the plant. So when you have a whole bunch of flowers in bloom with that kind of swirl pink center, it really is a very very impressive kind of eye dazzling site to see.
I think impressive is a good description. In the Garden Center, when Paraplue is in bloom, it stops you in your tracks if you're walking the aisles shopping flowering shrubs, or even walking through the Rows of Sharon section, when you come upon this plant, there's something distinctive and different about.
It, definitely, and I feel like that is true of all of the Parablue series. You know, paraplue violet is another one of my favorites, and that is a plant that I always have to say you just have to see to believe because the color is just so unique. But paraplue pinking, I think, is the one that like, when people see it, they're just they're gonna want to
grow it. And then if you are the kind of person who you know, likes to throw some weird stuff in your salads and amaze your friends, it has that added advantage too. And by and large, you know, as someone who, as I was just saying, can't really grow the edible landscape of my dreams because of dear pressure, roses of Sharon are by and large pretty deer resistant. Have you found that, Yes?
Absolutely so.
They do browse my plants a little bit, I mean certainly, not enough to cause any damage. And once your roses of Sharon are established, you know, you probably wouldn't even barely notice. And the more established they get, the more mature your plants get, the less deer damage occurs because they just become woodier and the deer are less interested in them than when they're very young and fresh.
The best way to describe it is like when you go to a buffet in Las Vegas, you know, and you've got all this food along the buffet. You kind of nose around in there a little bit. But now I'm moving on to something else. And that's what the deer do with rows of share.
Take a little taste, Yes, enough, something else. Dot's try something else in my house. That actually means you're probably just moving on to now my summarific hibiscus, which they hopefully won't eat either. But yeah, so very easy to grow. Roses of Sharon of course love full sun. They are hardy down to USDA Zone five heat teller all the way through USDA Zone nine, so good portion of the
country can grow these edible hibiscus. And one of the other great things about the Parablue series in general, as well as Parablue Pink Ink, is that they have a really elegant habit. And this is a crucial part of our selection process here at Proven Winters Color Choice shrubs for hibiscus, because a lot of older varieties they kind of have what my boss is referred to as a caveman club habit, like they just kind of look like
a club. And these are really elegant parablue pink ink is five to eight feet tall and four feet wide, so it's got a good space saving habit, you know, not the old varieties. It gets to be ten feet tall and ten feet wide and you know, watch out, you have to clear a whole area to be able to grow them. They're actually pretty restrained, nice small footprint and so a really nice plant to add. Or imagine this an edible hedge of hibiscus, and that's.
What I like because people are always looking for plants that they can use for hedging. Talk about a knock your socks off hedge.
Yeah, great choice, and your neighbors will be grateful too, because they're going to be enjoying the other side of it and it's going to look absolutely amazing. And another great thing, Hibiscus rosa sharon is drought tolerant once it is established, and really it's just a great choice for the garden and kind of one of those accidentally incidentally edible, Like it's edible, but you know that's not the main
reason you grow it. So check out the pictures at Gardeningsimplified on Air dot com or visit us at proven Winter's Colour Choice dot com to find a retailer near you so you can add Para blue pink ink hibiscus to your garden. We're going to take a little break. When we come back, we're opening up the garden mail bag, so please stay tuned at proven winner's color choice. We've
got a shrub for every taste and every space. Whether you're looking for an easycare rose, an unforgettable hydrangea, or something new and unique, you can be confident that the shrubs and the white containers have been trialed and tested
for your success. Look for them at your local garden center. Greetings, gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where it is the time of the show where we help answer your questions about what's going on in your garden, what you should do, what you shouldn't do, and if you have question for us, you can always reach us at help HLP at Gardening Simplified on air dot com, or just visit Gardening Simplified on air dot com and use the contact form to fill it out and send
us your question. And you can even attach a photo, which is very very helpful because I'll tell you I love playing long distance plant detective, but it is darn near impossible without a photo. Very often, in fact, almost all the cases, a photo will blast a case wide open. So please do include a photo if you can. And Jim our first question, did send us some photos?
Yeah, Jim sent photos about a red dwarf Japanese lace leaf maple, and he believes that it's dying. It's in its third replanting three years years ago. Replanted for location purposes. It's in sandy soil, full sun, breezy, next to a lake. It gets a fair amount of water, as indicated by the green grass around it. I do not fertilize the tree and the area. I do know the pH of the I do not know the pH of the soil. Today I added the mulch and watered it for an hour.
Its last location was similar to this location. What to do and Stacy those pictures? This Japanese maple looks really rough, but I think it's pretty typical of what happens with the Japanese maple when you have it in a highly exposed area.
Yeah, you know, Japanese maples are definitely one of those plants that needs some careful sighting. You know, there are certainly shrubs and trees and perennials out there that you can pretty much pull up down anywhere in your yard and they will thrive. And Japanese maples are not one of them, correct, They are one that definitely benefits from
a more protected location. And I would say, especially in the case of a lace leaf variety like he has, you really want to make sure you're sighting that out of the wind. The reason for that is because those lease leaves expose so so much more leaf surface than a standard leaf. You know, you have all of those fine, little thin fingers, and what that means is that the sun the wind has all that extra places to work on, extra surface area to evaporate water from, and it just
makes the plant really really stressed. So I would say that I don't think this plant is long for this world. I'm afraid if it were to stay in this spot. And I would also add in the photo it looks like there's a lot of potting soil around the base of the plant. And you know it's I understand, I've been there before. Believe me, I know what it's like. The desire to just say I want a plant here, so I'm just going to dig a hole I'm going to dump a bag of potting mix in here and
I'm going to plant in it. But that is a really bad idea. And I know it's hard to understand or believe this, but it is true. So what happens, as I've talked about before, is a bathtub effect. So potting mix is very very porous. It has large air spaces between its particles that means it can hold on to a lot of water. By comparison, the soil around it has very very small spaces in between its particles.
So when you water, all that water is going into that nice, light, fluffy potting soil with those big old air spaces, filling that up. But then gravity takes its toll and it starts to drain through, and when it hits the native soil around that hole that you dug, it just comes to a screeching hole. It's kind of like trying to fit a huge crowd through a small door.
And what ends up happening is that moisture just sits around the roots waiting for its chance to drain out, and in very sensitive plant I've seen this lead to death in the case of lilacs and panicle hydrang just specifically because those are two plants that are very sensitive to those conditions. So, you know, I know obviously this plant is not happy at having been moved three times.
Japanese maples generally don't take too kindly to that. But I think if this plant is going to have any chance at survival, it needs to be moved away from the lake and into a spot where it's just your native soil. It's protected from the wind and mulched and given a lot of TLC and hopefully it can recover.
Yeah, the edge of a lake is a very exposed area, not a good spot for a Japanese maple. They tend to like micro climates. One other quick addition to that, Stacey, and that would be with Japanese maples, they have a tendency, at least in the Midwest in the north to leaf out in spring and then be subject to frost yep and die back, and they're very sensitive to that too, So it's probably an accumulation of a lot of things there.
So I would agree, I think this plant needs to move again and in a different, more protective location.
And you know, Jim, what you can do is plant a lemony lace elderberry instead. Yes, it is a much more durable plant. It has lacy leaves that look a bit like the Japanese maple, so if that's the look you're going for. There. It is bright yellow instead of the red that you have, But it's a much more durable plant and will probably deal better with those conditions than the maple will.
Mary Lou writes to us, Hello, Rick and Stacey. I love listening to your garden advice. My question is this. I have a variegated pagoda dog with suckers coming up from the bottom. Typically I trim them out to give them the energy towards the tree. However, the tree is looking unhappy and maybe due to cicadas, I don't know. It also might be due to the lovely buckthorn growing in my neighbor's yard that suck any nutrients out of the soil. Would you recommend trim off the suckers or letting them.
Grow so you know, Mary Lou. She also sent a picture and we of course will put that on the YouTube version as well as in the show notes that gardening simplified on air dot Com. I don't see this plant looking bad, do you know?
I thought it looked actually quite beautiful.
I thought it did.
And you know the characteristics of the plant, the way it grows, it generally grows well with some competition around along woodland edges. So I think you got to give yourself some credit there, Mary Lou. I think the plant's doing pretty well.
Yeah, I think so too. And so this is specifically a golden shadows Pagoda dogwood, beautiful yellow and green variated tree, and it is turning a little bit pink, and I think that that's normal. I mean, you might usually see that a little bit later in the season rather than right now. But I don't think that the pink is a cause for concern. And I would say that, yeah, overall, I think your plant looks healthy. I don't think you
have to worry about the health now. As for the suckers, I would be inclined to probably myself trim them out, especially at the age that Marylou's tree is. It really has developed kind of a strong single trunk, and I think it's best to just stick with that because some of the suckers that you can see to the right of the photo are getting pretty large.
Correct If the tree was younger, then you could opt to go with the multi stem route that at this point I think we're in the boat. We got a row.
Yeah, I agree, but it's not going to harm the tree. You know, some of those cuts will be rather large, but again I wouldn't worry about that too terribly much. Now, I have heard for crab apples that the best time to prune off suckers is in August because the hormones in the tree are such that it won't just keep trying to make them, it can actually, you know, reduce or even eliminate the suckers. So whether that is equally
true for Dogwood's I don't know. But given the fact that it is now, you know, late July, I would say, go ahead and plan for you know, in about three weeks or so to cut off those suckers. See if that help, you know, see if that timing works to reduce them. But overall, I wouldn't worry about your plan. I think it looks really good.
John writes to us very simply, our yard has been crazy this year with weeds. We spend way too much time pulling them. I have used prene to exhaustion the weeds we've got pull You know, you got to be weeding by example here, and I'm just gonna simply say to John that, yes, weeds are frustrating, but I believe that if you are out there in fall dealing with weeds, you solve eighty to ninety percent of your weed problems. I really believe that when you use herbicides in fall,
there's good translocation into the root system. You get the winter annuals before they before they bloom. I just really believe that the people who have the best success as far as weeds are concerned, are out there in the fall dealing, you know.
And the other thing I would add to that is that you know, why are you getting weeds? Is it that your lawn isn't filled in? Is it that it is a bed that's not mulch, Because I will tell you mulch can work wonders. And if you can, you know, get rid of the weeds and get a good four inch layer of mulch on that area. That should take care of not only the perennial weeds. In many cases some things will still come up, but also it will prevent the seeds from germinating. And you know, do yourself
a favor. Don't make it more work than it needs to be put down mulch. It really really will help.
Yeah, and John also mentions prene here. So prene is a pre emergent weed control, So it's only going to work on weed seed or seed that's brought to the surface. It's not going to help with those perennial weeds. And again, when you're dealing with weeds, you're dealing with all types of weeds, including those winter annuals. So boy, I can't
emphasize enough. Mark your calendar for September, October, November and be out there dealing with the weeds you're the following year, you're going to be happy.
Then, Yeah, and you know, spend the next couple of weeks identifying your weeds, find out if their perennial weeds, find out if they're annual weeds, and then you know where you can put where you need to put your energy, and if preene is even doing any good, because if you're using it against those perennial weeds, Yeah, like Rick said, it won't do anything for you. So we got to take a little break. When we come back, we've got a special guest for branching news. You won't want to
miss it, so stay tuned. The Gardening Simplified Show is brought to you by proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. Our award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens have been trialed and tested for your success so you enjoy more beauty and less work. Look for Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs in the distinctive white container at your local garden center.
Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. Today, for branching news, we're going to talk to Diane Devereaux. Diane is known as the Canning Diva and I've known Diane for a number of years. She has a new book coming out called Meals in a Jar, and we're going to hold this up for YouTube viewers. What a gorgeous book. And Diane, thanks for joining us on the Gardening Simplified Show. We appreciate you joining us and sharing information about Meals in a Jar. How did this come about?
Oh, thank you guys, Thank you so much for having me. Well, I as a recipe creator, you know, I'm constantly thinking of new things. But it came about because a lot of the canners that I interact with on a daily basis, whether it be social media, on my website. They wanted more meals, and you know, there just wasn't enough out there. A couple of my books kind of grazed the surface, and so I was getting lots of lots of inquiry. So I decided to just start working on a bunch
of recipes. And then, of course I love food, so I dove into like culinary cuisines from around the world, and I just I had so much fun with this. So I didn't want to just create another soup or another chili, you know, I wanted to give people something really exciting. And as you noticed when you put throughout the book, there are some amazing, fun and very cultural recipes throughout.
Yeah. Absolutely, and you talk about cultural. I know you well enough, Diane, and follow you in social media, where I also know that you believe that the work you do here with meals in a jar or canning, you're not only preserving food, but you're preserving family meals. You're preserving memories, so to speak, which really makes us special.
Yes, thank you for saying that. It is true. It's like a community, right, and when you think about breaking bread, right, we sit down together, we have fellowship, we have family, friends, community, right, and that's exactly what we are doing with canning and home preserving, because not only in the act of you know, preserving and propping the food and putting it into jars, we're doing that at meal time too, So you're getting a sense of community throughout all the work from start
to finish, and then the enjoyment aspect. So yeah, for.
Sure, and Diane talking about family and friends. The forward of this book is written by Carrie Underwood tell us about that.
Yes, Carrie is wonderful. A couple of years ago, she had posted an image of a recipe she canned, and I think it was something simple like tomatoes, and she says, I may not be no canning diva, but these maters shoe looked good, and I thank her. It was awesome, right, So I thanked her for giving me a shout out, because you know, she is quite popular and that helps, you know, give me a little bit of recognition. But when I had reached out to her, she founded right
back and we started to have a wonderful dialogue. And she had mentioned how she was a bit intimidated about pressure canning, and I just I just said, you know, hey, anytime you you want me to show you, I'll gladly teach you. And sure enough she responded right.
Back with okay, well that's great. I was like, yeah.
My jaw hit the floor and I was like, okay, we're doing this. And it has been a fun, you know, friendship since. And I'm very thankful that she took the time out of her very busy schedule, as you know, to talk about how she loves gardening and canning and preserving. And you know what I was able to do for her, which you know, just that that interaction helped give her the confidence she needed. And she she's a canning machine.
Whenever she's not on tour, she's home, she's gardening, canning and baking.
That's dream life. You know what I really love about this concept, Like you said, it's not another seat, it's not another chili, which is of course with so many canning books are, but you know, so many people are so busy and they want to eat home and they want to eat home cooked food, they want to eat healthy, but they just don't have the time to you know, get home from work and the kids have this, and then you know they have to do this and this
and this. But this is such a great way to take advantage of slower times of the year, you know, your kids off season in sports or whatever, to devote the time to just stocking up these meals so that when you do have those busy nights, it's like the same as if you did have two hours to cook an amazing meal that everybody could sit down together.
Mm hm oh absolutely, you hit the nail on the head. We put all that time in the upfront, so that way you do have a pantry stock full of meals that you just eat and serve. It takes the load off, because you're right, especially when fall hits, you know.
So in a nutshell, Diane, what we're talking about is we're talking about pressure canning ready made meal in a jar. Is that correct?
That's correct. Yes, Everything we make is going to be already cooked and ready to go, so it has a shelf life of three to five years. What's beautiful about every meal inside the book is you preserve it and then you simply remove the lid and heat it up and eat it.
Wow. Yeah, that sounds convenient now, I'd have to admit, Diane. And again we're talking to the canning diva, and that's Diane Devereaux and her beautiful new book coming out called Meals in a Jar. Diane, I have to admit that when I saw it involved pressure cooking pressure canning, I was like, I'm out, I can't do this, and I remember years ago the old pressure cookers on the stove.
But following you on Instagram, I was struck by the fact that you were using this pressure canner, this pressure cooker outdoors using propane, and I'm thinking, now, maybe I can handle this.
M Yeah, I have.
I'm very blessed to have a partnership with all Americans pressure canners, these out of Wisconsin, and they had sent me one of their models. It's a nine. It'll hold upwards of twenty court jars. What's awesome about this is I can get so much done at once, but it's too big for my save. So I have a camp shaft sove that's outdoors. It has two burners. You use a pro paane tank just as you would a grill,
and it works out perfectly. I set a couple of fire bricks down there so that we have a flat surface because it is so large, and yeah, it makes it so much easy. Is the biggest thing you have to worry about though. Rick is the weather, Yeah, right.
Right, that's true. But you know I can deal with that, and I'm out there grilling in the weather. But I love the fact that I could do that outside. Diane meals in a jar, thinking, okay, so we've got some carrots and we've got some corn and that sort of thing. My word, was I wrong? I mean everything from meat balls to I mean shrimp and et cetera, et cetera.
This is there's some fabulous recipes in here, certainly something that I'd love to crack open a jar after a long day at work and be able to heat up and enjoy.
Oh thank you for saying that. Yes, I had so much fun. You know a lot of what you see in here is how I love to cook and eat. And I'm not gonna lie. I'm the type two that if I've had a long, busy day, the last thing I want to do is cook from scratch. So there's you know, times I'll run downstairs. But something simple like even Korean bogagi, or I love Asian fruits. He there would be like sukiyaki or a lemon grass chicken soup.
That one is also, I mean just amazing simple. But we're also controlling what we put in each jar, so there is a health factor to that. Right, we know where the food came from. We prepared it ourselves. Many of us garden ourselves. Some of us have small homesteads and farms so they raise their own meat. There's a lot of cool things that you can do to create a variety of different meals, and yeah, I had fun exploit. My other favorite is bangers and nash. That is a
common UK recipe. Did you see that one with the onion gravy. I'm telling you, if you try that one, you're going to fall in love with it. You will be wanting to just make and preserve the onion gravya so good.
So how long did it take you to do all the research and recipe development, because this is a this is a big book with a lot of recipes.
Thank you. It was a long time. It was two years of creation and testing, an additional year of writing, and then I mean altogether it was a four year project. So yeah, it takes a lot of time, and I'm constantly developing new recipes. I'm thankful that I now actually have a lab right here in Grand Rapids I used to have to ship stuff out, so I'm very blessed to have a third party, you know, helping me. And then you know, there's a lot that I do as far as like.
After the fact.
And now we get the book concept going and we get picked up by a publisher and in this case at Harvest House has been absolutely wonderful to work with. And then when they get to green light, like, yes, we love this book concept, let's go. Then I work with Jeff Hey, I get green Frog Photo in Grand Rapids, and we do all of our own food shoots, We do all the food staging. We do this all ourselves. So everything you see in the book he and I did together.
That's really great.
Thanks.
Well.
You can see you put a lot of work into it, Diane, and it's a gorgeous book. The book is Meals in a Jar, the Canning Diva Diane. If people want to learn more about you, first of all, let's ask the question when does the book come out?
Okay, so it comes out August sixth, that's on a Tuesday, so for anyone who's pre ordered, that's the ship date. Also, hearing some whispering that it might ship a little early, so I'm kind of excited about that. I know I heard that, but that's also the date. August sixth is when it'll be available in stores. And we're going to have a fun book launch signing party in Grand Rappid at Baker book House, So that's also kind of fun.
That's fantastic.
In your website, none of that canningdiva dot com, so you can learn more about the book. You've got a sampling of recipes. I'll share a few things also if anyone orders the book and they'd like to take part in a three label template, I have access to every recipe in the jar. I've created a sheet of labels, so you have a template. You simply can yep, download that and print it and now you have labels for your jars.
Nice.
That's fantastic. Before I let you go, Diane just wanted to ask you a question today. On today's show, we talked about eating your landscape. And we're getting to that time of year when the tomato plants, the cucumbers, the beans, everything else bontiful and you stand there and you think, what am I going to do with all these vegetables? How do I deal with this? Looking at the book, it looks like you can incorporate a lot of these into Meals in a Jar.
Hmm. Absolutely. I have a chapter dedicated to vegetarian recipes. I also have a chapter dedicated to food substitution. So if you're a gardener and you're starting to see a bumper crop, this book is going to be a fantastic asset to you because you will not have to let any of it go to waye.
Fantastic. Her name is Diane Devereaux, author of the Complete Guide to Pressure Canning, her new book Meals in a Jar. Congratulations Diane, and thanks for sharing this with all our listeners and viewers here of the Gardening Simplify Show. We appreciate it.
Thank you, Thank you both for having me, and thank you all for tuning in.
Thanks Diane, well that was great.
That's an excellent book, and I hope that you are as inspired as we are. And so thanks to Diane. Thank you Rick, thank thanks Drianna, and of course thank you so much to all of you for listening. Have a great week ahead.