3/25 Pickle Workshop FAQ

I’m hosting another hands-on pickle workshop! We are going to prep some delicious veggies for fermentation together, and make a spicy (to your individual taste) kimchi-inspired ferment.

Sign up here: https://goo.gl/forms/BGFjuuNG73LG4UcD2

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/172846266682620/

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Where/When is the workshop?
  • How do I sign up?
  • What should I expect?
  • What will I come home with?
  • What am I responsible for bringing?
  • How much does this cost?
  • What do I do if I have more questions?
  • Who is the Pickle Witch?

Where/When is the workshop?

Sunday, March 25, 10:30-12:30p
Wedge Table: 2412 Nicollet Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55404
This is a wheelchair accessible location.

How do I sign up?

  1. Fill out this form: https://goo.gl/forms/BGFjuuNG73LG4UcD2
  2. Make a payment

Continue reading “3/25 Pickle Workshop FAQ”

Support Local Hustle: February BIPOC Pop up

#SupportLocalHustle

Our next Support Local Hustle: BIPOC pop up will be held at

Jourdain Room: 511 Franklin Ave S

Sunday, February 11, 12-7pm

RSVP to our Facebook event

Please join us and support local BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) artists, bakers, creatives, and makers at this warm and inviting pop up!

This event is free, cash only, and open to all folks who would like to contribute to a respectful space explicitly against sexism, transphobia, and racism.

Vendors will be selling their art, baked goods, pickles, and jewelry, among other treasures. Goods are mostly $1-$40.

If you would like to donate at the door, we will be raising money for Cafe Southside, a local safer space for queer and trans folks in South Minneapolis.

Follow us with #SupportLocalHustle, RSVP to our Facebook event Continue reading “Support Local Hustle: February BIPOC Pop up”

Fire Cider for Health and Wellness

Boost your immune system!

Flu and sickness season has descended upon us. It seems as though the flu is manifesting itself as an upper respiratory virus this year, and I am seeing my community going down right and left! Besides washing your hands and drinking lots of water, what else can you do to give your body its best chance at warding off illness?

Fire cider and raw honey.

I am offering 16 oz of fire cider, with the option of a 6 oz container of grade A, local, raw honey. Everything you need to help your body combat illness! See my Available Ferments, and email me or come to an event to purchase this combo.

What is fire cider?

“Fire cider” is a bunch of good stuff, steeped in organic apple cider vinegar. It’s a warming tonic, a home remedy, that boosts your immune system and has anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, antibacterial, and anti-oxidant properties. And it tastes good!

Why are you selling honey with the fire cider?

Some brands put honey in the tonic, but I know that everyone likes a different level of sweetness, and some of you don’t do honey as a part of a commitment to cruelty free ethics. So I offer #sidehoney.

This honey is extremely local, and very special. Beez Kneez is a woman-owned business in Minneapolis that does amazing work to educate and advocate for pollinators. They extract their honey using bicycles, deliver their honey by bike, and even bike deliver to your home! They are committed to raw honey- no heat/pasteurization is used, which means more natural goodness for us.

This honey is “zip sourced” in the 55406, thanks to hive host Ghandi Mahal- a Minneapolis restaurant with amazing food, first closed-loop aquaponics system ever installed in a Minnesota restaurant, very supportive of urban agriculture. This is all made possible by Beez Kneez partnering with different urban institutions to host bees, teach, and advocate for the health of our pollinator friends. Continue reading “Fire Cider for Health and Wellness”

“1000-Year-Old Ghosts”

Illustration for Hyphen Magazine by Japanese American artist Mori Walts

I just listened to an illuminating reading of “1000-Year-Old Ghosts,” a short story written by Asian American author Laura Chow Reeves. Levar Burton and his golden voice narrated this story on his “Reading Rainbow for adults” podcast, “Levar Burton Reads.” You can find this story in PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2017 anthology or read it online at Hyphen Magazine.

This story meant so much to me personally. It’s beautiful, it’s haunting, and confronts so many things relating to memory, family, matriarchy, loss, and… pickles.

For June, we present an original short story by Laura Chow Reeve, about three generations of women who wrestle with their memories in a unique way — by pickling them. We love the magical realism of the story, with rich imagery that elicits all senses, and a weight that we think many people can relate to.

— Karissa Chen, Fiction & Poetry Editor at Hyphen Magazine

“Anne, grab me the measuring cups,” she said one afternoon.

“Popo,” I said. “I’m Katie. Anne was my mother.” Her eyebrows furrowed. She moved around me and grabbed the measuring cups for herself. The symptoms my mother had witnessed in Popo years before had only gotten worse. She was shriveling.

“Please stop. This is making you sick,” I said. She continued to measure and chop; she licked her index finger, dipped it into a bowl of salt in front of her, and then popped it back in her mouth to taste. I wanted to imitate her, feel the small grains on my own tongue, but I stopped myself.

Looking forward to 2018

On this night, January 1, first of two full moon this month, I want to look back on 2017 and forward towards 2018.

Thank you for supporting Pickle Witch in 2017!

I quit my day job, legitimized my pickle business in the eyes of the state, participated in four #SupportLocalHustle pop ups ( and organized three of them), met TONS of new queer, trans, BIPOC friends, wrote about the unbearable whiteness of craft fairs and about alternative models, am able to serve 22 people with my pilot pickle subscription (CSF- community supported fermentation), had my first farmers market vending experience.

All while taking locally grown, chemical-free produce and making delicious fermented pickles, here on occupied Dakota territory.

Looking ahead to 2018
Continue reading “Looking forward to 2018”

Demand Better: more inclusive craft markets

It’s that time of year- Craft markets

It seems like there are craft markets continuously during this time of year. I love to see people showing off their handiwork, and being compensated for their time and talents. This season could be a magical time, but unfortunately not every craft market makes space for all of us to succeed.

Some of these markets have expensive vendor fees, don’t advertise to our communities, and don’t offer an affordable range of products. Those are a few reasons why some of these spaces are full of white vendors and white customers. Walking into these spaces makes my heart drop, my face flush. “I don’t belong here. I am not safe here.”

But it doesn’t have to feel like this. BIPOC makers and vendors exist. My inbox is brimming with their interest in #SupportLocalHustle!

Demand better

My plea to you is to demand better. Demand markets and spaces that reflect the universe of talented people creating and making in Minneapolis. Please think about BIPOC, queer, trans, gender non conforming, disabled, low income, fat, femme, and folks with hxstorically marginalized identities and experiences.  Continue reading “Demand Better: more inclusive craft markets”

#SupportLocalHustle

Support Local Hustle aims to be a safer space for Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC). BIPOC are often unsafe, disrespected, or erased in spaces that do not explicitly center us. When we feel safe and welcome, we are able to fully be ourselves, bringing our art, food, and what we love to the world.

SUPPORT

Supporting local hustle means showing support to the hardworking Black, Indigenous, People of Color out here making it happen. Support Local Hustle invites all supporters of BIPOC entrepreneurs into this space. We ask that vendors, partners, and supporters all contribute to creating a safer space, where we hold each other accountable: Racism, sexism, transphobia, misogyny, and other oppressive language or actions will not be tolerated at these events.

LOCAL

Support Local Hustle uplifts and celebrates BIPOC with pop ups that happen in our neighborhoods, featuring arts, crafts, and food made by us. We can be erased and seem invisible when white narratives dominate white spaces, but we are here! One way to fight erasure is with these pop ups, where we celebrate our hustles in a fun and inclusive atmosphere, while raising money for causes that benefit our greater BIPOC community.

HUSTLE

Support Local Hustle is about the hustle. A hustle is something that we do to survive. A hustle is hard work. A hustle is something we pour ourselves into. A hustle is something to be proud of! A hustle is often part of an informal economy, necessary because barriers to formal businesses are very high. We are especially interested in supporting vendors who are just starting out or depend on their hustle for survival.

Vote Local, Support Local; because we are locals

Tuesday, November 7 is election day in Minneapolis

Races you can vote on: Mayor, City Council, and Park Board
I would recommend voting in all of the races.

If you haven’t voted, it’s been awhile, or you just want to know more, here’s my voting guide for Minneapolis.

  • Polls are open 7am-8pm Tuesday
    • Be in line at your polling place at 8p
    • Find where you vote here
    • Get your sample ballot here
      • I HIGHLY recommend looking at/printing a sample ballot before going to the polls. Why spend any more time there than you have to?
  • Are you registered to vote?
    • Register to vote, day-of, at the polls
      • Minnesota is one of those magical states where you don’t need an ID to vote, and you can register day-of. I will vouch for you if you live in Ward 9! Check your registration here.

Continue reading “Vote Local, Support Local; because we are locals”

2017 Pickle Witch Community Supported Fermentation (CSF)

Pickle Witch is fermenting, preserving, and curing foods in a Minneapolis kitchen. All of my fermented pickles are vegan and gluten-free, in addition to being delicious and packed with healthy, live probiotics. I use the best possible produce and ingredients, make food in small batches with a touch of magic, and use sustainable packaging.

All of these products make great gifts!

Join the Pickle Witch CSF to get 5 jars of ferments November through March!

Since the 80s people have been supporting the local organic food movement through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). By buying “shares” of a farmer’s produce before their crops go in the ground, consumers guarantee the farmers have the cash to live and plant, and share in the financial risk and reward of the uncertainties (drought! bugs! the unknown!) of farming without farmers being reliant on financial institutions. Learn more about CSA.

This isn’t a CSA, where you are buying shares to support a farmer and buck the industrialization of agriculture. This is a CSF!  Read the end of this post for more on how this model is supporting me and people like me.

How to sign up

Pick a subscription, and fill out this form.

You will receive a confirmation email, with payment information or information about being on the waiting list.

Quart subscription $90
$20 jar deposit- you pay $110 up front and get an all-or-nothing jar return of $20 at the end of the subscription if you return all five jars.

Pint subscription $60
$20 jar deposit- you pay $80 up front and get an all-or-nothing jar return of $20 at the end of the subscription if you return all five jars.

Half-pint subscription $40
$20 jar deposit- you pay $60 up front and get an all-or-nothing jar return of $20 at the end of the subscription if you return all five jars.

With each subscription you will receive

  • a jar of fermented goods loaded with healthy probiotics, funky flavors, and food magic that you’ll pick up on the third Monday of the month
  • some fun Pickle Witch goodies
  • emails detailing the delicious ferments you’ll be picking up
  • the opportunity to participate in a hands-on fermentation workshop (February)
  • the opportunity to participate in a spring (week of April 7-11) Pickle Party!

Continue reading “2017 Pickle Witch Community Supported Fermentation (CSF)”