Passion for Preserving
/Glass jars of home-grown, handmade jams, salsas and pickled vegetables line Shelly Grosenick’s quaint, farmhouse kitchen. Her preserved delicacies, most picked from her own garden, are enjoyed by neighbors, family and farmers market-goers alike.
Rows of fresh, tangy peppers and juicy, red tomatoes line a half-acre garden outside Shelly’s kitchen window — a familiar view from the Grosenick family’s 1888 homestead. The view she sees while cooking up farm-fresh meals for her kids, Maddy and Tucker, and her husband, Jim. One that neighbors frequent when they stop in to say hello and catch up at the kitchen island, and one Shelly peers out of as she preserves her own harvest by way of canning.
More than 200 varieties of fruits, vegetables and herbs thrive in Shelly’s garden venture — the bread and butter, per se, of her newest business endeavor, Crimson Kitchen and Gardens. But her passion for preserving nature’s finest produce isn’t new. As a kid, Shelly learned how to preserve fruits and veggies in 4-H Club. A time-honored kitchen tradition, and, in most cases, a necessity, Shelly uses tips and recipes passed down through her family, along with many lessons learned along the way. It wasn’t until after having her son a few years ago, that Shelly developed an autoimmune disease that prohibited her from eating most store-bought or processed foods. She quickly learned that she had to rely on her garden and preserving her fresh bounty to feed herself and her family without giving up the tastes and flavors found throughout grocery store aisles.
“It (canning) was a hobby, that turned into a necessity, that morphed into a business,” she notes.
A full-circle farm
Shelly utilizes the resources available on her family’s 300-cow dairy farm located outside of Watertown, Wis., to nourish, feed and provide for her garden and her family. As fourth-generation dairy farmers, being resourceful is in Shelly and Jim’s blood. So caring for her garden by using the manure from the cows to fertilize the soil, or by recycling their winter feed bunker covers to control a garden’s ever-growing weeds are just a couple reasons Shelly calls Crimson Ridge Dairy a full-circle farm.
“Taking care of the land so that it takes care of us is important, just like caring for and milking cows,” Shelly says. “There are so many similarities to both sides of our farm.”
Along with using resources from the dairy cows, Shelly’s children, whom she’s instilled the same values and appreciation of understanding where their food comes from and taking care of the land, also tend to a garden of their own and take care of chickens, providing the family with fresh eggs and her garden with pest control. Her latest endeavor is using raw milk and herbs straight from the farm to produce all-natural soaps.
Homegrown goodness
Since venturing into all types of flavors and offerings, first at a few farmers markets here and there, and now visiting about 100 events a year across throughout Wisconsin counties, Shelly has grown her customer base and expanded her products. Though she started with the basics, as most up-and-coming canners do, Shelly broadened her offerings to include sweet, savory and spicy options.
“There are a lot of flavors I have that you won’t find in a grocery store,” says Shelly.
She now sells more than 15 varieties of jams, many flavors of pickles, vegetable boxes by delivery, fresh breads and more. Her favorites — those that fly out of her hands at markets — include amaretto cherry jam, spring fever spread, cowboy candy and her beloved Christmas in a Jar jam.
“People want to know where and how their food is grown, and it’s important for those of us in agriculture to be transparent and teach them.”
Shelly goes above and beyond to care for her garden, nourish her crops, educate her consumers and deliver wholesome products to her local community — all for the love of food. You could say Shelly’s success can be measured by the number of new customers who request her product each season, number of likes on her Facebook page, number of calls she gets for veggie box deliveries or new faces that stop by one of her seasonal open houses. However, Shelly measures success by the number of people who walk away from her house, her market pop-ups or her backseat with products they believe in because of how and where they’re grown.
“People want to know where and how their food is grown, and it’s important for those of us in agriculture to be transparent and teach them,” says Shelly.
Home-canning, similar to the milk produced across the road in the family’s parlor, provides a nutrient-packed end product meant to nourish those enjoying it. Plus, anyone from the garden-loving expert to the frequent restaurant goers can preserve their favorite produce. Learn from the expert herself with the following helpful tips for first-time canners.