So I’ve decided to learn how to can and preserve stuff this year, first experiment: Strawberry Rhubarb Jam with Fresh Mint, Lavender and Black Pepper.

This jam was loosely inspired by this recipe: Jammin’ Jam of Strawberry, Black Pepper & Fresh Mint except I decided to also add some fresh lavender…and my jam didn’t get nearly thick enough so I had to cook it for considerably longer.

In the end the jam turned out a little runny (not too bad), but it tastes fantastic.

This was also my first time canning anything, and I’m happy to report that all 11 jars sealed properly (wOOt). For that, I am indebted to these folks and their excellent instructional videos.

If you’d like a jar, drop me a line and let me know. I’m saving most of them for gifts, but if you ask really nicely (or want to trade something you’ve made), I could probably be persuaded.

Pickles are next.

Bloomington Farmers Market
Bloomington, Indiana
May 15, 2010

So, last week, Facebook, among other things, decided to make their “Like” pervasive throughout the site (and the universe).

While “Like” is not new, it draws more attention to the importance of being well “liked” on Facebook.

Especially if you manage a Facebook page (the business version of a personal Facebook profile).

For a while now, the way to get your posts to be more “sticky” (that is, to show up longer in the “Top News” section of your fans likers’ or friends’ newsfeeds) has been to get a lot of “likes”, comments or interactions (audio or video plays) relative to the number of total fans likers your page has.

So, to get a lot of visibility you need to post stuff that draws either “likes” or comments.

Which do you think will get more “Likes”:

or

No one “Likes” a sad panda. Even on Facebook.

So, let’s pretend sad panda there is a breaking news story and we NEED to post it. Since we know he’s not going to get likes, we need to get people to comment on the post.

Fortunately, Facebook makes that pretty easy.

Use the comment field above the posted item to encourage people to comment.

Now, even though your post still isn’t going to get many “Likes” (that panda is still looking pretty sad), at least you’ll get a lot of comments from people eager to help cheer the little guy up (or, in a more applicable situation, from people who want to help solve some complex policy issue, stop genocide, fix the ozone layer, etc.)

I sent out a few tweets, posted a few updates to Facebook pages and a couple hours later, was watching and participating in a chat with Robert Kenner, the filmmaker of Food, Inc. I wasn’t participating in the chat on the POV website, but on the website of Earth Eats, a program I manage for WFIU Public Radio.

They got more readers (chatters?) for their chat, we probably got a couple hundred pageviews, everyone got a chance to talk to Robert Kenner for an hour about making a much-talked-about Academy Award nominated documentary. People who missed the chat can even replay it on our site, or on their site. Win-win-win.

Not a huge deal really, but it got me thinking (a bit more than usual) – imagine if public media organizations could get organized enough to do this everyday, or multiple times a day, on different topics, with different experts, in different communities.

With the ease of embedding these chats (and, arguably, of organizing and moderating them), couldn’t we just setup a central location where organizations could post “I have a chat with Joe Smith, a noted expert in whatever topic, setup for 1-2 p.m. ET on April 27″ and then include the embed code?

Then, organizations could pick and choose which chats they wanted to be a part of. Or, even better, organizations could post ideas for future events and see if anyone else in the community had the ability to pull the necessary strings to get the expert(s) wrangled and confirmed for those proposed chats.

We ALL get more readers for our chats, more pageviews for our websites and the public gets to talk to more experts on a variety of topics from a variety of locations, not just what their local station is able to wrangle on their own.

Easy. Right?

What strikes me (possibly more than anything else about the blog thus far) is that they call themselves a “revolution” and they’re not really saying anything particularly new, or necessarily revolutionary.

What has people intrigued is the anonymity. We don’t know who they are, but they seem to have a reasonably sophisticated knowledge of the public broadcasting system. So, could it be an insider? someone recently laid off? etc. At the very least, the industry is small enough, and the intrigue is compelling enough to get people talking. Which, I would say, is already a good thing.

The main argument they’re making is that PBS should invest more in content and less in infrastructure. True. There’s efficiency to be had in reducing the number of pass-through stations that do little more than re-broadcast national program feeds.

They say “Could Sesame Street realize there will come a day when they will no longer need PBS to deliver their content?” (April 16). Of course. Viewers/listeners/online users increasingly identify more with the programs (“the content”) they love than with the content providers or the networks who get it to them.

They champion such efforts as the pre-release of American Experience’s “Earth Days” documentary on Facebook, NPR’s iPad app, and the Cookie Monster/Google viral video.

All of these are great examples of public media effectively leveraging non-broadcast platforms to get its content out to the world.

They say that their “revolution” is “not a call for all member stations to fold tomorrow, but [to shift] as many resources as possible to engaging communities and producing stellar content.” (April 16) I think you’d be hard pressed to find many people (at least among the younger generation) working in public media who would argue with that goal.

So, is there a place for them in future public media chats? As far as I’m concerned, absolutely. Public media chat was founded as a place for people to gather and discuss ideas, big and little, for and about the future of public media.

Revolution PBS seems to have some ideas. Let’s talk about them.

One of the recipes was for a wild ramp pesto, so when I had an opportunity to pick up some ramps at the farmer’s market on Saturday morning, I thought I’d give it a shot.

Whole Wheat Pasta with Wild Ramp Pesto, Baby Spinach, Sundried Tomatoes and Sauteed Shiitake Mushrooms

The pesto is basically just the ramps pureed in a blender with pine nuts, olive oil and parmesan cheese (the cheese is obviously optional if you want to make the pesto vegan, or, if you’re freezing it).

Once you’ve made that, I sauteed the mushrooms (cleaned and coarsely chopped) in some garlic butter I made earlier in the week, but you could also use olive oil and a clove or two of fresh garlic. Then, add a few chopped sundried tomatoes and a couple handfuls of spinach and saute just until the spinach is wilted.

Finally, toss the mushrooms, sundried tomatoes and spinach with the pesto and cooked pasta and top with some grated parmesan cheese.

The ramps have a really intense garlic flavor with hints of citrus. They’re very tasty, but I understand they only grow in certain parts of the country. West Virginia is so wild about them that they have several ramp festivals, the largest of which is in Richwood, West Virginia, “The Ramp Capital of The World.” No joke.