[MUSIC] >> And on today's episode of our local table, we are visiting Glaciers End in Marion, Illinois, where we will explore how local flavors enhance everyday cooking.

>> Let's go meet the owners, Derek and Libby Ervin.

[MUSIC] >> We're here with Libby to hear how Glaciers End got started.

Libby, tell us what inspired you and Derek to open Glaciers End?

>> Yeah.

Hi.

Thank you.

Um, so we moved.

We were living in Chicago and got married and were trying to figure out what we were going to do with our lives and where we wanted to be.

Uh, we had an opportunity to take over Derek's grandfather's farm, so we moved down here?

Um, planted an orchard and the aspirations were to become a hard cidery.

So we planted trees and then realized we had several years to wait.

We took a farm beginnings program, learned about cottage food, learned about elderberry, and just kind of realized that was kind of the path we wanted to take.

And so we started planting stuff and really looking around the farm to see what we had growing and just started from there.

>> So so you forage.

That's a lot of what goes into your products, but you also work with other farms.

So tell us a little bit about why you decided to do that.

>> Yeah.

So we do not Derek says that we're not necessarily foragers.

We're feral farmers.

Um, so we really look to see what our land is providing and nurture that and grow that.

Um, we grew a lot more in the beginning.

Now that we're here at our shop, we have less time at the farm.

So we really have started sourcing from other local farmers, and that's worked well.

Getting them to providing, you know, revenue for them, outlets for them, and works for us.

>> Well, and I love the collaboration part of that too, because then you're all working together to do exactly that.

But you also work with some other businesses, our local restaurants and some other nightlife establishments that use your products.

So how did that get started?

>> That was when we moved here to the shop.

So we're going on five years here at the shop, and that was probably going into about two years.

We started a collaboration, I think, with John Brown's using some of our syrups and shrubs and cocktails, mocktails, and has really just kind of started from there with other businesses, bars, restaurants, especially around the Square and Marion Seasoning Bistro, Little Nashville.

And then we're expanded outside of that, working with Saint Nick's several different places, and it's just great to have our stuff in places that we enjoy going to, but also that are wonderful staples around southern Illinois, and they have great networks that we may not.

So it's wonderful collaborations.

>> Yeah.

So people can come here to the shop, certainly, and find you.

They can find you at farmers markets.

But for our travelers that might be here, they can also visit any number of the restaurants that that you're working with and experience your products, which hopefully will bring them here too.

But what else do you do here at the shop to draw people in?

>> Yeah, we do, we do tastings.

So anytime somebody comes in, they can sample anything that we have in store that's ours.

We also do some fairs and festivals here.

So we have a big one coming up our pickle fest.

So this will be our second year we're able to block off the street out in front, have part of our quadrant and have ten, 15, 20 vendors, food trucks, bands.

We do pickle flights and food.

We will be having a glacier fest sometime this fall.

That'll be a burger cook off.

As you guys know, you participated in it.

Um, so that'll be a lot of fun.

We'll have the date coming out on that sometime soon.

>> So a lot of events and a lot of ways for, for folks to experience your products and you, you kind of work with this from farm to shelf concept.

Can you tell us a little bit about that and kind of where that came from?

And clearly the, the foraging and working with the other farms, but the farm to shelf is a little bit different way of saying that.

>> Yeah.

It's, um, you know, when we first started, we thought we were going to grow produce and realized that that wasn't necessarily our path.

So what we do is value add, as Derek says, we don't sell a cucumber, we sell pickles.

So everything that we grow or we source, we turn into something.

Um, so that's kind of the farm going into the bottles to the shelf.

Uh, everything we make has multiple ways to use it syrups, cordials, breakfast stuff, desserts, beverages.

Same with our shrub drinking vinegars.

Very unique.

They make great salad dressings.

Um, so the goal is anything can be used in multiple ways.

We're big snacker kind of charcuterie people.

So that's definitely where our stuff kind of lies around.

Um, but we just want to bring the things that we're growing or sourcing from Southern Illinois.

We kind of consider it a taste of southern Illinois to people's tables.

And I think it's very approachable for people to use them to experiment with stuff.

>> Well, and you really did fill a gap that we that we needed filled here with the drinking vinegars and the shrubs for sure.

But you've also expanded into your cordials and syrups.

And those are not products that we have in southern Illinois until Glaciers End showed up.

So, um, let's go see what Derek is doing in the kitchen.

>> Sounds good.

[MUSIC] >> Tell us a little bit about why.

Why shrubs, why fermented food and canning and all those ways of preservation and recipes for for your business.

Why did you choose that?

How did you come to that?

>> I think we like to do things that may have been popular in the past, but have kind of maybe lost been lost to history.

And we like to bring those back, kind of put a new twist on them.

We like to do we like to make our stuff the way our grandmothers used to make them.

So, you know, with as little extra things added to it, kind of minimalistic approach and just keep it simple and keep it pure.

>> So is there a special recipe that inspired the beginning of this?

>> Absolutely.

Uh, the Grandma Ervin's pickles, which is one of our most popular ones, was the first thing I learned after her passing.

The family would say, boy, we wish we had those pickles.

And I thought, you know what?

I can figure that out.

And so I learned that with the help of my mom and a couple of jars that remained, and I was able to kind of step that process back, reverse engineer it.

And that's what kind of started this whole business.

>> That's amazing.

>> Yep.

>> So so shrub, when that comes to mind for me, I'm thinking of a, of a, a plant, a shrub.

Can you tell us a little bit about what shrub is?

Sure.

Recipes.

>> So shrubs came from a long time ago.

Um it was a way of preserving fruit juice before refrigeration.

So if you lower the pH of a liquid it becomes more shelf stable.

And so by adding vinegar to um to fruit juice, you can lower the pH to where it's more stable, uh, in your pantry.

And so they would add the vinegar and a little sugar because you're adding vinegar and you want it to be palatable.

Um, and so that was what people would do.

And so we have taken that and kind of added our own little twist to it.

And that's what you can use that for making drinks.

You can use that to make in sauces.

You can use it in all kinds of different ways, and salad dressings and vinaigrettes and that kind of thing.

>> So they were doing it as a way of preserving more, more things that were coming from the farm so that they could feed their family and share that throughout the season.

And now you've been able to take that to, let's say, a higher level and variety to share the concept and the flavors with with your customers.

>> Absolutely.

>> That's amazing.

So what is this machine here behind us?

Oh, I mean, I don't know if I would call it a machine.

It looks pretty manual.

Yes.

What does that do?

>> So this is our press.

So back to kind of what we were talking about earlier.

We like to keep it the way our grandparents did it.

When we start, most of the time when we start to make the process of making a shrub.

We're starting with berries and hopefully we have sourced them as local as possible.

Uh, possibly.

You know, at our farm we grow a lot of berries as well.

So we would put it in here and we press the juice, we make the juice from that, and then we would take that and create the shrub out of that and then kind of add our own magic afterward.

>> You use a lot of hickory in some of your recipes.

I know.

>> We do.

>> So what does, what does hickory do to shape the flavor?

>> So hickory is kind of has a smoky flavor to it.

Um, it was the way we found out about it was, um, it used to be an indigenous drink that they, I think they used it medicinally, but then the pioneers discovered this, um, this, this way that the indigenous people were using the hickory bark.

Um, and they would add honey and other sweetening agents to it to make it a little more palatable.

And it made this really amazing syrup.

And so the pioneers came across this and were like, that's amazing.

And then that was passed down to them.

Um, and then like other things, you know, it kind of went away for a long time and then has kind of found a revival, I would say in the last, um, you know, last 20 years or so.

I began to hear about it earlier on.

And, um, we, we had lots of hickory on our, on our farm.

And that was one of the first products we made was, was the hickory because it was so accessible to us.

[MUSIC] >> So now that we've been to Glaciers End and to the storefront and to the farm, which was fun, let's talk about all the cool things that we can make with their vinegar shrubs and the hickory fire sauce that we tasted because that is, well, fire.

So delicious.

We're going to make a salad today using Tuscan kale, also called dinosaur kale, because of the way it looks now, when I was a younger mother and my little one was actually little, she would eat dinosaur kale because it's name.

Fun, fun.

So if you have kids, you might try this little trick at home.

But we have to take the stem off first and it's real easy.

Grab here, grab here, and you just kind of pull it off.

And if you get that little tail, you just pull that.

This can go to a compost pile.

This can go to the freezer for vegetable broth later.

Lots of things we can do.

Yeah.

And notice how easy it falls apart.

>> You know, actually, cutting it with a knife does violate the cellular structure of the leaf.

So as we pull it apart, comes across part pretty naturally at the natural seams of the kale.

And that's going to help it to prevent from browning.

>> It does.

So it's it's not going to bruise.

So we're just going to get in here and tear all this up.

Now we're making this right in our serving dish too, which makes it a little bit easier.

One less bowl, one less bowl to worry about.

So we picked up one of the vinegar shrubs to to play with from Glaciers End.

And so we have a typical vinaigrette that we're going to make.

And Stephanie I'm going to let you do all of that because you're kind of the pro with the immersion blender there.

>> I love it.

>> It's one of my favorites.

So much easier.

>> So but one thing that we want to make sure that anyone watching would know just to remove the intimidation away.

Like, say you don't have access to a shrub, but you have some kind of vinegar is a good vinaigrette is three parts of fat to one part of acid and that balances it out.

So we have our oil.

And our shrub.

>> And any shrub or vinegar will work in this.

A neutral oil gives it a milder flavor.

A different flavor like an olive oil would change the flavor profile a little bit.

But but a vinaigrette you can make your own.

>> And if that, whatever you use as the acid is just a little bit more kicky or tangy than another, um, solution to that is just add a little bit more of the fat, add a little bit more of the oil.

Yeah.

So we've got our salt and pepper.

And this is a recipe that we have on our website.

>> And you can use your fingers like, this is your kitchen at home.

So you need to use your fingers.

>> But we also like, I'm sure that when someone's in a hurry, like they don't want stinky hands and.

>> To mess with that.

>> Too, you can get garlic, um, even in a different kind of salad, that kind of that piece.

Some might use vinegar, not vinegar.

Um, use ginger here.

You might need that.

Yeah.

For me.

Okay.

>> Honey honey sticks.

So there's a couple of tricks for honey.

You can microwave it just a little bit and it will pour out easier.

You can, um, also spray your measuring spoon or this with just a little bit of cooking spray or a little bit of oil.

And then usually it slides out pretty easy.

So whisking the immersion blender or just a blender will work here too, but you're incorporating some of that air.

And that honey is helping the oil and vinegar come together.

It's emulsifying.

So you have this really nice smooth dressing.

>> I think.

>> I think I think we're good.

Yeah.

>> And if and if by chance it would separate, that's something that easily you can get the mixer out again or give it a good shake.

Like you can see just here in this moment that it's starting to separate a little bit more.

So before we dress the salad, we'll give it a good swirl.

>> Oh, let's go ahead and dress the salad.

Yeah.

So vinaigrette is best made a little bit ahead of time.

And you can make it the day before if you want to the evening before you actually need it.

That will allow the flavors to come together.

That garlic will be a little bit less potent, but you can make it and use it immediately as well.

[MUSIC] So there's our our kale salad with vinegar shrub vinaigrette.

And we're going to pair that with a chicken breast that we broil and glaze with hickory fire sauce from Glaciers End.

So let's get to that.

>> Sounds good.

>> All right.

So now that we've made our kale salad with the vinegar shrub vinaigrette, let's work on the chicken.

So we have two boneless skinless chicken breasts here.

Now these will cook in 15 to 20 minutes under the broiler which is what we'll do.

And that mimics the grilling.

Right.

But you can do this in an air fryer if you wanted to.

So it's really up to how much time you have and what you have, what kind of equipment you have at home.

>> Yeah, I was thinking it might even be an even faster meal to add even more simplicity.

If we were using a kind of tenderloin or cut that in strips, or cut it even in chunks.

Yes.

And I'm I'm always thinking of the leftover part of it, although I know there will be no leftovers, but the leftover part of it.

Then with the chunks that would allow you to throw it into another side or anything.

>> Anything that you want to.

So this is going to be a really nice pair for a quick lunch, a quick dinner on a busy weeknight, whatever.

>> Or even meal prep.

>> It.

Well, absolutely.

You could do more than two at a time for sure.

So we're going to just season these, and I'm going to use my fingers with some salt and pepper and a little bit of garlic mixed in here.

And you can go a little bit heavy handed on all of this.

You can cut back on the salt if you need to, but meat will take the seasoning.

So don't worry if you feel like you're over seasoning, you're probably not.

>> Yeah.

Because really we're just distributing it on the outside.

Right?

And when you take that bite, though, you might think it's a lot right now.

There's still plenty in there that isn't getting the seasoning right.

>> So I'm going to flip these and season the back side.

So we only have to do this once.

But we're going to glaze and then flip glaze flip and kind of go until they're done.

>> And we patted these dry before we started.

>> We did.

That's going to help.

Um things kind of stick a little bit better.

Yeah.

You could, if you wanted to like rub a little bit of olive oil on, that's going to help the seasoning stick more.

But because we're glazing, I tend to not worry about that as much.

>> And from my personal experience with the broiler, sometimes too much oil and too close to the broiler creates a kind of smoky situation.

It's kind of scary in the kitchen.

>> And guess what?

That's why we have a foil lined pan baking with the rack inside.

So this actually helps you clean up the mess at the end.

And when we finish this, you'll see what I'm talking about.

But I also sprayed the rack with some cooking spray and that's going to help.

It's not so much about the chicken not sticking because it will kind of release itself as it cooks.

It's more about the cleanup because these little wire grates can get a little difficult to clean.

So so that cooking spray actually helps in the cleanup process.

So we have notice everything is red, right?

We're kind of sticklers around here for the the food safety.

So anytime that you're working with raw meat, you want to use red red brush.

And this is a silicone brush, red cutting board.

Um, and it's color coded, right?

So we don't cross-contaminate.

And, and if you'll notice, we switch cutting boards, right.

So we had a green one vegetables.

>> And if we were doing some kind of seafood or fish, we would use a blue one.

Yes, absolutely.

Distinctly something that's not used with.

>> Exactly.

And that just helps keep your kitchen clean and keeps your family safe.

>> So it's even a little chunky.

>> It is a little chunky and there is just enough sugar, just enough sweetness in here that it will start to brown and caramelize a little bit.

But we're going to layer this on.

So in this process.

I'm not sure that's going to stay.

So if you have a spoon rest that would be ideal here.

Um in this process we're going to let this go under the broiler for five minutes.

We're going to take it out.

We're going to flip it.

Okay.

So it's a little bit of a working building.

Yeah.

A little bit of building.

Um glaze it and do that two, at least two more times until the internal temperature reaches 165°F.

And that's kind of that safe eating temperature for the chicken.

>> All right.

>> So at home, set your timer for five minutes so you don't let this overcook.

[MUSIC] So it's been five minutes.

So let's take this out because there are a couple of other tips I want to show you and show everybody at home.

We're going to be careful when we do this.

Now we have a metal pan.

We're going to set this on a wooden cutting board because depending on what kind of countertop you have, you don't want to set hot right on top of your countertop.

>> You're going to flip them, right?

>> Yep.

So we're going to flip, but it's going to take a few of these flips before you start to see this color build on top.

So don't, don't think it's not working because after about the third flip, you'll see some of that char come through that we would see from a grill.

So then we are just going to do exactly what we did before.

And I'll let you do it.

Since you've already started that process.

>> You got to.

>> Be very careful because this is very hot and and be liberal.

>> Right?

>> Um, but know that we're going to keep doing this until the chicken is done and we're going to build that flavor.

>> Smell So good I can smell the.

>> Hickory in the the fire part of this.

>> Yeah.

Um.

The peppers.

Perfect.

>> All right.

And back in the oven.

And we're going to set our timers for five more minutes.

So this does take a little babysitting to do this.

Yes.

>> Oh, still it's so quick.

>> Knowing.

>> That you didn't have to cut anything.

Pound that out.

And this was so easy to put together.

And it's a full meal, right?

>> Exactly.

[MUSIC] All right.

So we are near the end of this chicken.

So let's take this out and take a look at it.

Woo.

>> Yeah you're right.

It did get the char on it.

>> It does.

And that broiler will pretty well mimic a grill.

So if it's too cold to grill which I don't think it's ever too cold to grill personally, but some people might.

You can do this under the broiler and you're fine.

Now notice two.

They shrunk up a little bit.

Sure.

And you get that char.

But the reason we line with foil is because the drip from the glaze is actually going to turn into a little bit of what looks like soot at the bottom, right.

So when all this cools down, we just take that foil off and we have a nice baking pan again.

And you don't have to scrub anything.

So this is going to pair beautifully with that salad.

And you can eat it on the side or.

>> Even cut it and add it.

>> To and add it to it if you wanted to.

So internal temperature on any kind of poultry should be 165 on dark meat, maybe a little bit higher.

And that's just a safe eating temperature, a food safe.

>> Time that we should, um, refrain from digging in and let it set as there are kind of, I know what that rule is for some red meat recipes that I have, but what do you do?

>> The same with any meat.

You want to let this rest for a few minutes.

And chicken, you know, 5 or 8 minutes, you're not going to lose temperature.

In fact, it will continue carrying over.

So even if you pulled this at 162 or 3, you don't worry about it.

It's going to carry over to that safe cooking temperature.

So let it rest that.

>> Just like my chicken juicy too.

>> So I do to.

>> Give it a little bit of time for the juices to settle.

And, uh, you cut it right whenever we want to eat it.

>> Exactly, exactly.

And it doesn't need to be scalding hot.

So we're going to slice these and I'll let you plate the salad.

And then we're just going to lay this kind of in a fan out over top of the salad.

Then we're going to have lunch.

So one thing always to remember, and I sometimes have to remind myself of this, any kind of meat, chicken included, you want to cut against the grain because it's going to help the meat actually fall apart.

It becomes more tender if you cut with the grain.

It's going to be a little bit chewy.

Now with chicken, when it's all glazed like this, it might be hard to find that grain.

Usually you can slice on the bias and try not to lose it as you're going.

And if you need to move things around a little bit so you can find that grain and chicken, you, you want it done right.

We're not really looking at rare, medium rare and anything like that.

With chicken.

You want pieces that are done.

And I can tell you that I am against the grain on this because it is already falling apart.

All right.

And we're just going to plate pieces.

And I think we might not use the whole breast here.

All right.

This looks delicious.

I think we did a pretty good job.

>> Can't wait to try.

[MUSIC] >> All the recipes from today's show are available at our local table.co.

You can also find us on Facebook.

Join us next time we'll save you a seat at the table.

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