Put a little spice in your life
By Nancy Only, Published: Jan 30 2007

Restaurant News Links

“Mustard,” according to Wikipedia, “is a thick condiment, a yellow or yellow-brown paste with a sharp taste that is prepared from the ground seeds of mustard plants … by mixing them with water, vinegar or other liquids, and adding ingredients such as flour. A strong mustard can cause the eyes to water, burn the palate and inflame the nasal passages. For this reason, mustard can be an acquired taste for some.”

It was for me. I grew up in a household where French’s was the only mustard in the fridge, so I never gave mustard much thought until recently. It was Marie — Sweet Mama Janisse — Wilkins who introduced me to its growing importance among food enthusiasts. Marie entered her Sticky Love Sauce in the Napa festival some years ago and walked away with a third prize — quite a feat when you realize the extent of the competition.

“There were huge mustard companies there,” she relates. “Some of them had 20 or 30 different kinds of mustard. I walked in with one little tiny jar of mustard, and it won a bronze medal. I was so proud.”

When she shared the story with me I hadn’t realized that a mustard festival existed. I didn’t know that a mustard museum existed either, but it does. And Marie’s Sticky Love Sauce is there, too, at the Mount Horeb Mustard Museum in Mount Horeb, Wis.

Being focused at the moment on mustard, I decided to pay the museum a cyber-visit. The excursion indicated that Barry Levenson, founder and operator for more than a decade, has the quirky sort of sense of humor I find delightful. He asserts that the museum grew out of an evening when his beloved Red Sox had lost the World Series to the New York Mets in the seventh game. Depressed, “he went to an all-night supermarket to wander the aisles, turned down the condiment aisle and heard a deep resonant as he passed the mustards: ‘If you collect us, they will come.’”

That night he bought a dozen different jars of the stuff and promised himself to continue doing so until he owned the world’s largest collection. Today he boasts more than 4,400 mustards in addition to a vast assortment of mustard memorabilia and the de rigeur gift shop.

In addition, the museum has begun to host an annual romance novel writing contest aptly named Seeds of Passion. Chapter One of the novel can be found on their Web site — www.mustardweb.com — and the $5,000 grand prize goes to the author who submits the best Chapter Two and summary of the rest of the work.

Meanwhile, our neighbors in the Napa Valley are currently hosting this year’s Mustard Festival from Jan. 27 to March 31. The press releases promise “a full palette of food, wine, art, entertainment, and cultural activities ….” If you’re a mustard nut, it would be a great excuse for a getaway.

If, however, like me, you are just beginning to enjoy the wonders of mustard in its many varieties, you don’t have to leave town to explore the topic further. Marie loves to talk about her mustard making and other culinary history. You can usually find her on Fifth Street at her Bless My Soul Café. You can also purchase her Sticky Love Sauce there along with other Sweet Mama Janisse condiments.

Mustard has been around since the days of the Romans, but Sticky Love Sauce is as up to date as it gets. It’s one more example of the creativity we can boast about here in Humboldt County.


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