cheesemaking & fermentation workshops

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DO WHAT YOU LOVE, RIGHT? I love co-teaching day-long events on topics dear to me, including cooking and putting up garden-fresh food. I especially love collaborating on those classes with hit cookbook author Alana Chernila, who is also a friend and neighbor. From cheesemaking to fermentation and more, some upcoming offerings of Alana’s and mine:

cheesemaking and home dairy

with Alana Chernila and Margaret Roach

(June 13, repeating in fall and winter. Details and ticket information.)

COME JOIN Alana Chernila and Margaret Roach for a day of cheesemaking, plus an overall introduction to home dairy. In this full-day workshop, you’ll learn how to make creamy ricotta, quick mozzarella, feta, yogurt, creme fraiche, and cream cheese. You’ll go home with all the skills you need (and an optional cheesemaking kit if you like, too), and you may never go back to store-bought cheese or yogurt again!

The workshop price includes a full day of “classroom” learning, as well as breakfast and lunch. This is a hands-on class, so come prepared to roll up your sleeves and be part of the delicious magic. In season, we’ll take a break to walk in Margaret’s garden as well.

Ticket information.

fermentation

with Alana Chernila and Margaret Roach

(Ticketing to come. )

JOIN Alana Chernila and Margaret Roach for this full-day introduction to home fermentation. We’ll cover the general techniques of both dry salt and wet brine fermentation, and together we’ll make sauerkraut, kimchi, preserved lemons, hot sauce, dilly beans, and a fruit shrub.

You’ll go home with all the skills you need to start fermenting at home. This is a hands-on workshop, so come ready to roll up your sleeves and participate! The workshop price includes a full day of “classroom” learning, as well as breakfast and lunch. In season, we’ll take a break to walk in Margaret’s garden as well.

beyond organic gardening: ecological horticulture

I WATCHED A ZOOM lecture the other day that really put into words a lot of the ways my own deepening understanding of ecology is shaking up the way I practice horticulture—from spring cleanup, right on to the last chore of the active year. The lecturer was Rebecca McMackin, director of horticulture for Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York City, where she leads the team that manages 85 acres of diverse parkland with a central focus on habitat creation of woodlands, wetlands, and meadows to build soils and support birds, butterflies, and other organisms.

We talked about the dynamic tactics they use and when and why–a whole different approach to spring cleanup, where the life cycles of animals (from insects on up) dictate what happens when, garden maintenance-wise. Like why some things don’t get cut back, and others that are still seed-laden when they do have their seeds collected and set aside, then returned to the spot after whatever cleanup is needed there.