Classes Offered
Food and Medicine
Mead and Wine Making
Learn to brew elixirs that please the palate and the senses. We will focus on wines made with local fruits and meads (honeywines) infused with herbs that bring flavor and medicinal qualities to the bottle.
Length: flexible, ½ day to full day
Tea Party
Learn the best way to extract medicines from different plants using decoctions as well as hot and cold infusions. Enjoy sipping tea and talking about the medicinal qualities of plants.
Length: flexible, 1 ½ hrs to ½ day
Acorn Processing
Learn to make use of one of the most abundant food resources in our area.
Length: ½ day
Fermenting Foods
Preserve foods using lactic fermentation.
Length: ½ day
Skinning, Dressing, and Gutting Critters
Learn to transform a groundhog, raccoon, or possum into food.
Length: ½ day- processing only
Timing: Fall or Winter especially, but any time is possible
Preserve the Abundance of the Season
Learn to can, pickle, dry, freeze, and smoke. Each season offers a bounty all its own, we will learn how to make these bounties last so you can enjoy products that you have harvested and processed yourself all year long. You will leave the class with products we have prepared.
Below are a sampling of what you could learn in each seasonal class:
Spring: Drying greens and roots, blending pestos, making medicinal vinegars, tonics, and more.
Summer: making and canning tomato sauce, canning peaches, pickling green beans or cucumbers, making seasonal chutnies, wild kim chee preparation, and drying and freezing berries.
Fall: Sauerkraut preparation, mushroom drying, drying apples, processing and storage of: acorns, hickory nuts, and black walnuts, making and canning applesauce, and preparing a variety of autumn olive products.
Winter: Learn the many ways of preserving deer meat, drying jerky, canning meat, learn proper wrapping and freezing techniques, and if we have time, learn to make the ancient trail food, pemmican.
Length: 1 full day
Wild Foods Gourmet
We will combine wild foods with local delicacies to create a meal that will surpass many found in the finest resturaunts.
Length: flexible ½ day to full day
Wild Foods Primitive Cookery
Gather seasonal wild foods, prepare and cook them with local, organic and wild foods with a variety of techniques. These techniques may include pit cooking, hot rock cookery, hide pot cooking, clay pot cooking, cast iron cookery, spitting, and green stick grills. Depending on the season and interest we may create wild salads, tamales, stews, steaks, roasted roots, squash, and much more. Leave the class with a variety of recipes including wild and local foods.
Timing: Anytime
Length: 1 day