Food

Please note: All workshops are subject to change.

Check back as we continue to update our information.

Workshops will cover:

  • Butchering
  • Birria Preparation
  • Beermaking
  • Solar Cooking
  • Canning
  • Sausage and Salami Making
Share

Food: Butchering

Workshop Presenter: Tamara Wilder
Time: Saturday, 10:00 – 11:20 am

About the Presenter:
Tamara Wilder

Food: Homebrewing 101

Workshop Presenter: W. Dan Houck
Time: Saturday, 10:00 – 11:20 am

Description: The art and science of converting grain starch to sugar, adding hops and fermenting the whole mess to make a delicious beverage called beer will be discussed.

About the Presenter: I have brewed over 31,000 gallons of beer wearing nothing but boxer shorts and rubber boots. From 1995 to 1999 I brewed for Pyramid Brewing in Seattle. From 2000 to 2001 I ran Keoki Brewing on the island of Kauai. Since then I have made the vast majority of the beer I drink (a not inconsiderable sum).

Contact info: wdanlor@hughes.net

Food: Mendough’s Wood Fired Pizza and Pita

Workshop Presenters: Olan and Lia Cox and Colin Fissenden
Time: Saturday, 10:00 – 11:20 am

Description: We will discuss and share tips and techniques associated with cooking and baking in a word fired oven and making pizzas and pita utilizing local grown and milled grain.

About the Presenters: Olan and Lia Cox, livingroots@cox.net.

Food: Fermentation

Workshop Presenter: Natasha McGuirk and Mori Natura
Time: Saturday, 11:30 – 1:00 pm
Sunday, 11:30 am – 1:00 pm

Food: Processing Olives

Workshop Presenter: Steven Edholm
Time: Saturday, 11:30 am – 1:00 pm

Description: Olives grow well in our climate and are easy enough to cure into a delectable and nutritious gourmet food. There is no good reason that we should not have a local culture which utilizes this resource which often goes to waste due to lack of essential knowledge and motive. We will cover varieties, harvesting and preparation by many methods, parameters for safe olive curing and propagation of olive trees. processing methods will include lacto-fermentation, dry salting, salt brining, lye and wood ash treatment and fresh water treatment. Oil pressing will not be covered.

About the Presenter:
Steven Edholm
Steven Edholm has been practicing and experimenting with a wide array of primitive and archaic living skills for the past 25 years or so. He knows a lot of cool stuff if he does say so himself. That is not accidental. Steven really likes apples and spends his time experimenting with and practicing not always so simple stuff on a 40 acre homestead. He is cofounder of Paleotechnics (www.paleotechnics.com), keeps a blog on some of his projects and thoughts at turkeysong.wordpress.com and started (and occasionally sort of runs) the food gardeners forum mendolakefoodgardens at groups.yahoo.com/group/Mendolakefoodgardens/.

PALEOTECHNICS
Steven Edholm & Tamara Wilder
PO Box 876 Boonville, CA 95415
707-391-8683
ts@paleotechnics.com

Food: From Local Grain to Chapati

Workshop Presenter: Barbara Goodell
Time: Saturday, 11:30 am – 1:00 pm

Description: Chapatis are one of the simplest, most universal, and easiest breads to make. The participants in this workshop will be grinding grain on the bicycle mill, feeding the sourdough starter, mixing the ingredients, kneading, rolling out the chapatis, cooking, and tasting. Along the way the health benefits of sourdough, the way the yeast works, recipes, and recipe adaptations will be discussed. Participants will go home with their own starter and recipes.

About the Presenter:
Barbara GoodellBarbara has fed, nurtured, and fashioned a sourdough starter into bread for well over 40 years, adding nuances to the bubbly mass with the bacteria from each place she has lived. Her starter originally came from Alaska from the family of her best friend’s mother who grew up in Alaska. She uses the sourdough yeast by itself to leaven bread, but also combines it with baking yeast for a lighter bread, and adds soda to make leavened sweet breads, waffles, and desserts. She uses locally grown grains that are hand ground—now foot ground–as her family now has a bicycle-powered grain mill.

Food: Birria Preparation

Workshop Presenters: Efrain and Daria
Time: Saturday, 2:00 – 3:20 pm

Food: Making Tortillas

Workshop Presenter: Lucy Plancarte
Time: Saturday 2:00 – 3:20 pm

Food: Cider – From Trees to Glass

Workshop Presenter: Tim Bray
Time: Saturday, 2:00 – 3:20 pm

Description: Cider is fermented apple juice. Like wine (fermented grape juice), it is easy to make, but difficult to make well. It also requires some special equipment, but much of this can be cobbled together yourself. We will go over the process of turning apples to cider, discuss apple selection, and perhaps taste a few ciders!

About the Presenter:
Tim BrayAfter settling on property in Albion with several ancient but still-producing apple trees, I became fascinated with the idea of producing cider in the French style. With little in the way of local tradition to work from, we planted more than 50 varieties of apples, hoping to find some that would produce well in our climate and yield the kind of cider we sought. 14 years later, those trees are producing and the ciders are improving, but the goal of a true French style remains elusive…

Contact info: tbray@mcn.org
albionwood.livejournal.com

Food: Olive Oil Making, Pressing, and Tasting

Workshop Presenter: Yvonne Hall
Time: Saturday, 3:30 – 5:00 pm

Description: How far does your olive oil travel? Do you want to know exactly where it comes from? How would you like it to taste, fruity, peppery or bitter? This workshop explores how choosing the right tree varietals for your taste and your climate will influence your end product, a beautiful and wonderful extra virgin olive oil that you will be happy to include as part of your home grown and garden fresh bounty.

About the Presenter: Yvonne Hall, partner in Olivino Inc. www.olivino.com in Hopland built the olive mill with her partners in 2005 from bare ground. They imported their first Tuscan olive trees in 1998 and planted their Cloverdale orchard in 1999. Through trial and error and sensory evaluation classes at UC Davis, they learned a great deal about maintenance, tree health and vigor and ultimately producing liquid gold from fresh and certified organic fruit. Today, they process olives not only from their own orchard but for other growers in Mendocino, Sonoma, Lake Counties and beyond. She will share lessons learned from thirteen years of farming, producing and marketing.

Food: Sausage Making

Workshop Presenter: Jay Newcomer
Time: Saturday, 3:30 – 5:00 pm

Food: Intro to Solar Oven Building and Baking

Workshop Presenter: Ziggy Daniels
Time: Saturday, 3:30 – 5:00 pm

Food: Making Pasta with Local Wheat

Workshop Presenter: Anna Gillis
Time: Sunday, 10:00 – 11:20 am

Food: Wine Making and an Introduction to Distilling

Workshop Presenter: Rob Guiliani
Time: Sunday, 10:00 – 11:20 am

About the Presenter: I am a long time home wine maker who hopes to share a few simple methods that will help the beginning wine maker get started.

Food: Cheese Making

Workshop Presenter: Erika Scharfen
Time: Sunday, 11:30 am – 1:00 pm

Description: Erika (formerly of Redwood Hill Farm) will demonstrate how to make Chevre and Feta at home. The workshop will include demonstrations of the basic steps of cheese making including: culturing, renneting, cutting and draining curds, and a discussion of aging. Discussion will not be limited to these two cheeses.

About the Presenter:
Erika graduated from the Animal Science Program at UC Davis, and is an alumnus of the UCD Goat Facility. Erika and her herd of 85 goats recently moved to Boonville to start-up a farmstead goat creamery (Pennyroyal Farm) with college friend and Anderson Valley native Sarah Bennet.

Food: Canning

Workshop Presenter: Marty Johnson
Time: Sunday, 2:00 -3:20 pm

Food: Homemade Kombucha aka “Creature Tea”

Workshop Presenter: Jenny Burnstad and Lynda McClure
Time: Sunday, 2:00 – 3:20 pm

Description: Learn a simple process for brewing your own Kombucha at home. We will have samples to taste as well as a few “skins” to give away.

About the Presenters:
Jenny BurnstadtJenny Burnstad has been brewing Kombucha since the early nineties. She is a dedicated “do-it-yourselfer.”

Contact info: 707.895.3243, jen@cloudforest.org

Lynda McClure has been making Kombucha tea since her first encounter with it in Panama in 1991.

Contact info: Lynda McClure: 707.895.3243, lynda@pacific.net

Food: Salami Making

Workshop Presenter: Jay Newcomer
Time: Sunday, 3:30 – 5:00 pm

Food: Solar Cooking

An Ongoing Demonstration
Time: All Day Saturday and Sunday

Return to Top