Workshops & Events
Made possible with support from
March 12, 2023
2pm-4pm EST
$50
Virtual / Zoom
Pasta & Focaccia
with Kerry Alterio
Check back soon for more details!
Explore Previous MGA Workshops
Below is a taste of some of our recently held workshop offerings
January 14th, 2023
10am-12pm EST
$50
Virtual / Zoom
Sweet Potato & Buckwheat Bread
with Tara Jensen
Looking for a delicious bread for your holiday table this fall? Join baker and author, Tara Jensen, as she guides you step by step through her hearty, yet delicate Sweet Potato and Buckwheat Loaf from her latest book, Flour Power. Jensen will show you everything you need to know from getting your starter ready to make the bread, through mixing shaping and baking this easy and earthy loaf. Made originally with a Desem (DAY-ZUM) starter, a stiff, whole-wheat starter, Jensen will share how to make a Desem starter or simply use the sourdough you have on hand. This workshop is perfect for those new to sourdough baking and will be a treat to those seasoned home bakers looking for a new bread to add to their favorites.
Meet Tara:
My name is Tara Jensen and my mission is to inspire self-confidence through the craft of baking.
I’ve been baking daily in one way or another for over twenty years. In my twenties I baked professionally for bakeries like Red Hen Baking, in Middlsex, Vermont and Farm and Sparrow, in Asheville, North Carolina. I ran a wood fired market bakery, Smoke Signals, from 2011 to 2018, in Asheville, North Carolina, while also learning about fresh flour at Carolina Ground. My bread and pies have been featured in Food & Wine and Bon Appetit and my Instagram includes over 109,000 followers from around the world. Currently, I teach in-person and virtual workshops on sourdough bread and other delicious treats, whole grain pie crust and sourdough cinnamon rolls. You can find my first book (my diary of living and loving at wood-fired bakery in the mountains) A Baker’s Year, wherever books are sold and you can now pre-order my second book, Flour Power, now! Catch me with my toddler, Violet Rye, baking up a storm on Instagram under @Bakerhands.
Sponsored By:
December 10th, 2022
10am-12pm EST
$40
Virtual / Zoom
Rye Fermented Pryaniki
with Ellie Markovitch
Ellie Markovitch lives in Maine with her husband, two children and dog Kora. She applies her passion for innovative and sustainable food practices and her unique skill set that includes visual and social media storytelling and community engagement.
Ellie has a professional background in photojournalism and an MFA degree in Electronic Arts. She is also a skillful cook. Her work revolves around media and food literacy. She uses food as a starting point for conversations and community building.
She is a lecturer in Journalism at University of Maine.
You can see samples of Ellie’s work involving food preparation and visual storytelling at https://www.instagram.com/elliemarkovitch/ and at https://storycooking.com/
She was born in Brazil and spent most of my childhood weekends at my grandparents’ small farm.
“There was a story behind everything we did with our food – from how it was harvested, cooked, and shared.”
Sponsored By:
November 11th, 2022
My Grandfather’s Bread
When my grandfather retired from running our family’s wholesale bread bakery after 60 years, he baked at home. He was an old-school Italian baker, mixed mostly by feel, and didn’t really need a scale to divide–never mind a digital thermometer. Pure art.
He made three breads: Easter Bread, a lunchbox pan loaf, and Ciccioli Bread. I confess, I never liked the Easter Bread, so I won’t focus on that here. But the other two… those were the bread of my childhood and will forever recall memories of my grandfather.
I love a pan loaf because of its utility. It’s the vehicle for happiness for kids and adults. Where would we be without PB&J?
My grandfather’s was a modest yeasted dough with a little sugar and a little oil, baked lightly. I love a dark crusty loaf, but the soft pan bread is deeply ingrained in the American psyche. While my grandfather came from a white flour generation, I live in a grain-forward world. So we’ll switch up the flour here, keep it accessible, and preserve its utility. This is function over form all the way.
While the pan loaf ruled daily life, the Ciccioli Bread was the center of feeding frenzies. It’s a basic hearth bread dough with the crispy bits (ciccioli) from rendered leaf lard and a little black pepper mixed into it. Crispy pork fat in bread!
Enough said.
Sponsored By:
October 22nd, 2022
$40
Virtual / Zoom
Bread Art – How to turn a delicious bread into artwork
Join Judith Lehnhardt, a self-taught sourdough baker from Germany specializing in bread art. Bread is delicious, it feeds us every day but did you know that it can also be turned into a beautiful work of art? In this workshop Judith will show you how to make bread art by using the most simple tools in your kitchen. We will look at three different techniques on how to decorate, score and shape your bread to make it look stunning.
Sponsored By:
October 16th, 2022
FREE
Virtual and In-person- Facebook Live & Youtube
Worldwide Community Bake Day
Worldwide Community Bake Day was created to inspire and empower people to come together and share baking traditions around the world. We believe that these community connections can foster creative economies, entrepreneurial growth and the revitalization of town centers.
On Friday, October 16th The Maine Grain Alliance is thrilled to host a day of conversations with millers, bakers & farmers from all walks of life. Through out the day we will explore baking and farming traditions and how those traditions shine through the work of each person we speak with.
Be sure to check out our recipes & resources page to see what inspiring recipes our expert baking instructors have generously shared for World Wide Community Bake Day.
We look forward to seeing you on Zoom, Facebook Live or Youtube!
September 21-24, 2022
FREE
Where?
Common Ground Country Fair
294 Crosby Brook Road
Unity, Maine 04988
When?
We begin setting up on Wednesday, September 21 before the fair and bake through mid-day on Saturday, September 24.
The Big Bake at the Common Ground Country Fair
The Common Ground Country Fair in Unity, hosted by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, is just around the corner! Under the direction of MGA Baking Education Director Dusty Dowse, the Maine Grain Alliance has been baking the bread to help feed the volunteers who make the fair happen for many years. MGA’s talented bakers will instruct volunteers on how to set up a field kitchen with wood-fired ovens to produce the bread.
July 30th, 2022
9 a.m. to 3 p.m
Skowhegan State Fairgrounds
Free! Everyone is invited, and we encourage you to bring your family and friends to enjoy
PARKING: $5
The Maine Artisan Bread Fair
The Maine Artisan Bread Fair is one of a kind. It is a fair dedicated solely to real bread and everything associated with this most ancient and central staple. The Maine Grain Alliance has sponsored the Bread Fair for ten years and the offerings have grown each year. Demonstrations range from bread baking using sourdough (with starters to take home!) to tortilla making. While you will be captivated by the wares in each booth, you will also be able tantalize your taste buds as you sample foods ranging from pizzas cooked in wood-fired ovens, fresh sourdough loaves, sweet pastries, and a variety of other locally produced delicious food.
July 25th-30th, 2022
Virtually & In-person
The Kneading Conference
The Kneading Conference brings together grainiacs and bread buffs from all over the country. Farmers, professional and home bakers, brewers, chefs, cooks, grain researchers, maltsters, food entrepreneurs, and wood-fired oven enthusiasts gather to educate one another about the art and science of growing and milling grains, baking artisan breads, and brewing delicious beer.
June 25, 2022
BREAD & BREWS
In-person workshop
Common Ground Country Fairgrounds
Breweries from across Maine, including:
Allagash Brewing Co
East Outlet Brewing
Flight Deck Brewing
Fogtown Brewing Co
Frosty Bottom Brewery
Lake St. George Brewing Co
Moderation Brewing Co
Outland Farm Brewery
Oxbow Brewing Co
Sasanoa Brewing
The Urban Farm Fermentory, and others!
Maine Grain Alliance and MOFGA Presents: Bread & Brews
Join us on the MOFGA grounds for a celebration of Maine-grown grain! We’ll be highlighting the people and businesses who use this grain to make bread and beer.
Inside the Exhibition Hall there will be a beer tasting with local breweries, and outside and in the kitchen we’ll have a full line-up of workshops. Live music and food for sale outside.
The Maine Grain Alliance will also be hosting a special workshop called “Pizza at Home and in the Pub – Committing to Local Grains” before the main event begins. (Tickets sold separately here.) They will be baking up treats in their wood-fired oven, too!
Ongoing workshops from 3-7 pm (access included with tickets):
- Malting grain for making beer (with Blue Ox Malthouse)
- Growing grain at home (with Ross Ludders)
- Homebrewing (with the folks from Frosty Bottom Beer CSA & Central Street Farmhouse)
- Making ployes (with Fr. Paul Dumais of Farmington)
- Cooking using corn (with the Somali Bantu Community Association)
Restoring heritage grain seed (with Richard Roberts of the Maine Grain Alliance) - Cooking Beer Braised Mushroom Polenta (with Erik LeVine of Maine Grains) and more!
Tickets:
$50 ($45 for MOFGA/MGA members.)
$25 ($20 for MOFGA/MGA members) for those not participating in the beer tasting.
Free for kids under 12.
June 25, 2022
BREAD & BREWS
In-person workshop
Common Ground Country Fairgrounds
Pizza at Home and in the Pub – Committing to Local Grains
This event is hosted by the Maine Grain Alliance and precedes Bread & Brews, a celebration of local grains, which begins at 2:30 pm, right as this workshop ends.
Whether you are a home pizza aficionado or looking to start a pizza program at your pub or brewery, this workshop will equip attendees with ways to use local grains and create delicious pizza. Presenters will speak to what makes freshly milled local grains so (favorably) different when used in pizza dough.
Topics covered will include:
- Getting a starter going from scratch, including maintenance, formulation, working up to a large batch from a starter, and fermentation. (Attendees will also be given a starter that has been active for 50 years to bring home.)
- Beyond pizza…Versatile uses for local dough on a brewery or pub tasting room menu.
- The craftsmanship of pizza, including dough stretching, topping, and technical baking considerations.
- Demonstrations of how to shape and make different breads with pizza dough.
- For pizza entrepreneurs: Managing margins and high volume pizza production considerations when using local grains.
We will be baking in the Maine Grain Alliance wood-fired oven, so elements of wood-fired oven baking will also be covered. We hope you’ll join us!
Workshop Presenters:
Dusty Dowse, Director of MGA Baking Education, Lamastide Baking
Heather Kerner, Founder of the Good Crust
Benedict Cassie, Pizza Chef, Flight Deck Brewing Company
April 11th, 2022
4pm-6pm EST
$50
Zoom
Thanks to a generous donation from the Bill & Joan Alfond Foundation the Maine Grain Alliance is able to offer scholarship opportunities to young bakers, farmers, and aspiring grain professionals interested in expanding Maine’s grain economy. Applicant must be from Maine, conducting business in Maine, or planning to conduct business in Maine.
100% Northern European Rye
With Jim Williams – Backdoor Bread
This workshop was made possible by
March 23rd, 2022
4pm-6pm EST
$50
Zoom
Thanks to a generous donation from the Bill & Joan Alfond Foundation the Maine Grain Alliance is able to offer scholarship opportunities to young bakers, farmers, and aspiring grain professionals interested in expanding Maine’s grain economy. Applicant must be from Maine, conducting business in Maine, or planning to conduct business in Maine.
“Pastiera” Italian Easter Ricotta and Wheatberry Tart
Made to celebrate the return of Spring and rebirth
Christy Timon & Abe Faber: Timber Baking Consultants
Join Christy and Abe as they construct a delicious, whole grain Easter dessert with cooked farro, pastry cream, and filling. This versatile treat can be made for small groups or scaled up for commercial production in a professional setting. This workshop will walk attendees through how best to pre-make elements of the tart to allow for a later final assembly. Whether you are baking for friends and family or in a busy bakery, this tart is the perfect spring addition.
March 27th, 2022
11am-1pm EST
$50
Zoom
Thanks to a generous donation from the Bill & Joan Alfond Foundation the Maine Grain Alliance is able to offer scholarship opportunities to young bakers, farmers, and aspiring grain professionals interested in expanding Maine’s grain economy. Applicant must be from Maine, conducting business in Maine, or planning to conduct business in Maine.
Armenian Easter Bread
Join baking instructor and recipe developer Andrew Janjigian (@wordloaf) in an exploration of choreg, a rich, aromatic Armenian sweet bread flavored with nigella and mahlab and coated with sesame seeds. Often called “Armenian brioche” because of the large amount of butter and eggs in the dough, choreg is traditionally served at Easter as an indulgence after winter and Lent, but many Armenians eat it year-round as well. It can be formed into individual round or knotted rolls, and—more commonly—into long braided loaves, and the braids are often made with three strands of dough, to represent the Holy Trinity.
Andrew will share his own recipe for choreg, which incorporates a tangzhong, an Asian baking technique known for extending the keeping-qualities of breads, something that is especially helpful here, since choreg’s high concentration of sugar normally makes it prone to staling quickly. It’s an easy and delicious recipe, just in time for Easter and the return of Spring.
February 13th, 2022
11AM-1PM EST
$50
Zoom
Experience Level: All baking levels can learn something from this workshop
Workshop will be recorded for registrants in the event they cannot join the class live.
Use code “southernground”
Desem Demystified
With Jennifer Lapidus, Founder and GM of Carolina Ground
Sponsored by Maine Grains:
From freshly stone-ground flour to natural leavening , this workshop will take one through the process of making and using this Flemish natural leavening known as desem.
With the availability of freshly stone ground flour, comes the opportunity to make various forms of natural leavening or sourdough culture. When Jennifer started out as a baker, she found herself milling her flours in-house due to lack of access to fresh, stone ground flour. And for the desem culture, the first ingredient is freshly stone ground whole wheat flour.
Meet Jennifer
Jennifer is a baker, a miller, an author, a wife, a mother and step mom, a sister, a fan of beagle mutts, bitter foods, long walks, and Belgian road bikes. She’s forklift certified and her favorite musical is A Chorus Line (though Hamilton is a close second).
At Carolina Ground flour mill in Asheville, North Carolina, Jennifer Lapidus is transforming bakery offerings across the southern United States with intensely flavorful flour, made from grains grown and cold stone-milled in the heart of the South. While delivering extraordinary taste, texture, and story, cold stone-milled flour also allows bakers to move away from industrial commodity flours to create sustainable and artisanal products.
November 22, 2021
4PM-6PM EST
$50
Zoom
Experience Level: All baking levels can learn something from this workshop
Wholegrain Holiday Baking
With Dawn Woodward, Baker & Owner of Evelyn’s Crackers
The holiday season quickly approaching and we have partnered with Dawn Woodward, owner of Evelyn’s Crackers, to give you the tools you need to create delicious, whole grain, treats!
We hope you will join us as Dawn guides us through the tricks, techniques, and recipes for 100% Rye Spicy Gingerbread & Gevulde Speculaas (rye and barley cookie filled with homemade frangipane).
Meet Dawn
|
Inspired by her mother, Dawn began cooking at a very young age. Following a degree in Philosophy from Bard University, she continued her interests in professional cooking and baking to positions as a Pastry Chef in New Orleans and Head Baker at artisan bakeries in New York and Toronto. Extensive travels expanded her repertoire by exposure to such cuisines as: Eastern Mediterranean, Thai, Chinese, Cambodian, Georgian, and Middle Eastern. Committed to using heritage grain varieties grown close by, Dawn sources from Ontario farmers and millers and is constantly experimenting in ways to incorporate them into the crackers. In addition to leading all production at Evelyn’s Crackers, she is a speaker an educator at the annual Kneading Conference in Maine/Seattle, and at grain conferences in Toronto, London, and Los Angeles. |
October 10th, 2021
1PM-3PM EST
$50
Zoom
Experience Level: All baking levels can learn something from this workshop
Everyday Ancient Grain Einkorn Loaves
With Adrian Hale, a longtime food writer who made her way to bread baking
I slowly turned my white-bread-eating husband into a whole-grain toast eater, but it wasn’t until I started making this 100% einkorn bread that he made it a part of his daily breakfast. My kids love this bread, as well, and we always have a loaf on our bread board. There’s just something about this bread that feels primal, and it is! Some of our earliest bread archaeology includes einkorn grains. Come learn how to make this bread at home and make it a part of your family’s daily lives, as well.
Meet Adrian
Adrian J.S. Hale is a longtime food writer who made her way to bread baking. Now, she sits at the computer all day in her kitchen with a bowl of rising dough at her side. She believes that bread & poetry feed us in different ways and she shares them freely because they are much cheaper than therapy. Her essays have appeared in national publications such as Saveur, Culture, and Brain, Child. She is currently writing the history of bread in fiction, and she blogs about her baking adventures at www.thousandbitesofbread.com. You can also follow her grain and baking forays at @1000bitesofbread on Instagram.
May 15th, 2021
3PM-5PM EST
$50
Zoom
Experience Level: All baking levels can learn something from this workshop
Fresh Milling Flour at Home Is a Game Changer — An Introduction
With Maria Speck, award-winning author of Ancient Grains for Modern Meals and Simply Ancient Grains
Fresh milling whole grains at home opens up a universe of flavors and textures in your kitchen. It adds a new dimension to all your baking—from simple pancakes and muffins to cookies, cakes, and slow sourdough breads. Fresh milling cornmeal for polenta, or rye for a quick porridge, will change your dinner fare forever. And your sourdough starter will be brought back to life. Learn all about the many uses of fresh milling, and the subtle aromas it adds to your table.
Maria was raised in Germany and Greece and has used a table-top mill since she started baking as a young adult. She will demonstrate the ease of fresh milling and answer questions about different mills and the sourcing of good grains and flours. She will demonstrate a new recipe for 4th of July, “Cornbread—Red, Rye, and Blue”, made with fresh-milled rye, blueberries, and cranberries.
March 31st 2021
4PM-6PM EST
$40
Zoom
Experience Level: All baking levels can learn something from this workshop
Sourdough Crackers
Join Jeff and Lisa Dec of Brazen Baking, a wholesale family baking operation in Rockport, ME., as they discuss and demonstrate sourdough cracker making. They will share how and why they have come to add crackers to their baking lineup. They will explore the grain types, varieties, and milling grades they use, with a focus on dough handling qualities and product texture. Topics will include basic sourdough maintenance, approaches to culturing sourdough for crackers, and other strategies to incorporate whole grain nutrition into crackers.
Made possible thanks to the generous support of Maine Farmland Trust & Maine Grains
March 13th 2021
3PM-5PM EST
$50
Zoom
Experience Level: All baking levels can learn something from this workshop
Sourdough 101 & Baking With Whole Grains
This class will taught by renowned baker and owner of Borealis Breads, Jim Amaral! Jim will demonstrate the basics of sourdough baking, including how to create and maintain your own starters, how to hand mix, knead, stretch, proof and shape your sourdough bread and how to use the autolyse process and extended fermentations to enhance the quality of your bread. We will also discuss baker’s percentages and how to use them to easily create your own bread formulas. We will explore different baking options such as baking in a loaf pan on a stone or in a Dutch oven and will cover the three types of heat at play in the bread baking process. In addition we will talk about the importance of ingredient selection and show you how to incorporate whole grains such as rye, oats and corn into your sourdough loaf.
Made possible thanks to the generous sponsorhsip of Maine Grains.
February 15th 2021
4PM-5PM EST
$30
Zoom
Experience Level: All baking levels can learn something from this workshop
Fresh Pasta From Home
December 22nd, 2020
4PM-6PM EST
$40
Zoom
Experience Level: All baking levels can learn something from this workshop
Corn: From Past to Present
&
Making Tortillas at Home
In this workshop we will be covering corn from its earliest association with humans to the present. We start with a look at what is known about how corn became an agricultural staple of the ancient world on this continent. We cover this not only from an archaeological/anthropological perspective, but look at the science underlying how it was domesticated and what its wild ancestors were. Next comes demonstrating the process of nixtamalization, getting corn ready for the Mesoamerican kitchen, and the making of tortillas from scratch. Sources for materials and equipment will be discussed.
November, 23rd, 2020
6PM-8PM EST
$40
Zoom
Experience Level: All baking levels can learn something from this workshop
Perfecting Your Holiday Pies with Partybus Bakeshop!
In this class you’ll learn the secrets to a perfect pie crust. Jacqueline will demonstrate how to hand-mix your dough and a foolproof way to roll and crimp your shells. Jacqueline will provide recipes ahead of time for anyone wishing to follow along with the demo, and during class she will discuss the importance ingredient selection. Once our shells are shaped, we will also walk through a few classic pie fillings step-by-step. Once class is through, you’ll have all the skills you need to make that Thanksgiving centerpiece you’ve been dreaming about… no store bought shell needed!
November, 9th, 2020
4PM-7PM EST
$50
Zoom
Experience Level: All baking levels can learn something from this workshop
Sourcing, Milling & Baking with Heritage Grains
We invite you to join Amber Lambke, CEO & Founder of Maine Grains and Kerry Hanney, founder, owner, and baker behind Night Moves, as they discuss baking with heritage grains, sourdough and stone-ground flours. Kerry will demonstrate an approachable at-home Nordic-style sourdough rye bread and Mexican cacao brownies featuring flint corn!
Learn More & Meet the Presenters
October 16th, 2020
FREE
Virtual – Facebook Live & Youtube
World Wide Community Bake Day
Worldwide Community Bake Day was created to inspire and empower people to come together and share baking traditions around the world. We believe that these community connections can foster creative economies, entrepreneurial growth and the revitalization of town centers.
On Friday, October 16th The Maine Grain Alliance is thrilled to host a day of virtual conversations with millers, bakers & farmers from all walks of life. Through out the day we will explore baking and farming traditions and how those traditions shine through the work of each person we speak with.
Be sure to check out our recipes & resources page to see what inspiring recipes our expert baking instructors have generously shared for World Wide Community Bake Day.
We look forward to seeing you on Zoom, Facebook Live or Youtube!
October 3rd, 2020
11:00AM-1:00PM EST
$40
Experience Level: All baking levels can learn something from this workshop
Virtual – Zoom
Baking with Buckwheat Virtual Workshop
Bakers of all experience levels are welcome to join Fr. Paul and Ora Breads student intern, Meg Gombojav as we incorporate buckwheat into baking! Buckwheat plays an integral role in a renewed grain economy—even though buckwheat itself is not a grain–both in the field and in the bread.
Join us as we display the unique characteristics of buckwheat varieties and demonstrate how to incorporate buckwheat flour, groats, kasha and flakes into a base sourdough bread formula. We hope you can celebrate buckwheat with us!
***Once registered, be sure to check your e-mail spam folder if you did not receive a confirmation email that has the workshop login information.
September 1, 2020
4:00PM-6:00PM
$40
Virtual – Zoom
Artisan Doughnuts Virtual Workshop
Join Rachel on a doughnut making adventure turning yeasted brioche dough, buttermilk cake dough and pate a choux into dozens of delicious doughnuts. All the basics of dough, fillings and glazes will be covered, including tips and tricks to help you modify them and make them your own.
This workshop is a demonstration and will be moderated by Stephanie Swane. Stephanie is the publisher and editorial director of Modernist Cuisine’s in-house publishing department The Cooking Lab.
***Once registered, be sure to check your e-mail spam folder if you did not receive a confirmation email that has the workshop login information.
past
July 30-31 , 2020
Virtual
Celebrating Our Grain Community
Online workshops, videos, photo galleries, remembrances, baking tips and more will be available highlighted on the Maine Grain Alliance webpage and social media channels. Join us!
PAST WORKSHOP
July 30 , 2020
4:00PM-5:30PM
Virtual
Multipurpose Sourdough Virtual Workshop
We invite you to welcome sourdough into your daily routine, and rethink perfect. This class will help you have fun exploring your creativity in the kitchen.
Ellie Markovitch founder of #storycooking and Amy Halloran of @flourambassador will guide you through everyday cooking , that for Ellie, is mostly improvisation. To facilitate this, she keeps a stocked pantry, full of ingredients for “the base” and the “toppings.” Bases are grains and dough. For toppings, Ellie makes use of vegetables, fruits, protein, spices, herbs, etc. A dough is like a canvas, and through years of trial and error, Ellie embraces this approach to baking.
***Once registered, be sure to check your e-mail spam folder if you did not receive a confirmation email that has the workshop login information as well as the list of ingredients needed for the workshop.