The Central VT Weston Price Chapter is hosting a Traditional Food Preparation class on Thursday May 4th. at 6 pm. Learning to properly prepare food makes it more nourishing to our bodies, budget friendly, and oh so tasty! Melissa Tabor from Tabor Ranch will be teaching the art of making sourdough bread, with all the nuances of maintaining a starter, using discard and reliably turning out beautiful loaves of sourdough. Melissa's sourdough bread is for sale in her farm store, and it is delicious! Jessica Taffet, who homesteads in Randolph Center, will be teaching how to nixtamalize corn, as well as the importance and technique of soaking beans and grains before cooking them. Jess grows her own corn and beans, and stores them for year round use. Her refried beans are pretty amazing! This class will help take the intimidation factor out of making sourdough, and remove the mystery around properly preparing grains. It's not that hard, really.
Why the importance of traditional food preparation techniques? What traditional cultures knew, that has largely been lost in our modern times, was that through proper preparation, these foods could be made more nutritious by making the vitamins in the grain more accessible, and by reducing anti-nutrients that can actually cause vitamin, mineral, and other deficiencies (leading to tooth decay for instance). Cultivating traditional skills in the kitchen can create an atmosphere of simplicity and joy, save money, bring family and friends together, and is ever so good for our environment. Join us for a fun evening learning how to make food like our traditional ancestors did! For any questions please email Marilyn Lambert at marilynlambertntp@gmail.com