Classes in Canning and other Pioneer Arts

"Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food." --Michael Pollan, Food Rules

Eating like our ancestors, whether Paleolithic or pioneer, is increasingly coming into vogue. For the true enthusiast, efforts to eat local food can be supported through the recovery of traditional practices, from fermentation to backyard gardening to canning.

While skills like canning, bread-making,freezing, and menu planning used to be handed on as "secret family" recipes and tips at grandma's stove, these days many grandmothers are as lost in the kitchen as the millennial generation. Enter Leni Sorensen, a local blogger, contributor to In the Kitchen online, and culinary historian, who wants to be your stand-in grandmother for instruction in the pioneer arts.

Leni teaches classes in traditional culinary techniques on summer weekends at her home, nestled in the nook of a mountain stream outside of Charlottesville. The opportunity to marvel at her productive garden/micro-farm is reason enough to take her classes!




Leni has seen food movements come and go. Peppered with the practical wisdom of her family and lifetime ("if you only offer your kids food that is good, you don't have to worry about what they eat"), her conversation celebrates eating while eschewing false solemnity and faddish pieties about food. Having farmed with her husband in South Dakota for a number of years, she embraces the authenticity of real food and friendly gatherings -- her reminiscences about potlucks of barbecue ribs and rich pies are still making me hungry a week later!

Equally at-home with the cerebral (how historically zoning restrictions for local markets reflected racial tension and the rise of supermarkets) and the practical (how would you prepare the meat if you bought half a pig?), Leni exudes curious engagement with the world and instructs with a captivating interweave of anecdote, fact, and maxim.

And of course she leads by delicious example with her mouth-watering canned goods, her bountiful garden, and the details of her own choices ("We only eat tomatoes when they're in season--and then we eat them every day").

Leni's Classes

Leni offers classes all summer, and is happy to create unique classes to suit your needs and curiosity. It's best to contact her and sign up through her blog.

May 21 / 22: Breadmaking
June 11 / 12: Breadmaking
July 16 / 17: Canning tomatoes and peaches
July 23 / 24: Canning tomatoes and peaches
August 13 / 14: Canning tomatoes and peaches
August 27 / 28: Canning tomatoes and peaches
September 10 / 11: Canning tomatoes and pickles
September 24 / 25: Canning tomatoes and pickles
November 12 / 13 / 19: Freezing meat, making sausage

Hope to see you there this summer!

And if you'd like to try out food preservation on your own before going to visit Leni, check out this fantastic one-click recipe for Spicy Pickled Carrots (or any other veggies, really) from our very own Bella Eats!

Relay products related to this post:

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Fresh, clean turkey to the full extent of your desire...

So, I'm assuming after reading about Planet Earth Diversified’s fresh, flavorful herbs you went out (or, hopefully, sat at your computer…) and ordered yourself a few to try. Now the question is, what, exactly, are you going to do with them before they start turning brown in your fridge (at least that’s what tends to happen to my herbs…did I really buy them a month ago…)? Well, I have a suggestion. While you’re experimenting with new local farms why not try a turkey from Heartland Harvest Farm; they are delicious and oh so good for the locavore in us all.

Heartland Harvest is a local, biodiverse, polycultured, multi-generational family farm run by James and Lorretta Showalter with their family. Their eight children all work on the farm and take pride in the fact that their “heart” is in the “land” as they work to produce a “harvest” of the best quality foods connecting you with your community, your farmer (and family) as well as the soil. Their turkeys are purchased as day-old poults from a local hatchery then cared for in a brooder house until they are old enough to move to pasture in a semi-free range model for two weeks. At eight weeks they enjoy true free-range life with sun, fresh air, grass, insects and non-GMO feed as well as a safe house to retreat to at night. The Showalter’s goal is to provide “each animal with abundant, fresh, clean pasture to the full extent of its desire.”

In my humble opinion, I believe that turkey is soo delicious that it shouldn’t be reserved for only special occasions and feast days…invite some friends over and carve up some happiness! Plus, turkey leftovers are maybe more dynamic than any food in the world. On top of all that, they’re on sale through Retail Relay right now!

Rowena Morrel from In The Kitchen Magazine generously sent me a few supremely helpful suggestions from her magazine about what to do with your left over turkey; these are my favorite tips and recipes:

Prepare the carcass for turkey stock to make soup before you finish cleaning up the kitchen. Pick the meat from the carcass and place in a big stockpot, cover with water, and add several cloves of garlic, diced onion, a few slices of fresh ginger, peppercorns, and an ounce of vinegar. Bring to a boil, lower heat, and simmer for at least 3-5 hours. Strain and discard solids; (I do not save the solids because all of the taste and nutrition is now in the stock) cool quickly over ice and refrigerate. Now you can freeze stock or make soup by adding diced onions, celery, and fresh herbs. Add rice or noodles and fresh vegetables and cook about 20 minutes. Add meat (meat from wings and neck prepared for stock as well as scraps from turkey dinner) and simmer 10 more minutes. Correct seasoning and serve or cool and refrigerate. Once again, if there are leftovers, cool the soup over ice and store in a shallow container, refrigerated as quickly as possible.

Turkey Mornay with Steamed Broccoli

Butter 4 ramekins. Sauté 1 lb fresh mushrooms (quartered). Steam 2 stalks broccoli (halved). Mornay sauce: Melt 3 T butter; stir in 3 T flour until smooth and cook until butter and flour froth. Take off heat; whip in 1 1/2 c milk to incorporate roux thoroughly. Return to heat and continue to whip adding 1/2 c Swiss cheese, salt and white pepper and a dash of freshly ground nutmeg. Place a half stalk steamed broccoli in bottom of each ramekin; add 1/2 c turkey (diced) and 1/4 portion of mushrooms. Top each with Mornay sauce and bake until bubbly. This may be made in large casserole or chafing dish for buffet services.

Straight from the expert’s mouth to your taste buds! Get one of these turkeys before they gobble off!!