THIS IS YOUR GRANDMOTHER’S KITCHEN

Canning Classes at Indigo House for 2023 Have Not Been Scheduled – Please Return and

Thank You for Your Patience

So many folks today do not have a grandmother to turn to for cooking or gardening advice– not even an aunt or uncle with kitchen skills. It’s just the simple truth that many of our mothers and grandmothers worked full time jobs for most of the years since World War II. Even in rural parts of the country over the last 60 years farmers and farmer’s wives have come to depend on the supermarket for quick and ready-made foods. In an odd cultural turn around it seems that hands-on kitchen learning is having a resurgence at the very same time there are fewer of us to pass on those very skills.

It’s been my amazing good fortune to have more than 50 years experience cooking and preserving food for my family and friends. So I’m that grandma! Plus I love to show people how to get serious about home provisioning; the goal of always having food for yourself and your family whether they are bound to you by blood or friendship. Because I’m a culinary historian as well as a Grandma, in our time together I’ll be sharing lots of bits and pieces of lore and fact about food across the centuries. No tests-no 250 word essays, I promise.

My skilled and creative late husband built me a kitchen that is wonderful to cook in and especially fun to teach in. It has lots of soapstone counter space, deep cupboards and drawers for my various collections of cooking utensils, numerous shelves for my cookbooks and many windows that look out into our yard and garden with the barn peeking above the trees. This is the setting where you and I and our fellow students will play and learn cooking skills that your grandmother would have been proud to pass on to you. Oh, yes, we always have a lunch together! 

Because we (8 students) will be working together inside I require that all students be vaccinated to keep us all safe. I do not require masks as the work is hot and wet and would be quite uncomfortable masked. Thank you.

NOTE: Except for the Pressure Canning class where, due to safety reasons, I prefer all adults, students as young as 12 are welcome for Hot Water Bath Canning(as long as they are willing participants and not dragged kicking and screaming) and if accompanied by an adult.

CANCELLATIONS: If you cancel up to 3 days (72 hours) prior to your class, you can make a reservation for  another class later in the season. Within 72 hours prior to your class I CANNOT ISSUE REFUNDS  under any circumstances as I have very limited space available and will have already purchased supplies. I require advanced reservations for all classes.

For taking home your processed jars it is very handy to bring one of the nice multi-section wine carrier bags we have all gotten at the local super markets. They make a safe and handy way to get your warm/hot jars home.

Directions: I live 16 miles west of Charlottesville, Virginia; I will send direction the week of the class. My postal address is Crozet but our house is 4 miles north of White Hall. Go figure!  Living in the country has so many wonderful features but it means that to my new students it can seem a real distance to drive! (For those of us who regularly make the trip to town it is usually a 25 min trip from Barrack’s Road Shopping Center – but we country folk tend to drive like bats out of hell!).

CLASS DATES and Registration