Getting Started with Sourdough

If you're ready to feel empowered to try making sourdough breads, this introductory class is for you. Heather Coiner will send you home with a jar of Little Hat Creek Farm sourdough starter and a simple formula and process to get you started. You will leave the workshop armed with a better understanding of what really matters in the process, and why. You'll know how to speed up or slow down your dough so that it fits in your life, how often you really need to feed your starter (spoiler alert: hardly ever), and how to add elements like more whole grain, or nuts, to suit your taste. The workshop will give you the opportunity to handle dough, and you will have the opportunity to take home some dough, but we will not be using the oven. The format is primarily demonstration, with some hands-on elements.

Please bring questions, and a pint jar for your starter.

Space is limited to 24 participants and advance registration is required.

About Heather:

Heather is a self-taught baker who has built a reputation as a pillar of Virginia's grain community through Little Hat Creek Farm, which she owns and operates with her husband Ben Stowe, and through the Common Grain Alliance, of which she helped start, and served as the founding Chair. But at one time she struggled to make bread, and has made every mistake in the book. Her goal with these workshops is to share her skills and experience to empower others to make bread. Heather continues to volunteer her time to improving the local food system. She lives in Nelson County, VA with her husband Ben, three children, four cats, and one dog.

About Little Hat Creek Farm:

Little Hat Creek Farm is a small diversified ecological vegetable farm and wood-fired bakery (currently closed), nestled in the rural Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Learn more at littlehatcreek.com.

About the Common Grain Alliance:

Common Grain Alliance is a non-profit that connects and supports farmers, millers, bakers, and grain artisans to build a vibrant, integrated, equitable, and regenerative grain economy in the Mid-Atlantic. Learn more and become a member at commongrainalliance.org.