Kitchen Alchemy
the miracle of nature's abundance and human ingenuity

Current Events:

Upcoming Workshops,
Calendar

Other Seasonal Samplers:

Spring: 
Wild Edible Plants,
Natural Building,
Pysanky Eggs,
Ivy Baskets, and more

Summer:
Water play & boat workshops,
Natural Building
Camps and traveling workshops, 
fruit harvest

Fall:
Kitchen Alchemy,
harvest and food preservation,
gifts and crafts,
Fire Science

Winter: 
Artisan Truffles,
Paper Snowflakes,
Ice and Crystals, and more

Year-Round Building Blocks:
Knotical Nauledge,
Messy Science (see Kitchen Alchemy)
Rocket Stoves,
Research,
Writing, and Illustration
Classroom Visits,
Community Activities

Kitchen Alchemy is a catch-all for the ways we love to play with food - and with other non-toxic, fascinating stuff.

Ernie is a superb cook and baker.  He specializes in scratch cooking and seafood, can accomodate almost any special diet or local produce.  In the middle of the woods, or the Arctic Ocean, when he starts making pizza, a crowd will gather.  He cooked a workshop season for Cob Cottage Company on $1 per person per day, rising at 4am to bake the daily bread.  He makes amazing meads and fruit wines.  He can do vegan "chicken" soup, wheat-free biscuits, or find a substitute for almost any allergen.

Erica is an adequate baker and indifferent cook.  Her favorite foods (when Ernie's not cooking) tend to be fruits and veggies, or a cup of strong tea with cream.  She loves to experiment, and to understand the science behind colors, textures, and flavors.  She enjoys the chemistry: understanding how the structure of a cake, pudding, or bread holds together.  Her fascination was honed during 4 years in OMSI's Chemistry Lab, and baking wedding cakes for 2 siblings.  So she does the fancy desserts, artistic arrangements, and the "play with your food" variations on kitchen chemistry.

Food topics:

  • Kitchen Alchemy: 3-Hour Bread and Powdermilk Biscuits
  • Kitchen Alchemy: Special Diets: Barley Biscuits, Vegan "Chicken" Soup
     (wheat-, dairy-, meat-, egg-, and Name Your Allergen substitutions)
  • Kitchen Alchemy: Slow and Smooth (Chocolate Truffles and Secret Sauce, an easy workshop on top of a Rocket Mass Heater)
  • Kitchen Alchemy: Spice and Savor (tricks for bringing out or masking flavors in everyday foods.)
  • Kitchen Alchemy: Dandelion Wine and Ginger Beer: home fermentation at its finest.
  • Kitchen Coup-De-Grace: If you want to serve an unbeatable meal, we can cook with you or coach you over the phone.  Flower Salad, Cioppino, Beef Wellington, Salmon and Wild Mushroom Quiche, Wedding Cake, Tiramisu, Specialty Truffles,  Sorbets, Tea Parties. 

Messy Science topics:

  • Color-Changing Purple Potions: Natural pH Indicators
  • Wild Edible Plants: Flower Salad, Edible Lawn, Berry "Bug Juice"
  • Chemistry of Art: paint, dye, wax, charcoal, inks, and paper art;  make-your-own paints, sidewalk chalk, paper, glue, and more.
  • Cave-Man Chemistry (an amazing book, www.cavemanchemistry.com)