Food, Beverage & Lifestyle   

Students will learn the purpose of the kingdom of fungi, the connection of fungi to all living things, nature’s lifecycle of mushrooms, and how mushroom farmers mimic nature to grow safe, high-quality mushrooms without chemicals. Whether the interest is growing mushrooms for family or profit, using mushrooms to improve the quality of garden soil, or remediation of toxic soil and water using mushrooms, then this class is for you. Kathryn Crew is the owner of Fungi-licious! and the mushroom cultivator. She is a certified dietary manager, production horticulturist, and speaker. Students will receive mushroom cultures to launch their mushroom plans.

Your body is teaming with millions of microorganisms! …. known as your microbiome and found primary in your gut. We’ll examine the impact these microorganisms have on our health, both in our gut and from consuming probiotic fermented foods. Be amazed by how fermenting organisms in our bodies modulate our immune systems and overall wellbeing, and the importance of probiotics in our diet. Fermentation permeates every aspect of our lives, and from this class you’ll get a tour of fermentation within us and around us, plus we’ll make some tasty treats. (No class 3/14.)

In this class, we talk about mushrooms as medicine in ancient cultures and modern science. Student’s will cook and eat specialty mushrooms and in between bites, we will talk about nutrition. Students will learn to garden with mushrooms to improve soil and crop health, and to deter pests. For fun, let’s grow mushroom mycelium into durable lampshades and planters!

There is Mush’room in the Mushroom Farming Business! Topics will include growing gorgeous specialty mushrooms in low-tech systems without harmful chemicals, producing value-added products like mushroom jerky and medicinal tinctures, and how to develop mushroom compost.  Discussions will include mushroom lifecycle and terminology, tracking growth requirements for specific varieties, food borne-illness prevention, growing for retailers, harvesting, storing, packaging, choosing vendors, input costs, and more.

In this Wine Regions class, we come back home for a look at the iconic California wines. A vast area and range of climates create wonderful homes for happy wine grapes, but as in Italy certain homes work for certain grapes and not others. Often within regions we see differences in soil, aspect, temperature, and grape varieties. With tastings each week, we will focus on different regions of California, to become acquainted with the grapes and wine making styles.

Class 1 we will focus on Napa and sub regions Rutherford, Oakville, Calistoga, and Yountville.

Class 2 we do the same with Sonoma County with a view towards Dry Creek Valley Russian River Valley and smaller regions within each.

Class 3 we head a bit south to Los Carneros which borders on the upper reaches of SF bay. Cooler climate and a bit more humidity makes for different wines, including sparkling wines. a little further south we are in the mountains with Santa Lucia Highland, carpel Valley, Chalone and Arroyo Secco.

Class 4 Paso Robles, Edna Valley, Santa Maria, and Santa Ynez.

Class 5 is a look at Edna Valley, Arroyo Grande, Santa maria Valley and Santa Ynez Valley.

Class 6 we are in Temecula and will also look at some less familiar wine styles.

This class is for those who want an in-depth understanding of Italy’s six greatest wine regions with tastings to become acquainted with both regional grapes and wine making styles. Regions profiled are Tuscany; Friuli-Venezia-Giulia; Sicily; Campania; Piedmont; Trentino-Alto Adige. Learn about climate, soil, wine growing techniques and wine making. Why do some grapes work in certain areas and others do not? Why do wine making techniques differ? What are the characteristics of wines from these different regions? And what about costs? Stay tuned for further in-depth wine classes.