With Koen Van Der Meer
Saturday, June 8, 7:30-9:00pm
Sunday, June 9, 8:30am-1:00pm
Explore the future of bread as a life-giving substance and support for a new consciousness!
In this hands-on workshop, Koen Van Der Meer will introduce and guide us in the baking of a new kind of bread, made with Ordeum® malted barley leaven. The workshop will also include a presentation on the esoteric history of bread, from Zarathustra to Melchizedek to Christ.
Participants will leave with loaves that they have created and baked in the Pfeiffer Center’s wood-fired oven. In addition to working with legacy grains such as spelt and rye, Koen will also experiment for the first time with Pfeiffer Wheat flour, a new grain developed from research begun by Ehrenfried Pfeiffer in 1930.
Materials and equipment, plus a snack and light lunch on Sunday, are included in the workshop fee. This workshop is appropriate for all skill levels; while no previous baking experience is necessary, participants will learn techniques and skills that are applicable to any kind of baking.
Koen van der Meer has operated several natural foods bakeries in the Netherlands and the USA, starting in 1977. In 1981, while searching for an alternative to both yeast and sourdough bread, Koen began to use a leaven made from dried and sprouted organic barley, which has an abundance of enzymes that help to break down gluten. Using this leaven with grains such as spelt and rye, which are not degenerated like modern wheat, results in a bread that many gluten-sensitive people are able to eat. Koen bakes at the Philmont Cooperative Kitchen, where this bread is available, as well as at Random Harvest in Craryville, NY, Chatham Real Food Market Co-op in Chatham, NY, and Berkshire Food Co-op in Great Barrington, MA.
Workshop Schedule
Saturday, June 8
7:30-9:00pm: Presentation and preparation of leaven
Sunday, June 9
8:30-9:00am: Mix and work dough
9:00–9:50am: Presentation continued while dough rises
9:50–10:15am: Divide dough and shape loaves
10:15am–12:00pm: Presentation and lunch while dough rises
12:15–1:30pm: Bake in the Pfeiffer Center’s wood-fired oven