This class is dedicated to classic Holiday recipes with local ingredients using premium flours, home-preserved fruits, and regional nuts. This course will explain some basic pastry and bread techniques in addition to sourcing and handling tips for the featured fruits and nuts. Workshop instruction will include making and decorating Lebkuchen (a honey rye cookie cake layered with jam) and Stollen (a rich yeasted bread studded with dried fruits enfolding a nut layer). Recipes are based on flours from one of this country’s great Origin Mills, Meadowlark Organics in neighboring Ridgeway. We will provide a list of what to bring and where to find supplies for the novice in advance of the class.

This one-of-a-kind weekend experience is designed to allow you to disconnect, immerse and explore. “Taliesin works like a charm on everybody that comes within its atmosphere,” writes Wright to his friend and client Darwin Martin in 1929. To experience Taliesin in its fullest, you will access a variety of historic spaces and the pristine rural landscape of Driftless Wisconsin; complementary housing is included in the workshop experience.

Please note that we are not aiming at being a hotel or resort, but focus on carrying out the timeless elements of the Taliesin Legacy – connecting people, architecture, and the land. 

Each of you will be housed in a single room across the Taliesin estate in rustic Taliesin Fellowship dwellings, with shared bathrooms, access to a kitchenette, and living space. 

Each workshop includes a welcome reception in the main residence and a tour of the buildings. Classroom instruction will be held in the kitchen of the Frank Lloyd Wright Visitor Center and in other designated spaces across the Taliesin estate. Lunch and breakfast will be served at the Frank Lloyd Wright Visitor Center, while dinner is a wonderful opportunity to explore the local artisanal community individually or as a group.

About the Instructors 

Odessa Piper 

Odessa Piper is the founding Chef of L’Etoile, a pioneering farm-to-table restaurant in Madison, Wisconsin, which she established in 1976 and ran for 30 years.  In those early years she helped create local supply networks that made it possible to cook primarily from the region through every season.  Now based in New England, Odessa continues her close ties with the Driftless Region through culinary instruction and consulting, and as a permaculture product development mentor to the Savanna Institute. She describes herself as a life-long advocate for the gastronomy of the snow belt—its seasons, farmers, and artisans

Bazile Booth

Bazile Booth is a self-taught baker, food entrepreneur, and fermentation enthusiast. Her kitchen is her laboratory, at home and at work. Inspired in her late teens by a collection of vegetarian cookbooks, she trusted her senses and followed her passion for natural foods from her unique hometown of Boulder Colorado, to the fertile Wisconsin River Valley. Bazile hones her culinary skills through continuous practice, attending fermentation and baking workshops, and most recently, teaching. Bazile lives in nearby Spring Green, where she and her husband David concoct fabulous soups and baked goods from scratch under the brand name Soups! I Did it Again.

Cancellations

Tickets are non-refundable even if plans change due to circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Taliesin is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site, and all ticket sales support our mission to preserve the cultural, built, and natural environments. In the unfortunate event that Taliesin Preservation cancels the event, guests will be notified in advance, and offered a full refund to the original payment method.