This page Log Cabin Cooking Classes has moved!

Check it out for updated info on upcoming classes along with all our articles on how to play the mandolin, the Carter Family, traditional music and musicians on the updated Native Ground site with all our old aritcles (like this one) and new articles, videos, books and recordings.

 

Welcome to

Log Cabin Cooking Classes
 

Experience the art of old-time retro cooking in a 1940s East Asheville log cabin.

You’ll think you’re in granny’s kitchen as you tie on a vintage feed-sack apron and bake up pies, biscuits, our garden veggies, and more using retro kitchen gadgets, mixers, bowls, and a 1928 Home Comfort wood cookstove. Recipes are heirloom, and ingredients are seasonal, local, and organic when possible. All classes hands-on and include recipes and take-home food or in-class feast. Beginning and experienced cooks welcome. Cost includes materials fee. Class size limited to 8.  

Vegetarian substitutions available for all classes.

 

Edible Organic Bath & Beauty Product Gifts               Sunday, November 8, 2:00-5:00 $45

You know how they say “don’t put anything on your skin you wouldn’t eat?” Well, here’s the answer to your dreams … body and bath products made of a variety of organic oils, dried edible flowers, and my neighbor's beeswax. We’ll make vanilla bean infused lip balm, coconut face & body cream, cocoa scented body bar, historic cold cream from 1848, herbal facial steam stuff, rose bath fizzies, and a divine bath tea. I’ve adorned my products with vintage labels & irreverent names and I’ll give hints for labeling your products as well. We’ll enjoy fun seasonal snacks and a steaming mug of cinnamon rum apricot nectar as we create.  Participants will leave with a sample of each item we make.

Extra packaging materials such as empty lip balm tubes, small glass jars, and tins will be available for purchase during the class. These bath products make terrific gifts!

Holiday Baking Traditions from a German Kitchen

                                                                                            Sunday, December 6 1:00-4:00 $45
 

 
Renate Rikkers grew up near Cologne in Germany's Rhineland region. She continues the tradition of REAL candles on her Christmas trees, and of baking traditional German Christmas cookies, holiday breads, and confections during the advent season.  Some of her favorite recipes date back to her grandfather's bakery in the late 1800's. She will show us how to create a variety of German holiday baked goods, not just for personal consumption but as special gifts...Saint nicholas (santa shaped) yeast breads, Ischler cookies (almonds, apricot, and chocolate), Zimtsterne (cinnamon christmas stars), Zitronemherzen (lemon hearts), hazelnut meringues, homemade marzipan filled dates and Lebuchen rum balls. Participants will bring home a plate of cookies and santa bread if we don't eat them all in class!
 

 

New!!!   The "I don't cook" series of classes for beginning or lapsed cooks.

 I hear this all the time, I don't cook, and I can never quite believe it. In fact, I find it shocking! So I'm just going to do what little I can to encourage everyone who wants to, to get in the kitchen and whip out some healthy, easy, seasonal, and mostly relatively quick slow foods that will tickle your innards.  Future classes will include I don't make soups and stews, I don't bake, I don't prepare fresh seasonal vegetables, I don't throw dinner parties, the possibilities are endless! We'll also learn knife skills, ingredients, kitchen equipment, seasoning know-how, and what kinds of foods pair well with others.

To Register for classes,  call (828) 298-2270 or email: swellcookin@hotmail.com

To receive notice of future classes ... contact us by email at swellcookin@hotmail.com (We never give out your email or address to anyone!)

Gift Certificates Available!!!

Ask us about private group classes for friends, family, or co-workers. We can accommodate from 6 to 15 per group.

 

Other Cooking Classes in the Asheville Area

I'm just one of many offering cooking classes in the Asheville area, be sure to check out the following terrific classes as well  (I know they're terrific because I've taken classes with all these folks):

Swannanoa School of Culinary Arts this summer right in your own back yard at Warren Wilson       
Cooking Classes and more all year at John C. Campbell Folk School
Slow Food Asheville, monthly events you won't want to miss, check the events link
Italian Cooking Classes with Wally Maria Mazzucco Wyatt 
Thai Cooking Classes in your home or hers Kade Espy

Stecoah Valley Cultural Arts Center in Robbinsville NC 
Vegetarian, Raw foods with Lenore Baum
 

Barbara Swell has written eight historic cookbooks including Log Cabin Cooking, The Lost Art of Pie Making, and The First American Cookie Lady. See Native Ground  (click on Kitchen & Home) She teaches cooking classes at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Swannanoa School of Culinary Arts, and elsewhere, and is on the Slow Food Asheville Board. An overenthusiastic organic gardener, you'll most often find her rooting in the dirt.

 

Barbara Swell

Directions:  Log Cabin Cooking & Music is located at 111 Bell Road, just off off New Haw Creek Road in the Haw Creek section of East Asheville. From Highway 240 in Asheville, take exit #7. From 240 going East, turn left at the light. From 240 going West, turn right at the light. Now you're on Tunnel Road going east. At the very first light, turn left and then take a sudden right on New Haw Creek Road. Go about 1 ½ miles. On your right you’ll see a baseball field. Turn right at the beginning of the ball field on Bell Road. Pass Evergreen Charter School on your left. You’ll see a new development on your right, (Ozark Springs Road) and then our big garden on the right. At the end of the garden, you’ll see two big black mailboxes that say 111 and 109. Turn right there. As you come up the driveway, the cabin will be on your left. You can park either in front of in back of the cabin.

For more information, call (828) 298-2270 or (828) 299-7031

email: swellcookin@hotmail.com

 


Log Cabin Cooking & Music

111 Bell Road
Asheville NC 28805

Office: (828) 299-7031
Fax: (828) 298-5607

banjo@nativeground.com

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