Needham Community Education

Come gather around the outdoor brick oven to celebrate the sensational tastes of Tuscany. Known for open-air brick oven cooking, Tuscan food combines the flavors of the outdoors with fresh ingredients and simple sauces. In this demo-style cooking class and dinner, Chef Thi will teach you to make a Lemon and Herb Spatchcock Chicken with olive pan sauce, Roasted Vegetable Panzanella salad, Farm Succotash and a beautiful Roasted Berry Compote with Mint Gelato. With the farm’s lush fields as your backdrop, you are sure to love this outdoor culinary experience. Guests are welcome to come early and hike the trails on the farm or simply enjoy the views from the comfort of an Adirondack chair. Please note, Powisset is NOT a nut or gluten free kitchen.

Longer days and warmer weather call for a picnic, the perfect way to take a break from it all, enjoy nature, and improve your well-being. Picnics are also an opportunity (or an excuse) to gather with family and friends in a casual setting and enjoy a no-fuss meal under the sky. In our cooking class, you’ll learn to prepare picnic-friendly dishes inspired by the Eastern Mediterranean region, where the weather is mild and eating outdoors in a social setting is a big part of everyday life. We will focus on simple, tasty dishes that are easy to make, travel well, and can be eaten cold while sitting on a blanket, often without utensils. The menu will include pita bread, cauliflower and eggplant tahini, veggie stuffed pastry, lentil salad, and halvah cookies. This in-person class is a combination of demonstration and hands-on experience. We will spend the second part of the afternoon outdoors (if the weather permits), enjoying what we have prepared, engaging socially, and sharing more picnic dish ideas.

Food of India spans from very simple to very stylized, rich and exotic, pleasing the palate of the poor and the elite simultaneously. The British were so enamored by the richness and variety of Indian Cuisine that they have claimed some of the dishes as part of their national cuisine. Let’s recreate some of the time tested, exotic recipes. We will learn to make Vegetable Tikka Masala (Paneer tikkas or cubes in a rich, spiced gravy with nuts, carrots and green pepper), Shreekhand (a dessert made with thickened yogurt, saffron, cardamom and almond-pistachio medley), and finally Green pulao (basmati rice cooked with cauliflower, potatoes, and peas with a cilantro chutney base), Come, explore this exotic cuisine with Shruti Mehta. A $20 ingredients fee is payable to the instructor in class.

Add some beautifully decorated cookies to your July 4th celebration. In this class, your instructor will teach you how to make the perfect royal icing consistency to fill and outline your Independence Day-themed cookies. You will also learn the technique of wet-on-wet and dry-on-dry for the perfect looking treat. Each student will receive 12 pre-baked cookies ready to be decorated. You will be provided with a box for bringing your cookies home. Note: This class can be a little messy so please bring your own apron. A $20 materials fee is payable to the instructor in class.

Let’s gather together to welcome summer with a splash of cool, hot, spicy dishes--Indian style. The heavy monsoon rains lead to an abundance of summer crop of mangoes, corn, and leafy vegetables. Everywhere in the street markets, you will see baskets filled with shimmering summer fruits and green, leafy vegetables. The cooks all over India enthusiastically incorporate the new crop in their daily spread. We will recreate some of the recipes in this class, including Corn Bhel, a lemony medley of sauteed corn with red chili powder, chickpea flour noodles, sweet onions, and cilantro, accompanied by Mango Raita of sweet, ripe mangoes in yogurt and spices. We will also make curried Moong Dal with Spinach, peanuts, ginger, garlic and chilies to be paired with Yogurt Rice with cucumber, a southern specialty. Let’s get cooking. A $20 ingredients fee is payable to the instructor in class.

Enjoy a fun-filled evening tasting and learning about delicious summer wines, while snacking on al fresco inspired hors d'oeuvres from Baker's Best Catering. Gordon’s Fine Wine & Liquors sommelier, Chelsea Bell, will lead an educational experience of sipping and swirling some of the best summer-centric wines from dreamy destinations such as Spain's Basque country, Provence, Sicily and beyond! This event is perfect for wine enthusiasts and beginners alike. Get ready to discover new wines which taste like summer in a bottle, served alongside inspired pairings by Baker's Best. Wine tasting will involve 6 different wines. Gordon's will offer special discounts off event-night wine purchases. Note: A $25/person wine fee is payable to Gordon’s in class.

It's the Bee's Knees! At this honey of an experience, you’ll learn about the Queen of pollinators and the delicious honey the bee community makes for mere mortals to enjoy. A collaboration between Master Beekeeper, Pete Fryckman, and Powisset Farm's Chef Thi, the class will share the wonders of beekeeping, and the flavor profiles of fresh honey combined with a lesson in creating seeded honey for culinary use. We’ll sample honey to enhance cheeses, meats, farm veggies and more, and taste a Prohibition-era Bee’s Knees cocktail. You’ll leave this class inspired and provisioned with new knowledge, a menu card and an elevated appreciation of the importance of bees -- and Queens -- in our daily lives.

Jen Ziskin, Co-Owner of La Morra and Punch Bowl, was inspired by the history of female Innkeepers and barmaids of the late 1700’s while doing research for her new restaurant, Punch Bowl. As an ode to women, she has designed an all-female wine list focusing on female producers, wine makers and vineyard managers. Learn wine tasting techniques, how to navigate a restaurant wine list, and discover wines outside your comfort zone, while focusing on the wines of the female producers, wine makers and vineyard managers. The class will be held on the restaurant’s terrace, weather permitting. Light nibbles will be provided. If you wish to stay for dinner, the restaurant encourages you to make a reservation. A $20 wine fee is payable to the instructor in class.