Bread Shaping Mastery: A Hands-On Baking Class

With Emily Downs of Emily’s Hearth

Join us for a hands-on bread baking class focused on the art of shaping dough with a true bread master, Emily Downs. She has honed her craft in settings ranging from the rustic wood-fired oven at Bobolink Dairy to some of New York City’s most renowned bakeries, including Sullivan Street Bakery and Balthazar. Passionate about the art and science of baking, Emily brings a wealth of knowledge, skill, and dedication to her teaching, helping students develop confidence and technique in the kitchen.

 Whether you’re a home baker looking to refine your skills or a beginner eager to learn, this class will guide you through the techniques needed to shape a variety of breads with confidence.

We’ll cover traditional and modern shaping methods for different types of bread, including:

✔ Classic boules and bâtards for rustic loaves

✔ Elegant braids and twists for enriched doughs

✔ Perfect sandwich loaves and dinner rolls

✔ Specialty shapes like knots, spirals, and more

You’ll learn how shaping affects texture, structure, and oven spring, ensuring your breads turn out both beautiful and delicious. With step-by-step instruction and hands-on practice, you’ll leave with new skills, freshly baked bread, and the confidence to shape like a pro!

No prior experience needed. All materials provided.

Come ready to get your hands in the dough and unleash your inner baker!

Imagination by Sunshine Tour Day – Join Us at the Mill!

We’re thrilled to invite you to a special community art event celebrating creativity, connection, and local talent. On Saturday, October 25, 2025, Marksboro Mills will host the first stop of the Imagination by Sunshine Tour Day, featuring artist Brielle Wallace—also known as Sunshine.

Come experience Brielle’s vibrant new outdoor mural at the mill, a stunning piece that celebrates nature, imagination, and the spirit of community. This is a chance to meet the artist, hear the story behind her work, and enjoy a meaningful moment at one of the most historic landmarks in Marksboro.

📍 Stop 1: Marksboro Mills
2:30 PM – 3:00 PM
1045 NJ-94, Marksboro, Frelinghuysen Township, NJ 07825
Tour Brielle’s new mural and kick off the day with us!

Afterward, we’ll continue the celebration just down the road:

📍 Stop 2: Penny Rose Coffee Co.
3:30 PM – 5:30 PM
111 Spring St, Newton, NJ 07860
Enjoy the Opening Reception of Brielle’s Artist Residency, meet the creative team behind Imagination by Sunshine, and connect with fellow art lovers over coffee and conversation.

This special day is hosted by Ibn Wallace and Brielle Wallace, and we are honored to be part of their journey bringing art to life in our community.

Come celebrate the season the old-fashioned way—hands in the soil, food on the table, and community at the heart of it all.

Join us for our Annual Harvest Festival, a day where neighbors, families, and friends come together to bring in the harvest, share a meal, and enjoy the simple magic of autumn on the farm.

What to Expect

✅ Roll up your sleeves and lend a hand in the fields
🎨 Kids’ squash decorating station – farm art encouraged
🌱 Tour the winter crops and see what’s ahead for farm shares
🥖 Taste fresh bread from Marksboro Mills, baked with grains grown right here with River Valley Community Grains
🛒 The Marksboro Mills crew will be onsite at 3:00 PM with our signature Mills Loaf and other fresh goods for sale
🍲 Potluck dinner (please bring a dish to share)
🔥 Crackling fire, music, conversation, and fall vibes

Good to Know

• Free event – registration not required

• Family-friendly and open to all

• Bring a dish, a chair, and warm layers for evening weather

• Harvest tools provided—just bring your spirit of adventure

Come Be Part of the Harvest

This isn’t just another fall festival—it's a celebration of community, soil, and the local food that connects us. Whether you come to help in the fields or just to soak up the experience, you’ll leave full—in heart and in belly.

Visit CSG @ Genesis Farm & More Info Here!

Harvest Pasta Class

With Jess Mauceri

Celebrate the flavors of the season with a hands-on pasta-making class inspired by the autumn harvest. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to craft fresh, homemade pasta from scratch and pair it with rich, seasonal ingredients like roasted squash, earthy mushrooms, fragrant herbs, and warm spices. Guided step-by-step, you’ll roll, shape, and cook pasta that highlights the best of October’s bounty. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned home cook, this class will leave you with new skills, delicious recipes, and the joy of sharing a comforting fall meal.

Brioche and Beyond

With Judy Mancini the Marksboro Mills Bun Master!

Learn how to make and egg and butter enriched yeast dough that can be used for Brioche, Morning Buns and Babka. Judy will show you the techniques and tweaks to turn this simple dough into miracles of deliciousness and beauty! You will leave with recipes and dough to bake at home, as well be able to enjoy the creations we make in the class. It’s a rare opportunity to learn from a true master.

Discover the joy of crafting delicious, homemade pizzas in this fun and interactive pizza-making class designed for at-home cooks of all skill levels! Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned home chef, this class will teach you everything you need to know to create restaurant-quality pizzas in your own kitchen. 

Your instructor Emily Downs of Emily’s Hearth has been making pizzas for almost 20 years. She has worked in pizzerias all over the world from San Francisco, to NYC, to Naples, Italy. She has been featured in NJ Monthly magazine, making the list of best pizza in NJ and most recently mentioned in Vogue Magazines best weddings of 2025.  

In this hands-on workshop, you’ll: 

• Learn the secrets to making the perfect pizza dough from scratch, including tips for kneading, proofing, and shaping. 

• Explore different types of sauces, from classic marinara to creative alternatives. 

• Experiment with an array of toppings, cheeses, and flavor combinations to suit your tastes. 

• Discover techniques for baking pizzas in your home oven or on a pizza stone for that authentic pizzeria experience. 

By the end of the class, you’ll have the skills and confidence to prepare your own personalized pizzas that are sure to impress family and friends. Plus, you’ll leave with recipes, pro tips, and dough to take home and transform your kitchen into your favorite pizzeria! 

BYOB and to enjoy while indulging in the fruits of your labor, enjoying the freshly baked pizza you created in this hands on class. 

Pastry crusts are so versatile and can be used in both savory and sweet baked goods. 

These all freeze well, ready for your next quiche or fresh fruit tart. 

In this class Judy will demo three types of crusts: 

Quick Puff Pastry/Sweet Crust/Short Crust 

We will learn how to substitute different flours, rolling techniques, and how to line a tart pan successfully. Learn tips to avoid soggy bottoms, shrinking sides and tough texture. 

And once we have our crusts down, we will be baking Hand Pies/Quiche/ and Baked Fruit Tart with Frangipane 

You will leave with recipes and the fruits of your labor to take home! 

Easy Peasy Sourdough Ciabatta

Join Lena Halberstadt, our local master tomato grower and sourdough baker,  as she shows you the simplest sourdough you’ll ever bake. It doesn’t require strenuous kneading, complicated shaping or long oven preheating. It bakes in 20 minutes and your active involvement with this dough is under 30 minutes in total. And yet you get delicious bread with airy open crumb and rustic crust every time. And it’s absolutely perfect for tomato sandwiches: large holes capture all the good stuff, while the crispy chewy crust traps it all inside. It’s my go-to summer bake!

The class will feature: 
- tasting fresh ciabatta with my tomatoes
- snacking on my favorite discard dish (crepes with various fillings)
- observing the demo mixing and shaping of ciabatta
- demo of sourdough starter handling and troubleshooting
- a demo bake of a batch of ciabatta
- a printout of the master recipe with notes on starter approach and discard recipes
- you get to take home some freshly baked ciabatta and enough sourdough starter to make this dough at home right away.

With Emily Downs of Emily’s Hearth

Discover the joy of crafting delicious, homemade pizzas in this fun and interactive pizza-making class designed for at-home cooks of all skill levels! Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned home chef, this class will teach you everything you need to know to create restaurant-quality pizzas in your own kitchen.

Your instructor Emily Downs of Emily’s Hearth has been making pizzas for almost 20 years. She has worked in pizzerias all over the world from San Francisco, to NYC, to Naples, Italy. She has been featured in NJ Monthly magazine, making the list of best pizza in NJ and most recently mentioned in Vogue Magazines best weddings of 2025. 

In this hands-on workshop, you’ll:

• Learn the secrets to making the perfect pizza dough from scratch, including tips for kneading, proofing, and shaping.

• Explore different types of sauces, from classic marinara to creative alternatives.

• Experiment with an array of toppings, cheeses, and flavor combinations to suit your tastes.

• Discover techniques for baking pizzas in your home oven or on a pizza stone for that authentic pizzeria experience.

By the end of the class, you’ll have the skills and confidence to prepare your own personalized pizzas that are sure to impress family and friends. Plus, you’ll leave with recipes, pro tips, and dough to take home and transform your kitchen into your favorite pizzeria!

BYOB and to enjoy while indulging in the fruits of your labor, enjoying the freshly baked pizza you created in this hands on class.

Kids Baking Class: Homemade Dog Treats!

Ages 3-6 parent/guardian required. Ages 7-12 parent guardian optional. 

Join Tara Fehon, our regular Kids baking teacher, for a fun baking class where kids become chefs for their canine companions! In this hands-on session, young bakers will whip up delicious, dog treats using our local grains and other, pet-safe ingredients. It’s the pawfect blend of creativity, fun, and love for our four-legged friends. All supplies provided. You will leave with a recipe and treats for your pups.

Please bring the following items to class: an apron, a step stool (if your little one needs help reaching the counter), and a photo of your canine friend (optional). 

Notes: Recipe contains peanuts. Please consult your veterinarian to make sure recipe is pet safe. 

This month Alka is bringing you Indian Pizza!

The Italians came to own “pizza” but really the act of making a pizza from flatbread is loved across cultures. Indian bakers like to make theirs with Bhakri ,made from whole wheat flour. It is puffy, light, and crisp in texture. Alka will show you how make this dough, stretch it and form it, and how to dress your pizza with indian toppings and seasonings, as well as our American classic choices. Come hungry as you will eat! As well you will leave with recipes and dough to take home.

Learn to make Sweet Buns with Judy – the Bun Master!!!

We are so fortunate to have Judy Mancini baking at the mill regularly for our Pop Bakery on Saturdays – and you have all come to love her sweet buns very much we know! So we asked if she would teach a class and she generously agreed. This is an opportunity you really don’t want to miss. Learn the basics of a sweet yeast dough, enriched with eggs and butter, that is the basis of so many delicious treats.

It can be turned into a buttery jam filled bun, a savory babka or topped with fresh fruit and baked as a tart.

Participants will learn a technique to keep your buns soft and pillowy, different ways to shape the dough, and how to know when the dough is proofed and ready to bake.

Everyone will go home with dough that they have made, ready for an overnight rest in the fridge, to be baked the next day.

Learn the basics of making fresh pierogi’s! All ingredients included. BYO rolling pin. You will leave with at least one batch of pierogi’s.

This class is taught by Jess Mauceri, a certified health coach from NYC’s Institute for Integrative Nutrition, will be leading our Basics of Making Fresh Pasta class. Jess founded a school lunch program called "What's for Lunch" to bring fresh, healthy meals to students. Passionate about cooking with whole ingredients, she also holds several fitness certifications and actively trains clients.

Join Hollie in our first ever Teen class! She will teach you how to make your own bread dough and shape it into an adorable turtle. You will leave with a finished bread and dough to make another at home!

Flavorful Indian Flatbreads: Bhakri

Under the guidance of Alka, a homecook and an expert in Indian flatbreads baking, explore the vast world of Indian flatbreads baking, and the condiments that go along with the them in an ongoing series here at our community kitchen.

This month Alka is going to teach us  Gujarati Bhakri, a whole wheat flour flatbread, a staple in most Gujarati households in India. It is similar to chapati, but thick and crisp in texture. This flatbread is very versatile. You can eat it in breakfast with morning tea. In lunch with veggies, and dal. Even in dinner with just lukewarm milk. We will enjoy our flatbreads and condiments in our class, as well you will leave with recipes, tips, and dough to take home.

Join us for an unforgettable afternoon with Rose Levy Beranbaum, a three-time James Beard Award winner and legendary cookbook author of The Cake Bible and The Bread Bible.

We were thrilled to learn that Rose and her husband, Woody, live nearby and soon became inspired by our mission to restore a naturally grown, regional grain economy in New Jersey. After sampling our baked goods and working with our stone-milled flour, they decided to host a book signing and baking class with us!

During this event, Rose (and Lena) will demonstrate how to create her celebrated 10 Grain Bread, sharing her technique using our flour that she insists elevates the bread to new heights. Plus, in celebration of the updated release of The Cake Bible 35th Anniversary Edition, she will also share a tasting with us of her renowned carrot cake and the secrets behind her perfect cream cheese frosting.

A selection of Rose’s cookbooks will be available for signing. Feel free to bring any of your treasured Rose Levy Beranbaum cookbooks for her to sign as well!

Renowned as the "Diva of Desserts" and lauded as "the most meticulous cook who ever lived," Rose is dedicated to the art and science of baking. As The Washington Post put it, "If God is in the details, then Beranbaum must have one foot in heaven."

To learn more about Rose and her extraordinary accomplishments, visit her website at realbakingwithrose.com.

Join us for a hands-on gnocchi-making class where you'll learn the art of crafting two delicious variations of this classic Italian dish—light and pillowy ricotta gnocchi and traditional potato gnocchi. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned home cook, this class will give you the skills and confidence to create perfect gnocchi from scratch.

Come join us for some out-of-this-world tomato action on Star Wars Day (May 4th) at Marksboro Mills!

This workshop will cover the fundamentals of growing tomatoes for flavor — using affordable, locally sourced materials. We’ll talk supports, fertilizing, watering, pruning, harvesting, eating and preserving — everything you need to grow tomatoes worth bragging about.

After the class, browse a curated selection of robust, fully hardened-off seedlings — dozens of exceptional varieties grown from seed right here in Blairstown. You’ll be ready to plant that very afternoon!

Whether you’re just getting started or looking to level up, come discover how not to waste your garden space on bland, big-box store tomato seedlings. We’ve got flavor bombs in every size, shape, and color.

Hope to see you there and may the sauce be with you!

With Emily Downs of Emily’s Hearth

Discover the joy of crafting delicious, homemade pizzas in this fun and interactive pizza-making class designed for at-home cooks of all skill levels! Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned home chef, this class will teach you everything you need to know to create restaurant-quality pizzas in your own kitchen.

Your instructor Emily Downs of Emily’s Hearth has been making pizzas for almost 20 years. She has worked in pizzerias all over the world from San Francisco, to NYC, to Naples, Italy. She has been featured in NJ Monthly magazine, making the list of best pizza in NJ and most recently mentioned in Vogue Magazines best weddings of 2025. 

In this hands-on workshop, you’ll:

• Learn the secrets to making the perfect pizza dough from scratch, including tips for kneading, proofing, and shaping.

• Explore different types of sauces, from classic marinara to creative alternatives.

• Experiment with an array of toppings, cheeses, and flavor combinations to suit your tastes.

• Discover techniques for baking pizzas in your home oven or on a pizza stone for that authentic pizzeria experience.

By the end of the class, you’ll have the skills and confidence to prepare your own personalized pizzas that are sure to impress family and friends. Plus, you’ll leave with recipes, pro tips, and dough to take home and transform your kitchen into your favorite pizzeria!

BYOB and to enjoy while indulging in the fruits of your labor, enjoying the freshly baked pizza you created in this hands on class.

And as an extra perk, BYOB and enjoy the fruits of your labor with your fellow pizza makers with some live Blues by the Delta Blues of  Filthy Rich and Eric Kaplan right in our Ruthie's Speakeasy Garage,  while keeping toasty by our historic wood stove!

Join us for this Cornmeal Flatbread class where you’ll learn to make the soft, flavorful, gluten free Indian flatbread. Also known as “ Makki di Roti” this is a unleavened flatbread. It is a winter staple recipe from North India, and is classically paired with mustard green saag and ghee.

Under the guidance of Alka, a homecook and an expert in Indian flatbreads baking, she will take us through the world of Indian flatbreads, this class being her third in an ongoing series here at our community kitchen.

While growing up in Delhi she learned making of different flatbreads through the concept of “Sanjha Chulha” translates to “common clay oven”. Where women from local communities would cook their roti/ flatbreads in a shared clay oven (tandoor).
After moving to a new country, baking flatbreads became a hobby cum passion for her.

By the end of the class, you’ll have the skills and confidence to prepare your own flatbread. You will leave with recipes, tips, and dough to take home

For ages 3 and up. 

Ages 3-6 parent/guardian required.

Ages 7-12 parent guardian optional. 

Learn to bake a springtime classic, the carrot cupcakes, with Tara Fehon--just in time for the Easter holiday. 

Kids will learn basic kitchen safety rules, food prep, bake cupcakes and last but not least, have fun decorating! 

Kids will go home with freshly baked cupcakes made with locally sourced/milled flour and supplies to decorate cakes at home. 

Your instructor will be Tara Fehon, a Blairstown native who now lives in the Philly suburbs with her husband and two daughters. She has been cooking and baking with her family her whole life and is carrying on these traditions with her daughters daily. Tara taught two classes here back in January that were a huge success. She is back in her hometown regularly visiting Nanny and Bop Bop, so lucky for us she loves teaching kids at Marksboro Mills!