SOME of the bakers, farmers and other experts who will be speaking at the Kneading Conference:
• Jeffrey Hamelman, baking director for King Arthur Flour, is one of just 130 master bakers in America. He’ll present a keynote address on the challenges and rewards of working with local grains, and will talk about opening a successful bakery.
• Dusty Dowse, a baker and biology professor at the University of Maine, will explore the theory and practice of sourdough fermentation. He’ll teach how to start and maintain a sourdough culture and how to use it, including conversion of your favorite yeast recipes to sourdough. He’ll also conduct a workshop on traditional preparations of corn.
• Richard Miscovich and Ciril Hitz are both from Johnson & Wales’ College of Culinary Arts in Providence, R.I. Hitz, the department chair of the college’s International Baking & Pastry Institute, was named one of the top 10 pastry chefs in America by Pastry Art & Design in 2007.
• Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery invented a method for making no-knead bread, and the New York Times made it famous. He’ll lead conference-goers through the steps to make the bread.
• Doug Brown of Oak Haven Organic Farm in Granville Ferry, Nova Scotia, works with unusual grains such as spelt and kamut. He and Cate Conway, owner of Dancing Embers Bakery in Anson, will collaborate on a whole/ancient grains workshop.
• Jim Amaral of Borealis Breads, who pioneered working with Maine farmers to restore grain cultivation in the state, will compare Maxine wheat harvested from three fields.
• Jonathan Rubenstein, a rabbi, baker and founder of Slice of Heaven Breads at Temple Sinai in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., will teach kids at the Bread Fair how to make pizza.
• Stu Silverstein, Maine author of books about oven-building, will teach people how to build an earth oven out of clay. The oven will be auctioned to the highest bidder at the end of the workshop.
• Pat Manley, owner of Brick Stove Works in Washington, will teach how to build a brick oven. Manley built the ovens at such popular Maine restaurants as Fore Street, Primo, the Edge and Black Crow Bakery. He’s also the founder of Masons on a Mission, a nonprofit group that travels to Guatemala every year to build vented brick cook stoves in homes that need them.
• Jonathan Stevens and Cheryl Maffei, owners of the Hungry Ghost Bakery in Northampton, Mass., will teach flatbreads and crackers, and talk about their visits with underground French bakers.
• Kelley Hughes, owner of Wildflours Bakery in Brunswick, will demonstrate how to make gluten-free pastries.
• Stephen Lanzalotta, who bakes bread, pastries and pizza at Micucci’s in Portland, will talk about the philosophy of artisan bread.
• Michael and Sandy Jubinsky, co-founders of the Stone Turtle Baking and Cooking School in Lyman, will share the secrets of two of France’s favorite breads, batards and boules. There will be hands-on participation so you can get the feel of the dough.
• Douglas Coffin, owner of the Big Green Pizza Truck in New Haven, Conn., will discuss his pizza catering business using wood-fired ovens built into restored vintage trucks.
• Fred Kirschenmann, author and owner of a 3,500-acre organic farm in North Dakota, will open the conference. Kirschenmann is a Distinguished Fellow of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University and president of the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Tarrytown, N.Y.
• Stephen Jones, a research scientist from Washington State University who is working on perennial wheat, will discuss the national grain renaissance.
• Elisabeth Vachon and Sophie Beauchemin, from La Meunerie Milanaise in Quebec, will talk about the agronomics of grain.
• Mark Fulford of Teltane Farm in Monroe, a farm consultant/educator and nationally renowned soil fertility expert, has traveled to Asia to research the tools that traditional, small-scale farmers use to grow and harvest grains.
• Will Bonsall of the town of Industry is the director of the Scatterseed Project, a program to preserve the genetic diversity of heritage crops. He’ll talk about small-scale wheat cultivation and alternative grains to wheat.
• Eli Rogosa of Heritage Wheat Conservancy collects and conserves almost-extinct grains in the Mideast and Europe. She’ll give a workshop on wheat biodiversity and baking with gluten-safe einkorn and emmer. Rogosa also grows and restores endangered strains of wheat right here in New England.
• Mary-Howell Martens will talk about the conversion of her diversified New York farm from conventional to organic.
• Roger Jansen, a retired miller from California, will teach the dying art of cutting, sharpening and maintaining grist stones.
• Barry Dana, former chief of the Penobscot Nation, and Albie Barden, co-founder of the Kneading Conference and the Common Ground Fair, will collaborate on a presentation about the traditional uses of corn.
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