Kneading Conference 2021

Presented by: Damons Damon's Beverage Mart & Redemption

This workshop will be hosted virtually and in-person at Maine Grains (Skowhegan, ME)
To enroll in the in-person workshop Click Here
To enroll in the virtual workshop Click Here
NOTE: All full pass registrants can opt to attend in-person for no extra cost. Please email kayla@mainegrainalliance.com

The hearth is the focal point of the home, the place where historically the daily bread was baked over an open fire. Join Michael and Evan for a journey back to the ancient Middle East, Mesopotamia, the home of flat breads and hearth breads. Using a small pizza oven they will demonstrate a variety of breads. From pitta, pide and pizza, to sangak, manoush and barbari.

Learn how to make a quick and easy flatbread dough, as well as how to control the fire and oven temperature.
Michael has spent the last two years living in the Republic of Georgia, between Turkey and Russia. Evan and Michael will demonstrate how to make Georgia Khachapuri, a filled flatbread, as well as breads from Turkey and Lebanon. If you have ever wondered why and how bread became the "staff of life" then this is for you.

Join head brewmaster, Jason Perkins, as he navigates us through the key grain types for brewing: Barley, Wheat and Oats. Jason will discuss from both a Brewer and Grower Perspective as well as what each key grain contributes to beer. Jason will also lend insight and advice for what a brewer is looking for is different than what a baker is looking for. Joining Jason will be an experienced grain grower and they will discuss how they need to alter their growing techniques to accommodate these differences.

Presented by Skowhegan Savings

Presented by: Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce

Choosing to bake alone in a professional setting brings with it challenges and rewards, many of which reveal themself only over time. In this conversation, we reflect on the decision we made to bake alone and explore how we might make that decision today. We will talk about everything from the role of equipment to the role of music. We will discuss our work schedule and techniques and formulas we have adopted to facilitate smooth bakes with two hands. We will talk about managing the aging and health changes of a baker. We will talk about finding shortcuts without compromise and decisions that we have made that occasionally make our job harder.  And, we will leave time for Q&A  and conversation with the viewers.

Presented by: Hight Family of Dealerships

The battle in the food industry since industrialization where mass production was first introduced to the world has always been shelf life. The longer the shelf life, the more the re-seller, such as the super market and the consumer are interested because the limited loss incurred translates to more money in their pocket.
We will discuss the concept of WA, known as water activity. Water activity is the cornerstone of all food preservation including bread. We will discuss unconventional approach such as bread is another form of gel as opposed to talk about gluten strength. By understanding the starch behavior at a molecular level, we will be able to reach new level in our baking alternatives.

In this workshop, we will discuss 2 ways to extend shelf life. The first approach is basically a technique to help you to have your bread stay fresh from 2 days to 4 or 5 days without any chemical additive or improver. The second approach is the sterilization of what the modernist bread book called "brick like bread”. The sterilization process will allow extending shelf life of those bread beyond 1 year. Yes, your read right.; 1 year.
After that work shop, your knowledge and understanding of what is happening inside your loaf as oppose to adding any kind of preservative or any external chemical, will make you a better baker and hopefully offer you new ideas on how to approach the challenge of shelf life extension.
In order to make our point, we will talk about what the Lb has done and discover in order to extent the shelf life of our bread. A massive amount of research in the lab has been done to extend the shelf life of bread to the point that some of that while fluffy stuff called bread found in our supermarket has actually nothing to do with bread.

Maltogenic analyze enzyme was the biggest breakthrough in the field in the last 75 years. The lab-created enzyme allows the bread to extend its shelf life beyond anything we thought possible.
How do we deal with the customer expectation that their artisanal bread should be good of a week without using any external additive?
Easy; Understanding micro biology at its simplest expression, will allow you to modify your method of making a bread that would indeed extend shelf life from 2 days to 1 year... yes you read right, 1 year

In this workshop, we will discuss ways to extend shelf life from 2 days to 4 or 5 days without any chemicals. Consequently saving considerable amount of money from a shipping perspective,( less frequently) less return from your re seller and increasing sales and maintaining an artisan-style bread.

Finally, we will discuss how we can use modern technology to our advantage to sterilized dense made bread such as pumpernickel,German Vollkornbrot or Rugbrod to create a bread with a shelf life of over 1 year and again without any chemical and keeping all nutritional value of our product
Process, recipe, and equipment will be discussed during that workshop.

Presented By: The Heritage House

Flour is where farmer, miller, and baker meet. As we refocus on local growing and small-scale milling, we have an opportunity to revisit flour production based on a largely forgotten history. The purpose of this hands-on workshop is to introduce you to ideas and techniques from the history of bread. Whether you are a farmer, miller, or baker, there will be something in this workshop for you.

Our ideas about flour are shaped by the roller mill. Historically, flour was understood as a more dynamic product than it is today. This workshop introduces different ways of thinking about flour, and practical techniques for millers to produce flours that will inspire bakers to be creative and inventive.

I will show videos of water mills and artisan mills at work. The center of the demonstrations, however, will be live. I will demonstrate milling using my 8” stone Meadows Mill, and sieving and bolting using metal and cloth sieves that enable us to recreate historic flours, as well as invent new flours. An optional materials list will be provided before the workshop.

The workshop covers the systems the French called mouture rustique and mouture economique. We will work with both the “throughs” - the flour that falls through the sieves — and the “overtails” — the flour that stays behind. These techniques include conditioning grain before milling, and selective re-milling of sifted product, which are then sifted a second time. I will provide historic recipes to match the historic flours we make, and will offer a few recipes for flours that are entirely novel. This workshop is about finding inspiration in the past to feed our passion for grains, milling, and bread.

Hearth breads have long been the bastion of whole grains, but it is also satisfying to see this important and healthy ingredient incorporated in a wide variety of baked goods. Sprouted Grain Pain de Mie is a high quality, nutritious and delicious sandwich bread that is slightly sweetened with honey. This convenient to make bread enjoys a long shelf-life and is perfect for families, people who eat a lot of sandwiches and toast or anybody interested in exploring the wonder of sprouted grains. Sprouting grain is an easy way to diversify whole grain consumption in your life. In addition to demonstrating the method to make Sprouted Grain Pain de Mie, Richard will also illustrate the sprouting process and suggest was to incorporate sprouts in salads, soups and beverages.

Amber Waves of Gluten: The Story of One of the Most Famous Protein Families
Within the long and fascinating history of wheat is the subplot surrounding gluten. This group of proteins is used by the plant to store nutrients for the developing embryo after germination, and for our purposes, was one of the reasons that bread made from wheat was highly valued throughout history. This workshop provides an overview of gluten from the ancient grains to modern-day varieties, along with a social history of how and why we love and hate these proteins.

Phyllo pita, is to the Greeks what pizza is to the Italians, pie is to the Americans, strudel to the Austrians, and tarts to the French. The art of making these thin sheets of flour and water known as phyllo (filo) is ancient, probably as old as bread-making itself. In this class we will examine two products. Spanakopita, a staple at every Greek holiday. Herb scented spinach combined with feta and scallions makes this dish a family favorite. And Kalitsounia, a Cretan, savory cheese hand pie that you can never make too much of.

Conversations about innovations in linking with fresh flour and whole grains from regional systems into hunger relief programs andlow income communities

Presented By: Ginny's Natural Corner

Life outside of the customary baker's pantry has much to offer both home and professional bakers. From delicate flower or herb-scented pastry creams, fruit galettes infused with non-traditional spices, and robustly flavored bread inclusions, there exist many opportunities to bring in a bounty of seasonal aromas that evoke memories and delight. Participants in this workshop will learn several techniques developed and employed frequently at OWL Bakery to coax and amplify the flavors of the garden in our products. The recipes and methods shared are easily adapted for bakers to explore the magic of their own locales, seasons, and curiosity.

Dusty will cover how the ingredients of bread: flour, water, salt, and leavening, act together to make the perfect outcome.  We will start with baking science, covering the chemistry, physics and biology of dough development and leavening.  We will then progress through practical discussions and demonstrations based on these principles that will help you make continuing improvements to what you bake no matter what your level.

Presented by the Maine Grain Alliance Board of Directors

Presented By: 1890 Primitives



We humans have been baking with wood and fire since before we started writing. The process takes practice and patience to perfect, but the results, no matter how imperfect, will touch your soul in a way you can't explain. Join Andy Clark of Moxie Bread Co. and David Kaminer of Raleigh Street Bakery for a lesson on wood fired baking. In this 2 hour live zoom lesson, Andy and David will talk about the sourdough baking process, how to use more regional whole grains in your bread and the importance of using them, and how to bake a variety of breads in a wood fired oven, (wood fired oven not required for participation). They will also talk about other baking options for those of you who do not have access to one. There will be time for questions and maybe a banjo serenade if they can squeeze it in.

As featured last spring in the New York Times opinion piece by Timothy Wu, local grain economies hold promise for knitting rural communities together, creating jobs, and ensuring resiliency through tough times. Resurgent local grain economies are realizing the power to build entrepreneurial ecosystems for strong community connections and success. The rural regions in which grain production happens are essential to the nearby urban population centers, and urban markets that spend their dollars on regionally grown purchases together, demonstrate a framework for growth and change in our dynamic food system. Presented by Amber Lambke, co-founder of the Maine Grain Alliance in 2007 and Maine Grains, Inc. (2012), a gristmill in downtown Skowhegan, ME housed in a repurposed Victorian jailhouse.

Presented by the Hight Family of Dealerships

Presented By: Miele USA

Join renowned gluten-free baker, Sarah Magid as she discusses her approach to milling oats and utilizing them in her nutrient-dense, gluten-free baking. She will share her recipe and methods for buckwheat oat mini rolls (GF Sourdough), chocolate buckwheat bundt cake ( with chocolate espresso glaze), and rolled oat muffin!

Ellie Markovitch and Amy Halloran explore an intuitive approach to bread baking. Amy covers the histories of flour and recipes and Ellie shows how these ideas apply to your daily bread. This practical style of baking relies on a baker’s comfort with ingredients and methods, and shows up even in community cookbooks from the 1950s! We will help you develop confidence in sourdough and yeasted bread doughs, and look forward to exploring the process together.

Presented by The Bankery

Cereals have emerged as the final frontier of local foods, and increased interest in baking continues to unfold through the lens of nutrition, sourdough fermentation, and environmental stewardship. Cereals, and wheat specifically, underpin our whole food system and possess the inherent opportunity to make significant global change. We are reliant upon cereals either directly or indirectly in everything we consume, and the way cereals are grown and processed affects both the short- and long-term health of ourselves and the earth.
The lecture and recipes in this workshop revolve around chemical-free and regenerative farming, minimal processing, whole grains, and natural fermentation. These are long-term investments in our personal and planetary health, but the most convincing evidence of their impact is flavor! In addition to drought tolerant wheats, we will discuss cereals such as barley, teff, triticale, kernza, and rye and how to incorporate them into breads and pastries as whole grain flours and porridges. The demonstration portion of the workshop will revolve around naturally leavened whole grain breads and a whole grain fermented pastry. Recipes will be provided.

The goal of this workshop is to co-develop a Bread Education Network to share knowledge, curricula and practical skills to use bread and biodiversity as a theme for learning history, hands-on science, artisan baking, youth entrepreneurship and community building.

 Join Beesham as he guides us through milling fresh grains and utilizing wholegrains in our breads. Beesham will dive deeper into combining different grains and the methods he uses to develop healthy and beautiful loaves using heritage grains. 


Through out this workshop Beesham will be demonstrating two different, whole grain breads. One oh which will be his viking bread, made with with whole barley, whole rye and mixed seeds. The second bread will be a whole spelt boule and batard.


During this workshop Beesham will explain the importance of incorporating whole grains into our breads for better health. And with he craze of creating a picture perfect loaf, with lots of holes, Beesham will discuss this and the use of white flour with a high gluten percentage. 

Presented by: Heritage House. Al's Pizza and Main Street Skowhegan

Join Christy Timon & Abe Faber as they make a delicious, long fermented whole grain breakfast donut without the hassle of frying. If you find yourself feeling too busy to fry up doughnuts yet still want to offer something that is sweet, soft and pleasing for the breakfast crow, then this is for you! Follow along as Christy and Abe cover different production timelines as another way of having the product ready for the customer.

Rotational crops play an important role in the farming ecosystem. Join us as we learn how one company is using yellow peas, a fantastic cover crop grown here in Maine, to make delicious hummus and incorporating pea flour to make breading for style pakora chicken or tofu. Enjoy a cooking demo that highlights how to utilize yellow peas to create a hummus and pakora style chicken with yellow pea flour breading.