Whether or not you’re formally going back to school this fall, there are plenty of upcoming opportunities to add a new skill to your DIY repertoire. Want to craft your own wooden salad tongs at a rooftop farm? Game to start growing your own salad greens? Fancy yourself a farmer? Yes, there are classes for all that and more.
Here’s our favorite of what’s on tap nearby. Have a favorite food or drink learning source that we didn’t include? Let us know by leaving a comment.
Brooklyn Grange
One of the city’s better known rooftop farms also happens to be an event space, yoga studio and classroom. They’re constantly updating the event calendar with activities ranging from natural dye workshops (pictured above) to intro beekeeping courses. Coming up, we’re looking forward to:
- Thursday, August 28 — Intro to Urban Agriculture: a Survey of the Benefits, Challenges and Diverse Systems of Growing Food in Cities ($30)
- Sunday, September 7 — Woodworking: Salad Tongs Workshop and Harvest With Ben Hecho ($60)
- Saturday, September 27 — Rooftop Mushroom Workshop ($40, in Queens)
Roberta’s
Another (maybe) unexpected venue for taking classes this fall, Roberta’s is hosting a special series of gardening workshops during the harvest season. Tour the garden, learn about its history and walk away with seedlings, herbs or maybe even a little produce. Bonus here is that after reaping what’s been sown, you can post up for a pizza and beer. You might just out-Brooklyn yourself.
- Thursday, September 11 — Baby Greens ($10)
- Thursday, September 18 — Make Your Own Herb Garden ($10)
- Thursday, September 25 — Harvest Techniques ($10)
Just Food
For all you wannabe farmers out there, yes, you can get your sustainable ag education without leaving the city. Just Food organizes a variety of farming classes through their full blown farm school. Potential students can either enroll in their certificate program or in individual courses depending on their goals. Consider this more than just a weekend primer, though — Farm School NYC expects you to fill out an application, (which they’re accepting now through September 15) and pass an interview. The cost is on a sliding scale that you can read more about here.
Brooklyn Brainery
As we wrote in our spring issue, the Brooklyn Brainery is a collective that enables pretty much anyone to teach a class on pretty much anything. Curious about the history of the American freak show? Check. Want to learn how to be a spy? Here’s your chance. They also have several food and drink classes that are right up our alley including:
- Sunday, August 24 — Dim Sum Favorites ($68)
- Wednesday, September 10 — Wontons & Dumplings! ($40)
- Saturday, September 13 — Oyster Tasting With Blue Ribbon Brooklyn ($30—sold out, but there’s a wait list!)
Brooklyn Kitchen
If you wanted to, you could take a class pretty much every night of the week at the Brooklyn Kitchen. Some classes, like knife skills, are recurring while others, like doughnuts, seem to be one-offs. As you might expect, they’ve got a super slick kitchen space in Williamsburg with plenty of room and resources for you to hone a cooking skill, no matter your level. We’d like in on:
- Sunday, August 31 — Fried Chicken and Waffles ($75)
- Thursday, September 18 — Whole Beef Parts 1 & 2 ($200)
- Sunday, September 21 — Julia Child Dinner ($85)
Mukti’s Kitchen
Mystified by Indian cuisine? No longer with Mukti’s classes. As we covered in last year’s travel issue, Mukti Banerjee teaches small classes that allow for individual instruction and end with a full Indian dinner. Different classes ($75 each) have different menus and many of the ingredients come straight from the Greenmarket, where she often teaches demos.
