As the weather warms up, your horizons expand.
Those chirping birds make you think, “Boy, I sure would like to have some backyard chickens.”
Those daffodils popping up make you think, “I need to plant a garden.”
Planting a garden makes you think, “Is a radish good for something besides a salad?”
That salad makes you think, “What should I have for dinner tonight?”
And no matter what the season, we’re always thinking, “I need a little chocolate. And a glass of wine.”
We’ve got you covered.
Comfort food!
The Buford Highway Farmers Market is loved by chefs and home cooks alike. And it offers more than just one-stop shopping for almost everything you need to prepare a dish from any cuisine around the world. It also offers cooking classes taught by chefs who also hail from across the globe. Majli Hozo was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina and later moved to Germany. She's teaching "Old World (German) Comfort Dishes for Your Table." You'll learn how to prepare three main dishes then dine on the results and leave the class with a $10 gift card to spend at the market. 7-9 p.m. Wednesday, March 2. $35. Buford Highway Farmers Market, 5600 Buford Highway, Doraville. Register here.
Baking!
Jonathan Kallini, Chef de Cuisine of Bacchanalia, is teaching a series of classes on "The Essentials of Cooking" in the Bosch Experience Center at Serenbe. He's covered pasta and one-pot winter meals. Now for March he's all about baking quick breads and tarts. 2 – 3 p.m. Sunday, March 6. $55. Bosch Experience Center, 10640 Serenbe Lane, Chattahoochee Hills. Register here.
Chickens!
You've been toying with it – the idea that this might be the year to add a flock of backyard chickens to your menagerie. Homestead Atlanta is offering "Chicken Coop Design," a chance to learn how to design and build your own chicken coop. 1 – 3 p.m. Sunday, March 6. $20. Digital Additive, 1075 Zonolite Road, Atlanta. Register here.
Growing vegetables and flowers!
Cane Creek Farm in Cumming is a Certified Naturally Grown farm with four acres of vegetables, flowers, fruit trees and berries and pastures with sheep, cows and chickens. This spring they're offering a variety of classes including some designed for those who want to start their own farm and some for backyard farmers. On the second Wednesday of each month they host a Lunch 'N Learn series that includes a lesson and lunch. The March session is on starting your own vegetable and flower transplants. 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 9. Cane Creek Farm, 5110 Jekyll Road, Cumming. Register here.
Lamb and shrimp for lunch!
Local Three's sous chef Sean Newton is teaching a class on braising. The menu includes a salad of spring vegetables, lamb shoulder with lentils, shrimp and grits and a "Waffle Cake" with vanilla bean ice cream and strawberry compote. After learning how to make these dishes, you and a guest will sit down to lunch and eat everything you, enjoy offerings from the bar and you'll take home a custom apron. 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. class, 1 – 3 p.m. lunch. Saturday, March 19. $325. Local Three, 3290 Northside Parkway, Atlanta. Register here.
Credit: C. W. Cameron
Credit: C. W. Cameron
Carrots and shrimp for dinner!
With spring comes sweet young carrots, crunchy radishes and a hankering for lighter, brighter fare. Canadian-born Georgia-based chef Hugh Acheson is doing a benefit class for the Atlanta Community Food Bank. He'll demonstrate recipes from his newest cookbook, "The Broad Fork" (Clarkson Potter, $35): Carrot Soup with Brown Butter, Pecans and Yogurt and Poached Shrimp over Radishes with Salsa Verde among other dishes. Evening includes tastings of everything prepared, wines and a chance to win door prizes. 7 – 9 p.m. Monday, March 21. $65. The Cook's Warehouse – Midtown, 1544 Piedmont Road, Atlanta. Register here.
Chocolate!
You could spend every day attending the Atlanta Science Festival with its more than 100 events taking place in locations across Atlanta. We picked out two.
Chocolate is in season no matter what the season. This year's Atlanta Science Festival is hosting "Cacao: The Science behind Chocolate Making" with Cacao, Atlanta's own bean-to-bar chocolatier. This class will explain the chocolate making process from cacao pod to fermentation. There'll be a tasting of single source chocolates from around the world. 8 – 10 p.m. Thursday, March 24. $28. Cacao Atlanta Chocolate, 202 Permalume Place, Atlanta. Register here.
Wine!
Count on the folks running the Atlanta Science Festival to know it takes science to make great wine. "What's in this Drink?" covers soil, climate, grape species and fermentation. You'll taste four wines and have all your wine questions answered by a certified wine expert. 7:30 – 9:30 p.m. Friday, March 25. $25. The Elevator Factory, 437 Memorial Drive, Atlanta. Register here.
More chickens!
You took your class on March 6 and you've built a home for your chickens. Now it's time to learn how to raise them right. The Wylde Center and the Atlanta History Center are partnering for a "Chicks in the City Symposium" where they promise to teach you everything you need to know about raising urban chickens through a virtual coop tour, sessions on health issues when handling backyard poultry and a chance to meet the chickens on the grounds. The lessons end with a Grand Finale with a chicken-themed silent auction. 9:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. Saturday, March 26. $50 for members of Wylde Center or Atlanta History Center, $65 for non-members. Atlanta History Center, 130 West Paces Ferry Road, Atlanta. Register here.
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