upcoming events & classes
Offering innovative classes & events
Learn how to nourish your family &
eat like a human.
The Eastern Shore Food Lab’s mission is to preserve, revive, and infuse ancestral dietary approaches in food to create a nourishing, ethical, accessible, and sustainable food system.
To do this, the ESFL has identified 3 unique purposes:
Preserve - Identify and document ancestral food practices in the archaeological and anthropological records and around the world
Inspire - Spread the message locally and worldwide to create a framework for meeting current and future modern dietary needs
Empower - Equip people with the skills and knowledge to transform basic ingredients into the most nourishing food possible for themselves, their families and their communitiesEquip people with the skills and knowledge to transform basic ingredients into the most nourishing food possible for themselves, their families and their communities
Empowering our Community
Events inspire.
Classes empower.
Learn about classes below but all class registrations are completed on the Eat Like a Human website (under classes) to ensure funding properly goes through our non-profit, The Eastern Shore Food Lab. Thank you for your support!
Sourdough Bread Class | Sunday March 23, 2025 9:30am - 12:00pm
Join Dr. Bill Schindler at the Eastern Shore Food Lab (2nd floor of Modern Stone Age Kitchen) for a start to finish approach to baking hand-built, real, traditional long-fermented sourdough bread.
This class will walk you through the long, slow fermentation that utilizes wild bacteria and yeasts transforms difficult, and dangerous to digest grains into nutrient dense, bioavailable, delicious bread.
Dr. Bill will discuss harnessing hyper-local bacteria and yeast to start your mother culture all the way through to scoring and baking successful loaves in your home oven. You will literally go through every step of the bread making process (via some tv show cooking magic to make that all possible in 3 hours). This class builds upon the sourdough mother class but don’t worry – you can just take this one because we’ll give you some of our MSAK mother.
Each participant will take home a freshly baked loaf that they scored and baked plus a loaf of sourdough to bake at home!
This is the same process that he taught Brianna who ran with the knowledge and launched Rise by Brianna in April 2020 that is now the sourdough line of our Modern Stone Age Kitchen.
This course is the only thing standing between you and the ability to bake incredible, healthy loaves of bread for your family.
Sourdough Bread Class | Sunday March 2, 2025 9:30am - 12:00pm
Join Dr. Bill Schindler at the Eastern Shore Food Lab (2nd floor of Modern Stone Age Kitchen) for a start to finish approach to baking hand-built, real, traditional long-fermented sourdough bread.
This class will walk you through the long, slow fermentation that utilizes wild bacteria and yeasts transforms difficult, and dangerous to digest grains into nutrient dense, bioavailable, delicious bread.
Dr. Bill will discuss harnessing hyper-local bacteria and yeast to start your mother culture all the way through to scoring and baking successful loaves in your home oven. You will literally go through every step of the bread making process (via some tv show cooking magic to make that all possible in 3 hours). This class builds upon the sourdough mother class but don’t worry – you can just take this one because we’ll give you some of our MSAK mother.
Each participant will take home a freshly baked loaf that they scored and baked plus a loaf of sourdough to bake at home!
This is the same process that he taught Brianna who ran with the knowledge and launched Rise by Brianna in April 2020 that is now the sourdough line of our Modern Stone Age Kitchen.
This course is the only thing standing between you and the ability to bake incredible, healthy loaves of bread for your family.
Sourdough Bread Class | Sunday February 23, 2025 10:00am - 1:00pm
Join Dr. Bill Schindler at the Eastern Shore Food Lab (2nd floor of Modern Stone Age Kitchen) for a start to finish approach to baking hand-built, real, traditional long-fermented sourdough bread.
This class will walk you through the long, slow fermentation that utilizes wild bacteria and yeasts transforms difficult, and dangerous to digest grains into nutrient dense, bioavailable, delicious bread.
Dr. Bill will discuss harnessing hyper-local bacteria and yeast to start your mother culture all the way through to scoring and baking successful loaves in your home oven. You will literally go through every step of the bread making process (via some tv show cooking magic to make that all possible in 3 hours). This class builds upon the sourdough mother class but don’t worry – you can just take this one because we’ll give you some of our MSAK mother.
Each participant will take home a freshly baked loaf that they scored and baked plus a loaf of sourdough to bake at home!
This is the same process that he taught Brianna who ran with the knowledge and launched Rise by Brianna in April 2020 that is now the sourdough line of our Modern Stone Age Kitchen.
This course is the only thing standing between you and the ability to bake incredible, healthy loaves of bread for your family.
Hands-on Mozzarella Cheese Class | February 16, 2025 10am - 1pm
Who wants to make Mozz??
Come join Dr. Bill at the Eastern Shore Food Lab and where he'll walk you step-by-step through the process of making stretched curd cheeses (mozzarella & ricotta).
The class will start with a walk down to the Chestertown Farmer's Market and pick up fresh milk from Nice Farms and have a chance to chat with Farmer Bob about what makes their milk so good. The class will bring back a few gallons of milk and transform the milk into fresh mozzarella cheese. You'll be amazed at how simple it is to make something so delicious and wholesome.
The class will cover everything from:
sourcing appropriate milk,
making the brine,
stretching the curd,
shaping fresh mozzarella,
making ricotta,
plus he’ll weave in stories of working with traditional groups who ferment dairy around the world
Each student will enjoy freshly made mozzarella (with sourdough of course) plus bring some home to impress their families and friends ;-)
Class will run from 10:00 to 1:00 and the cost is $75 per participant. To ensure maximum student participation, space is limited.
Nose-to-Tail Butchering Class
Whole Animal Butchery: Skills for the Home Kitchen
We start the class Saturday morning (9:00AM) in the Eastern Shore Food Lab Teaching Kitchen with coffee, a Modern Stone Age breakfast and a discussion about:
home butchering,
sourcing high quality animals,
how to talk to your butcher,
and the tools, equipment, safety, and practicality of home butchering
After breakfast we begin the process of breaking down half of a pig together into its primal cuts. Then we break for a Modern Stone Age Kitchen lunch.
After lunch we will work together to turn the morning’s primals into:ham,
bacon,
fresh sausage, and
pork rinds.
All participants will leave with the recipes and knowledge to replicate this process in their home kitchens!
Making the Most of your Hunt: An Introduction to Nose-to-Tail Wild Game Cooking
Take the results of a successful hunt to the next level!
In this class you will learn how to transform the often overlooked parts of the animals you hunt into nourishing and delicious dishes.
We will cover everything from how to:
dress animals in the field,
order from game processing facilities
cleaning animals in your home, and
butchering animals in your home
All with the intention of using everything the animals have to offer. Then we will make use of all sorts of different wild game offal to create incredible dishes entirely from scratch.
During the class you will learn to make:
Wild Game Bone Broth
Duck and Goose Confit
Venison Heart with Maple Syrup and Fresh Sage
Rilletes
Offal Burger
Wild game sausage
The skills you will learn in this class will empower you to make the most of your hunt in nourishing, ethical and sustainable ways!
Sourdough Bread Class | Saturday January 18, 2025 10:00am - 1:00pm
Join Dr. Bill Schindler at the Eastern Shore Food Lab (2nd floor of Modern Stone Age Kitchen) for a start to finish approach to baking hand-built, real, traditional long-fermented sourdough bread.
This class will walk you through the long, slow fermentation that utilizes wild bacteria and yeasts transforms difficult, and dangerous to digest grains into nutrient dense, bioavailable, delicious bread.
Dr. Bill will discuss harnessing hyper-local bacteria and yeast to start your mother culture all the way through to scoring and baking successful loaves in your home oven. You will literally go through every step of the bread making process (via some tv show cooking magic to make that all possible in 3 hours). This class builds upon the sourdough mother class but don’t worry – you can just take this one because we’ll give you some of our MSAK mother.
Each participant will take home a freshly baked loaf that they scored and baked plus a loaf of sourdough to bake at home!
This is the same process that he taught Brianna who ran with the knowledge and launched Rise by Brianna in April 2020 that is now the sourdough line of our Modern Stone Age Kitchen.
This course is the only thing standing between you and the ability to bake incredible, healthy loaves of bread for your family.
Hands-on Mozzarella Cheese Class | Sunday September 15, 2024
Join us at the Modern Stone Age Kitchen where we will transform fresh milk from Nice Farm Creamery into fresh mozzarella cheese. You'll be amazed at how simple it is to make something so delicious and wholesome.Each student will enjoy freshly made mozzarella plus bring some home to impress their families and friends ;-)
Sourdough Pasta Making & Wine Tasting
What is better than Fresh pasta?
What is better than fresh sourdough pasta?
Join us at the Eastern Shore Food Lab for a hands-on class on Scratch-Made Sourdough Pasta Making. In this class, you will learn the art of creating nourishing and delicious sourdough pasta from scratch, which you can enjoy for dinner that Saturday night! Dr. Bill Schindler will guide you through the process of making sourdough pasta using traditional methods and techniques as he has developed his recipe after learning from chefs from around the world. Participants will have the opportunity to create their own sourdough pasta from start to finish, learning the secrets of crafting pasta and they will take home their handmade sourdough pasta to savor for dinner, as well as their own sourdough mother and detailed instructions for making sourdough pasta at home.
What You Will Learn:
– The fundamentals of sourdough pasta making
– Working with sourdough mother to enhance the flavor and texture of pasta
– Techniques for rolling and shaping various pasta shapes, from fettuccine to angel hair to ravioli
– Making fresh ricotta cheese for delicious ravioli fillings
Who Should Attend:
– Pasta lovers eager to explore new culinary techniques
– Home cooks interested in learning how to make pasta from scratch
– Individuals looking to incorporate sourdough into their cooking repertoire
Don’t miss this opportunity to embark on a culinary journey with Dr. Bill Schindler and master the art of scratch-made sourdough pasta. Join us at the ESFL for a flavorful and educational experience that will elevate your pasta-making skills!
To ensure maximum student participation, space is limited.
Hands-on Mozzarella Cheese Class | July 6, 2024
Join us at the Modern Stone Age Kitchen where we will transform fresh milk from Nice Farm Creamery into fresh mozzarella cheese. You'll be amazed at how simple it is to make something so delicious and wholesome.Each student will enjoy freshly made mozzarella plus bring some home to impress their families and friends ;-)
Foraging Fun around Chestertown | May 18, 2024
You will never look at your lawn the same way after taking this class!
Chestertown’s lawns, parks and sidewalks are full of good things to eat, if you know how and where to look.
You will start at the Eastern Shore Food Lab at 10:00am and spend a few hours walking with Dr. Bill Schindler as he takes you around the streets of Chestertown to find “hidden treasures” right under your feet. After foraging around town, the class will return to to the ESFL to prepare and cook what has been gathered!
Bill has literally conducted foraging classes around the world so know this class will give you a whole new appreciation for the “weeds” in your yard – now you’ll see them as dinner!
Hands-on Mozzarella Cheese Class | April 14, 2024
Join us at the Modern Stone Age Kitchen where we will transform fresh milk from Nice Farm Creamery into fresh mozzarella cheese. You'll be amazed at how simple it is to make something so delicious and wholesome.Each student will enjoy freshly made mozzarella plus bring some home to impress their families and friends ;-)
4-Day Eat Like a Human Intensive | Labor Day Weekend
Learn skills to create nourishing meals – made entirely from scratch – for your whole family in your home kitchen
We are excited to offer you a unique opportunity to spend four empowering days alongside other like-minded people fully committed to reconnecting with your food and learning how to nourish yourself and your family. This immersive workshop will take place in at the Eastern Shore Food Lab and, over the course of 4 days you will learn to bake sourdough bread, ferment vegetables, create fermented dairy foods such as kefir, fermented butter, yogurt and cheese; nixtamalize maize; and, butcher and cook using a complete nose-to-tail approach in your own kitchen!
The safety and nourishment of the modern industrial food system is not guaranteed. Learning to make nourishing food from scratch empowers you to take back control of your food and your health.
Taking this Intensive will give you the tools and knowledge to make this healthy and delicious food in your home kitchen.
It’s time to Eat Like a Human again. Are you with us?
4 – Days of Learning how to Eat Like a Human in 8 Unique Classes plus all meals included!
Labor Day Weekend |
Thursday August 31st to Monday September 4th
Itinerary:
The 4-day intensive is divided into 8, 3-hours classes:
Fermented Vegetables
Nixtamalized Maize
Fermented Dairy
Introduction to Cheesemaking
Nose-to-Tail Butchering
Nose-to-Tail Cooking
Maintaining and Using Sourdough Mother
Baking Sourdough Bread
Class Schedule
THURSDAY EVENING:
6:00 – 7:00 Meat and Greet and dinner with nixtamalized tacos and quesadillas
FRIDAY
8:00 – 9:00: Breakfast provided by Modern Stone Age Kitchen
9:00 – 12:00: Fermented Dairy Class
12:00 – 1:00: Lunch provided by Modern Stone Age Kitchen
1:00 – 4:00: Introduction to Cheesemaking Class
6:00 – 7:00: Dinner provided by the Modern Stone Age Kitchen – wood fired pizza, caesar salad, and fermented french fries)
SATURDAY
8:00 – 9:00: Breakfast provided by Modern Stone Age Kitchen
9:00 – 12:00: Sourdough Mother Class
12:00 – 1:00: Lunch provided by Modern Stone Age Kitchen
1:00 – 4:00: Baking Sourdough Bread Class
6:00 – 9:00: Private dinner at Watershed Alley
SUNDAY:
8:00 – 9:00: Breakfast at the MSAK with sourdough waffles and breakfast meats
9:00 – 12:00: Nose-to-Tail Butchering Class
12:00 – 1:00: Lunch provided by Modern Stone Age Kitchen
1:00 – 4:00: Nose-to-Tail Cooking Class
6:00 – 8:00: Private dinner at the MSAK with sourdough pasta, meatballs, salad, Granny bread
MONDAY:
8:00 – 9:00: Breakfast with fermented yogurt, granola and eggs
9:00 – 12:00: Nixtamalized Maize Class
12:00 – 1:00: Lunch provided by Modern Stone Age Kitchen
1:00 – 4:00: Fermented Vegetables Class
5:00 – 7:00: Private dinner at the MSAK with nixtamalized tacos and quesadillas
Individual Class Theme Descriptions
Fermented Vegetables
Lacto-fermentation is one of the most important food processing technologies our ancestors ever created! Not only does it have the power to make plants safer and more nutritious, but it also enhances the flavor, aroma and texture of our food. Just think about the difference between raw cabbage and delicious, probiotic sauerkraut.
This fermented vegetable cooking class will cover the basics of lacto-fermentation including:
Sourcing high-quality ingredients and essential fermentation equipment for your kitchen,
The basics of lacto-fermented vegetables,
Recipe development and execution,
Prepping vegetables, scaling ingredients, initiating and controlling fermentation,
Fermenting whole vegetables (such as carrots which are perfect for school lunches), and cut up vegetables such as cabbage for sauerkraut and kimchi
You’ll leave prepared with multiple ferments to start bubbling on your counter to help nourish your family
Maize Nixtamalization
Learn how to make different types of nixtamilized food products in your home kitchen including hominy, grits, nix nacks, tortillas, and tortilla chips.
We will cover:
Sourcing the high quality maize,
Obtaining essential tools and supplies for nixtamalizing maize in your kitchen,
Nixamalizing Maize to create nixtamal,
Using nixtamal to make hominy, nix nacks, and grits,
Grinding nixtamal to make masa,
Using masa to create tortillas,
Using leftover tortillas to create tortilla chips.
Fermented Dairy: Butter, Yogurt & Kefir
This introductory course will cover the basics of dairy fermentation in a way that empowers you to begin to create your own fermented butter, kefir, and yogurt in your home!
We will cover:
Sourcing the highest quality dairy possible and navigating the confusing grocery store dairy aisle,
Obtaining essential tools and supplies for fermenting dairy in your kitchen,
Handling both raw and pasteurized dairy safely,
Initiating and controlling the fermentation process with both raw and pasteurized milk,
Making both Mesophilic and Thermophilic yogurt,
Making fermented cream (crème fraîche, crema)
Making fermented butter and buttermilk,
Making cream cheese,
Making kefir.
Cheesemaking: Pasta filata cheeses
You can make real, nourishing and delicious cheeses in your home kitchen using traditional methods that produce a superior product in every way to anything you can buy at a store. Once you understand the process you only need 3 ingredients – milk, rennet and salt – to transform milk into its most delicious and nourishing form possible for our bodies!
This class will walk you step-by-step through the process of making stretched curd cheeses (mozzarella & ricotta) and cover everything from:
Initiating and controlling the fermentation process with both raw and pasteurized milk,
Using rennet and setting the curd,
Cutting, heating and stirring the curd to produce different results,
Making brines and storage solutions,
Stretching the curd and shaping different pasta filata cheeses including mozzarella, quesillo and Armenian string cheese,
Making ricotta.
Introduction to whole animal butchering in your kitchen
Butchering whole and large cuts of animals in your own home is more accessible than you think and is the number one way to ensure that you and your family are including animals in your diet in the most nourishing, ethical, sustainable, and economical ways possible!
This butchering class with cover the basics of home butchering including:
Sourcing high-quality animals and essential butchering equipment for your kitchen,
Safely handling meat, fat, bones, and offal
The basics of breaking down a whole chicken utilizing a nose-to-tail approach
The basics of breaking down a whole pig utilizing a nose-to-tail approach
Recipe development and execution
Grinding, packing, and storing
Introduction to Nose-To-Tail Cooking
Blood, fat, and organs (AKA offal) are the most nutrient dense and bioavailable parts of an animal. Including them in our diets not only nourishes us, but ensures that we are using animals in the most ethical and sustainable ways possible.
This offal class will cover topics such as:
Sourcing, cleaning and storing organs
Bone broth
Rendering fat & making cracklins’
Chicken liver pate
Deviled kidney and spleen
Pork rinds
Sourdough Mother
Learn how to start, maintain, feed, and cook with sourdough mother. Our mother is the backbone of our Rise line of sourdough products and allows us to cook everything from bread to crackers to waffles. We will walk participants through all steps for how to get your mother actively growing, discuss the feeding schedule, learn how to maintain your mother even if you are away on vacation, and then transform it into delicious products. All students will bring their own sourdough mother so they can start baking sourdough at home.
This class will specifically focus on the sourdough mother process so participants will learn the science behind the:
fermentation process,
the math behind calculating your mother-build,
starting, maintaining, and feeding your sourdough mother, and
recipes for cooking with mother – pancakes, waffles, batter, crackers and more!
Sourdough Bread
This introductory course will build upon the sourdough mother class and cover the entire process to make successful sourdough loaves in your home oven from:
Sourcing high-quality ingredients and essential bread-making tools for your kitchen,
Harnessing hyper-local bacteria and yeast to start your own mother culture,
Maintaining sourdough culture and using leftover mother,
Mixing, autolysing, folding, and scaling,
Pre-shaping and shaping dough,
Scoring and baking your hand built sourdough loaves in your home oven, and
Learning to control variables such as temperature and hydration to develop strategies to incorporate sourdough bread baking into YOUR schedule, so it can become a sustainable part of your cooking routine.
Helpful Information:
We have specifically designed these over a holiday weekend as people typically fly in or drive a distance for the class so this makes it easier with the long weekend.
For lodging information is available on the Chestertown website.
Chestertown is an adorable historic town with lots to do in the area so if you are looking for a weekend away, this might be the perfect thing if you are a foodie! If you are with/married to a non-foodie – don’t worry. There are golf courses nearby, state parks to explore, wineries just up the road, and cute bay towns just a short drive away. In our last intensives, we’ve have many couples take the class together, or just have 1 take the class while the other explores the area. We’ve even had a whole group of 6 ladies take the class together and rent a huge house!
All meals are included. Participants have shared that eating like a human all weekend really drove all the lessons home plus their bodies could feel the difference of eating truly nourishing food.
If you have any questions, please contact Christina at christina@eatlikeahuman.com
TESTIMONIAL:
WE CAN’T THANK YOU ENOUGH FOR AN AMAZING LEARNING EXPERIENCE!
I really thought my friends would have fun, but not pay attention to the nutritional info you was sharing, but THEY WERE BLOWN AWAY! They couldn’t stop talking about it, and Eve called her hubby to say they were making changes when she got home and they were throwing out their skim milk, yeah!!! Terese was so impressed she hopes her son who manages alot of restaurants under the Sodel Concepts in Bethany Beach to come with his chefs to take some courses.
Your passion and kindness was thread into everything you taught, and you both work so well together as a team, and it was so cute!
My friends just loved all the info you shared and the depth of your experience.
I preached some of that years ago to them, and they just laughed at me!!
I can’t wait to come with my family!
Chrissy
Sourdough Pasta Making & Wine Tasting
What is better than Fresh pasta, and wine?
Well I’ll tell you – fresh 100% wild long fermented sourdough pasta paired with local wine!
Join Dr. Bill Schindler at the Eastern Shore Food Lab (2nd floor of Modern Stone Age Kitchen) a sourdough pasta cooking experience demonstrating how to make the most nourishing and delicious sourdough pasta that culminates in eating the pasta made in class while enjoying local wine. Everyone will leave with their own sourdough mother and complete instructions for how to make sourdough pasta at home plus a full stomach after tasting the difference of fresh-made pasta!
Class will run from 5:00pm – 8:00pm and the cost is $90 per participant. Everyone will be learning how to make sourdough pasta, plus enjoy a full sourdough pasta dinner with wine.
To ensure maximum student participation, space is limited.
Hands-on Mozzarella Cheese Class | July 8th
Join us at the Modern Stone Age Kitchen where we will transform fresh milk from Nice Farm Creamery into fresh mozzarella cheese. You'll be amazed at how simple it is to make something so delicious and wholesome.Each student will enjoy freshly made mozzarella plus bring some home to impress their families and friends ;-)
Foraging Fun around Chestertown | May 20, 2023
You will never look at your lawn the same way after taking this class!
Chestertown’s lawns, parks and sidewalks are full of good things to eat, if you know how and where to look.
You will start at the Eastern Shore Food Lab at 10:00am and spend a few hours walking with Dr. Bill Schindler as he takes you around the streets of Chestertown to find “hidden treasures” right under your feet. After foraging around town, the class will return to to the ESFL to prepare and cook what has been gathered!
Bill has literally conducted foraging classes around the world so know this class will give you a whole new appreciation for the “weeds” in your yard – now you’ll see them as dinner!