We will explore cooking directly over open flame, in a stone hearth, on an antique wood cook-stove, and baking in a hand-made cobb oven. Through our intentional cooking - we will provide a meal for ourselves as well as for the participants of a simultaneous on-going Beginning Blacksmith workshop with Josh Cooper.

This event is open to a small group of adults only. (Special exceptions can sometimes be made for mature minors who are accompanied by a chaperoning guardian.)

Co-founder of The Lincoln Hearth Cooks, based at the Reinhardt Cabin at the site of the Battle of Ramsour’s Mill in Lincolnton, NC. The goal of this group, and most 18th Century re-enactors, Docents and Hearth Cooks, is to portray their ancestors experiences when preparing meals through period appropriate re-enactment, using early receipts (recipes), cooking equipment, and techniques.

Born in Winston-Salem, NC, with a life-long love of American History, I sent much time in the restored Moravian Village of Old Salem. Over the years, my family and I visited many other historic sites, but I was always drawn to the kitchens, and the open fire hearth cooking. After a crash course in their cabin at Historic Rural Hill, about 20 year ago, I was hooked. It reminded me of taking the kids and scouts camping, and cooking over an open fire with iron pots and skillets. This was taking it to a whole other level, the 18th century way. Within a couple of years, I began actively volunteering, not only at Rural Hill, but at the Schiele Museum, in Gastonia, in their Back Country homestead. There I met author Kay Moss, who wrote “The Back Country Housewife,” and “Seeking the Historic Cook”. She both inspired and encouraged me to continue my quest as an open hearth cook and docent.

Over the next several years, I was able to take classes in Scottish Hearth Cooking, Open Hearth Cooking, and Historic Food Ways at John C Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC, where my love of the craft continued to be fueled. In 2016, I was given the opportunity, both at Rural Hill and Ramsour’s Mill, to teach both 1 day hearth cooking classes, and a series of classes, covering several aspects of open fire cookery. Other sites that have also invited me to teach and volunteer in the NC Piedmont area are Hart Square, Vale, NC, Kings Mountain Historical Museum, in Kings Mountain, NC, Old Stone House in Salisbury, NC, Fort Defiance in Lenoir, NC, James K. Polk Birthplace, and Historic Brattonsville in SC.