Your first question probably is, why is Chocolates and Tomatoes Farm writing a blog about a Gingerbread Experience? This blog is the first of a few where we will share the Gingerbread Experience that Chocolates and Tomatoes Farm is involved in, how we got here, and what we are hoping it will mean for the students who are at the heart of the effort.
What is this Gingerbread Experience?
We will tell you more in future blogs, but..... Chef Mark from Chocolates and Tomatoes Farm (also lead farmer here) is co-leading and collaborating with a wide range of people to provide interested culinary arts students at Frederick Community College the experience of creating a gingerbread display at a distinguished hotel in Washington, DC.
This Gingerbread Experience started when Mark's old friend Maria (they met 10+ years ago when they were both working at the Blue Duck Tavern in Washington, DC; a restaurant in a different DC hotel) got an idea when she saw Chocolates and Tomatoes Farm Facebook posts about the Gingerbread House Decorating Classes we had in December 2023 and how many students and an a co-instructor from Frederick Community College pitched in. She knew from her years of following Chef Mark's Facebook posts that he was regularly giving students of all kinds experiences to grow their culinary skills, that the students at FCC were regularly making really cool stuff, and that his own curiosity and interest in stretching his culinary experiences meant he might organize a group to take a leap...
Chef Mark agreed it was an exciting opportunity and reached out to others to see if they could work together to make it happen!
Eight months later -- we are in the middle of making it happen.
Yes, a gingerbread experience of this magnitude takes many months
What Does It Take to Support the Art and Science of A Gingerbread Experience?
Desserts and cooking is always referred to as an "art" and those of us who are observers tend to focus on the creativity and artistry that tantalizes our eyes and our tastebuds. If you are honing your craft to become an expert in the culinary arts, you also know that one part of the art is balancing your creativity with the science -- your tasty treat won't have the right texture, mouthfeel, chew, or hold its form unless you have maintained the precision of the scientific rules to make it.
Making gingerbread art for a several foot tall many foot long gingerbread display requires many other types of talent and expertise including (in future blogs we will feature each type of expertise and the contributions made)
how to create gingerbread structures that have the right scale and look like the featured museums and statues (two pictured left) from the National Mall in Washington, DC you are replicating (architects and others)
how to ensure the structure won't fall down after you build them -- they can't just look good (engineers)
how to manage a gingerbread project including creating the timeline, identifying project steps and needs, and wrangling all the actors (part project-management expertise and part gingerbread expertise)
In addition to the expertise and the time giving it, making all of these gingerbread pieces to the precise specifications means using lots of tools that are not a regular part of the kitchen experience.
If You Feel Inspired to Contribute to this Gingerbread Experience, we'd appreciate your support.
We will be sharing more about the experience so that you can follow along as Chef Mark, the students, and the other contributors go through the steps of preparing the gingerbread display. You can contribute by:
Putting a dollar or two (or your spare change) in the jar at the last On-Farm Outdoor Market on 9/14 or the jar at The Learning Kitchen and Sweet Shop whenever you might visit
Buying a Gingerbread Boy at the 9/14 market made and donated by
Ginger's Breadboys (Virginia is our in-kind project manager and doing a super job)
Chef Missy of The Preppy Chef and adjunct instructor at FCC (and good friend of Chef Mark -- you regularly see her pastries at our market)
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