A Pizza Making Class in the Adirondacks

Jan 2

Learn how to make delicious pizza at Triple Green Jade Farm’s workshop in Willsboro, NY.

When you think of traveling to take a class in making hand-crafted pizza in a wood-fired oven, what destinations come to mind? Naples? Rome? New York City? New Haven, CT? Sure, all of those are reasonable answers.

Making pizza in Belisama, Triple Green Jade Farm’s massive wood-fired oven, in Willsboro, NY.

But we recently enjoyed a wood-fired pizza-making workshop at Triple Green Jade Farm in the Town of Willsboro, part of the Lake Champlain Region of the Adirondack Park. And it was one of our best pizza-making experiences ever.

The owners of Triple Green Jade Farm, Dan and Kimmy Rivera, bought their property in 2014 and have been on a 10-year journey for self-sufficiency in the Adirondacks and the Champlain Valley.

You can understand why they chose this area. For centuries, the Champlain Valley's relatively flat land and nutrient-rich soil have helped produce a hefty annual harvest of fruit, vegetables, meat, maple syrup, beer, wine, honey, and cheese.

It’s in this pristine farmland that Dan and Kimmy established their diversified farmstead on the Boquet River in Essex County in one of the Adirondacks’ most beautiful regions.

Making pizza on the farm.

Dan and Kimmy have a building on their property and christened it “The Breadery.” It houses a commercial kitchen, a stone mill for grinding their flours, and a massive 5’ x 7’ wood-fired oven that they’ve christened “Belisama” after a Celtic goddess related to fire. The Breadery was the site for our 4-hour class.

Farmer Dan’s mill for stone-grinding grains.

The facility’s massive oven allows Triple Green Jade Farm to offer classes, workshops, and events focused on bread-making. But it was their wood-fired pizza class that caught our eye. First and foremost, thanks to Brother Bear, we appreciate the recent start of construction on a wood-fired outdoor oven sitting in the garden of our family home in the Adirondacks. We thought the pizza-making class might inspire him to get it completed instead of leaving it to deteriorate into a massive pile of rubble all winter. Second, we love Triple Green Jade Farm’s story and wanted to see the operation up close and personal.

A truly Adirondack farm-to-table pizza experience.

During our class, we were joined by eight other participants. We fit comfortably into the Breadery space. Dan explained the process of making dough and baking the pizza in the oven. He and Kimmy then provided us with pre-measured ingredients for making our pizza dough, and we got to it.

Once the dough was properly kneaded and prepped, we had a break for wine, prosecco and local beer. Kimmy shared a beautiful charcuterie platter featuring local meats, cheeses, and Triple Green Jade Farm’s delicious Kimmy’s Crackers.

Once our dough was ready, we learned essential techniques for “rolling out” the dough to make our pizzas. Nearly every part of the pizzas we made was sourced locally.

Dan made the fresh mozzarella by hand from raw milk supplied by North Country Creamery in Keeseville.
The marinara sauce was milled and made on the farm using tomatoes from Northern Orchard.
Dan ground the wheat by hand for the dough.
The ground beef pizza topping was from Triple Green Jade Farm’s herd.
And we would be amiss if we didn’t mention the delicious homemade pizza-making wine Kimmy and Dan provided.

Dan and Kimmy provided other toppings for us to customize our pizzas. One of the participants also introduced us to Hot Tom, a spicy hot tomato sauce and dipping oil from Pastabilities in Syracuse, which added a nice zesty zing to my pizza.

Each class participant put their creation onto the pizza peel, slid it into Belisama and watched their pie cook. And then, the best part, we ate our masterpieces. We also made enough pizza dough for us to be able to take the extras home. It froze beautifully, and we had an opportunity to enjoy the fruit of our labors all over again during a Sunday night football game.

To learn more about Triple Green Jade Farm’s classes and products, visit the events page on their website.