Welcome to Bootleg Bâtard See our Kickstarter here
Five years ago, Melina Kelson and Pete Podolsky dug up the sod around their small, suburban Skokie, Illinois, home and transformed it into organic, edible landscaping. Since then, they have watched their garden (featured in Chicago Magazine) become a place where the community unites.
Friends of all ages pitch in to help turn the soil, pull weeds, plant and harvest the bounty. Since then, friends and neighborhood “farm hands” are invited back for canning parties and to share and celebrate the harvest each year. Strangers and neighbors ask questions about planting gardens of their own. They share ideas and frequently taste (and bring home) delicious, wholesome varieties of produce and plants they may not have known about before. Neighborhood school kids tour the garden and local scout groups help harvest food to donate to area food banks.
Pete, a talented chef with experience in some of Chicago's best restaurant kitchens, and Melina, a chef instructor at Kendall College and one of only a handful of Certified Master Bakers in the United States, have worked together on the garden and in their catering business, The Edible Complex. They believe that their garden is their personal entry to a greater mission: teaching and inspiring the community and others like it with lovingly prepared items that are sustainably grown and minimally processed. Speaking to groups at public libraries and the Chicago Botanic Gardens has helped spread the word. Now the work will go a giant step forward, with the building of a wood-fired brick oven and hosting community workshops.
Melina has built two wood-fired ovens: one at The Experimental Station, which is an inner-city community oven, and a second oven at Kendall College that she uses when teaching her culinary students the centuries-old traditions of baking Artisan Breads.
Melina and Pete, with the help of fellow bakers, a prominent oven builder and hopefully a few volunteers from the community, are planning to build a wood-fired oven in a corner of their backyard garden. The new oven will produce artisan breads dotted with herbs from the garden, savory tarts made with fruits and vegetables just picked within inches of the oven’s walls, and the wonderful variety of crusty pleasures that nature can provide with three simple ingredients — wheat flour, water, and natural fermentation from the airborne yeasts that cling to the foods we eat. Out of this miraculously simple formula comes an innumerable variety of breads, products that vary by how they’re shaped, left to ferment as they develop their flavors and textures, the ways they’re reshaped, and further enhanced by special ingredients (eggs, herbs, cheeses — you name it!).
The oven will be the hub of learning, the place around which conversations will flow, ideas will grow and friendships will build. Those who want to learn the techniques of mixing, kneading, shaping, and baking will have the rare opportunity to learn how people around the world have, through the centuries, imagined and baked and created pizza to sourdough to cream puffs. Community members will take that knowledge, apply their own creativity, under Melina's guide, and come away with their own creations and stories to share with others. Those who simply want to learn - if not do any hands-on baking, still will come away with a deeper understanding of what they eat, how and why it affects them as it does, and a rich appreciation of quality and knowledgeable eating - something they, too, can share with others.
We are fundraising here on Kickstarter and would love your support!
Your support will fund clean running water, electricity, a professional mason to help construct the oven with care, and a shelter to protect the oven from the elements. Should we exceed our goal, additional funding would be used to procure fundamental equipment.
Thank you for being a part of our community!
Building Community by Nourishing Neighbors
Bootleg Bâtard would like to extend our deepest thanks to the following backers:
James & Robin Straus
Sean Knapp
Kent Roberts
Catherine and Ohan Kedjidjian
Leah Berger
Lisa Viane
Meme Hopmayer
Benetta Mansfield
Paul Gottschalk
Julie Koehler & James Mullinex
Pam & Ivan Cofre
Susan & Larry Storck
Bonnie Levin
Suzanne Isenberg
David Kleeman
Bob Winter
Lisa Gotkin
Deedee Straus
Kim Hack
Holly Iftner
Julie & Josh Chernoff
Sue Burnett
Anita & Kousik Krishnan
Mr. & Mrs. Bala
Jonas Dikinis
Nancy Clark
Richard Scott
Denise Quintanilla
Benjamin Shapiro
Kevin Robinson
Len Stewart
Michelle Keane
Frank Walaitis
Jennifer Diamond
Rebecca Wheeler
Cindy Fey
Aaron Finestone
Robin Weiss
Christine Zelenak
Lori Kleiman
Jennifer Greene
Charlene Podolsky
Molly Reisman
Thomas Micklethwait
Nattu Natraj
Margaret Mullinex
David Rossi
Allen & Carla Kelson
Ed
Debbie & John Hickey
H.O.P.E. for Pahokee
Meghan Pollard
Heather Bublick
J.Patrick Manley
Daisy Chow
Megan Gissing
Marnie & Greg Pedersen
Shea Montanez
Joe Campagna
Melanee, Adam, Chloe & Jade Cooper
Heather Martello
Lynne O’Connor
Jen Villareal
Betsey Grais
Ron Grais
Blair Cohen Miller
Andrew Rubinstein
Nina & David Feinberg
Andrew Pingul
Siddharth Mangalore
Erika Webb
Carol Scott
Joel Peterson
Nancy Carey
Ted Burdett
Dawn Dolobowsky
Keri Steger
Becky Shanks
Laura Cheng
Scott Weissman
Matt Gismondi
Bernadine Rolnicki
Michelle Martinez
Mitchell Craver
Hagen & Cherie Dost
Erica Johnson
Jay Turley
Alec & Julie Hopmayer
Leila Manoochehry
Joe & Sue Burlini
Craig Goldwyn
Herb Weintraub
Kelsey
Jeff Dixon
Betty Craver
Kate Rau
Sara & Mike Salzinski
Phil Incorvia
Ann-Marie Streibich
Lori Hilbrant
Christine Fredericks
Amy Wolf
Brian Beamer
Cara & John Butler
Melissa Lemen
Jennifer Tinsley
Margaret Rapp
Keith Brown
Andrea Malfitano
Joan Schwartz
Andy Clark
Scott & Felicia Holtz
Sioux Johnson
Ken Clinkman
Sheila Meyer
Hank Greenberg
Luminita Cirstea
Marina & Roger Post
Chef Panza
Georgia Rhind
Nels Nelson
Jim Holmes
Jodi Fox
Audrey Kedziora
Jonathan, Stephanie, Zachary & Jonah Hopmayer
Jeff Hopmayer
Jody Birnbaum
Shanil Fry
Marc Levy
Kevin & Ellen Glassberg
Rich & Martha Melman
Kerri Storck
David
Dana & Michael Weiner
Irina Napa
Amy & Noah Schatz
Persis Thorndike
Adam Harralson
Namyi Sun
Paulette Bruder-Dorado
Josh Mark
Alan Fischer
Marvin & Marcia Cooper
Kathy Kessenich
Rachel
Katherine Terban
Andrea Ozzuna
Sarah Dinnocenzo
Erin Shelly
Heidi Gilbertson
Christopher Greene
Iva Freeman
Michael Marcet
Elizabeth Shapiro
Adam Kruvand
Jereme Greenblott
Allison Bastianelli
Stacey & Corky Perlstein
Michael & Sandy Jublinsky
Lynne Bowden
Cengiz Ozelsel
Donny & Stacey Nussbaum
Fundraising deadline