(NOTE, Due to a family emergency, this event was postponed and now is rescheduled. Details below.)

Are you one in one of the roughly 1,400 families who have been getting a Farmers To Families food box each week in Sitka? Are you looking for inspiration on how to use some of the food items in each box?

Nalani James will teach a free, virtual Sitka Kitch class, Cooking With Culture: Using Farmers To Families Food Boxes class from 5-7 p.m. on Friday, April 16, using Zoom. Thanks to a partnership with Sitka Moose Lodge No. 1350, the Sitka Kitch community rental commercial kitchen will offer this class for free. Even though the class is free, we need people to register by late Tuesday night, April 13, so we can send out the Zoom link and ingredient list. Since this is a free class and we have limited space, we encourage families to register under one registration spot and share the screen.

(NOTE: This class has been rescheduled for 5-7 p.m. on Friday, May 21, and there are a limited number of new spots available in the class. The new registration deadline is Tuesday night, May 18. People who registered for the original class are registered for the rescheduled date.)

The menu for this class hasn’t been set, since the list of items in the Farmers To Families food boxes changes from month to month. The menu will be tailored to the box contents for April, once we know what they are. In recent months the boxes have contained potatoes, apples, onions, baby carrots or cabbage, milk, yogurt (plain or flavored), sour cream, hot dogs (or canned salmon), and smoked chicken leg quarters. (UPDATE: The menu will be chicken with fun sides using carrots, onions, potatoes, plus beer-battered onion rings with a non-alcoholic version available.)

Nalani is somewhat new to Sitka, having moved here about two years ago. She occasionally had a baked goods booth at the 2019 Sitka Farmers Markets, and she became market co-manager in 2020. In March, she was one of the winners of the Sitka Food Business Innovation Contest with her egg business, Eggstravagant. Nalani loves to have ethnic foods from the regional area and works to simulate the flavors and textures of the dish. She has been cooking elaborate dishes at the age of 10 with the free will of her parents, and loves being a cooking chemist.

The registration deadline is 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 13. Space is limited, so register early to secure your place in the class. You can register on the Sitka Kitch EventSmart online registration page, http://sitkakitch.eventsmart.com (click on class title).

For more information about the class, contact Jasmine Shaw at 747-9440.