New Ice Cream Shop Will Also Offer Food Workshops

An ice cream shop is a pretty simple concept to understand. But one that offers classes and workshops too? Well, that’s Mother Moo.

In addition to Friday afternoon ice cream, there’s a separate side to the Mother Moo business model, as advertised in new owner Karen Klemens’ window as “Home Preservation Classes and Workshops.”

What that means--as well as how it fits into the idea of an ice cream store--is something that Klemens said has attracted plenty of questions.

After years of producing her own lines of jams and jellies out of rented commercial kitchens, Mother Moo Creamery owner Karen Klemens recently took a giant leap into food preservation by becoming one of Los Angeles County’s newest, fully certified food preservationists.

“Master Food Preserver,” Klemens’ newest title, is a designation given by the County following a rigorous 12-week program that covers canning, fermenting, curing, pickling, drying and more ways to preserve foods.

Just this year, the program returned after a 10-year hiatus and trained and graduated 18 trainees through the University of California Cooperative Extension in food preservation; Klemens was one of those 18.

“It’s essentially instruction on how to can safely, according to USDA standards,” Klemens said of the class that the L.A. Times “Daily Dish” blog recently reported to have come back on the scene “with lots of excitement.”

But the skills of a Master Food Preserver go much further than simply conforming to government standards, according to Klemens.

Instead, it’s about preserving the food we have in order to reduce waste and cut food costs in the long run.

“I can teach people how to essentially take their food and preserve it for the long run so that they can be eating tomatoes from their own backyard in December instead of going to the grocery store,” Klemens said. “It’s teaching people how to preserve and save money; it’s a wonderful kitchen art.”

Klemens said she expects to begin offering the classes as soon as August and that the classes will accommodate around eight students at a time. Planned for Monday nights, Klemens smilingly refers to the classes as “Monday Can Jams.”

But cans and jams won’t be the only subjects offered. In addition to what she can teach using her own training and expertise, Klemens plans to bring in other outside instructors to offer classes on things such as bread making.

The classes are expected to cost between $45 and $60 per person, and more information will be made available once the store opens in July.