A John Deere Publication
Chef Jason Kline teaches knife handling skills during a class on Argentine cooking at Middleground Farms.
Agriculture, Specialty/Niche March 01, 2026
Class is in Session
Homestead cooking classes excite the mind, palate, and love of land.
Story and Photos by Steve Werblow
It's a busy day at Middleground Farms in Wilsonville, Oregon. Thirty youngsters fill the 17-acre property with cheerful chatter. Some are engaged in a scavenger hunt, sniffing leaves and studying fruits. A group of teens tosses pizza dough. Younger students stir up icing for cupcakes. Meanwhile, chefs Jason Kline and Kate Johnson are planning the evening's cooking class, where 18 adults will prepare an Argentine dinner. And "Farmer John" Peterson is walking a half-dozen chefs through what he's harvesting in Middleground Farms' gardens.
The ideas fly. Peterson passes around anise hyssop; someone suggests crushing it with ice in a granita. A kohlrabi root inspires another chef to propose pickling and grating the brassica on salad. Lovage, basil, and savory prompt more brainstorming.
Jessica Hansen, the chef and teacher who founded Middleground Farms with her husband Jason, watches the exchange with a smile. Like the gardens themselves, the business has grown and evolved in delicious new directions.
"When we opened in 2011, I was teaching goat milk soap making, cheesemaking, preserving—homesteading skills," Hansen recalls. "But the classes that always sold out were things that were more social and hospitality-driven, like Date Night Thai or Mediterranean Foodie's Night Out."
Above. Middleground Farms bursts with food and native plants. Barns house the kitchen and farm shop. The farm's summer camps are a huge hit, teaching Portland-area kids about fresh ingredients and how to prepare a wide range of dishes—including mac and cheese, fettuccini Alfredo, salads, biscuits, and pizza—from scratch.
Special event. Drawing on her years of culinary school training, teaching classes for upscale kitchenware seller Sur le Table, and serving as a corporate chef for Sub-Zero appliances, Hansen pivoted toward making her farm's classes into special events.
What did not change was her focus on making fresh, local ingredients the stars of the show.
"My goal is to make people more confident cooking and eating seasonally," Hansen says. "I want to celebrate how great carrots taste when you pull them out of the dirt, how beautiful lettuce is, how cucumbers off the vine actually taste like something special. I like the simple things that they will actually reproduce at home so it changes the way they eat. I don't want to ever get too fancy. Ever."
She also quickly realized that cooking class was only part of the draw for Middleground Farms.
"We learned that there are people who come here not just for the kitchen, not just with a knife and fork, but they're interested in talking about the dirt and plants and touching the animals," she says, pointing to a paddock with a couple of horses, a few Nubian goats, a pair of Jersey cows, and a llama. "That's just as valuable as the food part."
While putting guests, knives, good wine, and livestock into the same scene sounds to some like a liability nightmare, Hansen says her guests stay safe and sound throughout their experience.
"I think part of it, to be honest, is the price point," she notes, which is typically $50 per participant for an evening cooking class. "People are usually a little bit more dressed up. They're thinking of it as an event or special occasion to some degree. So that's when you behave a little bit better."
Above. This staff lunch, a tortellini soup crafted from leftovers, was exquisite. Jessica Hansen made Middleground Farms a pillar of the local food community. Date night, girls' night out, family activity—cooking class is a treat. A wide range of cooking classes promises new skills, fresh flavors, and an elegant evening.
Special breed. Middleground Farms' classes, corporate events—which can include team-building cooking classes as well as meeting space and exquisitely catered meals—and week-long kid camps gained a loyal following. To meet demand, Hansen assembled a team of chefs comfortable with teaching.
Along the way, she has taught some of them how natural they are as speakers and instructors.
"I had never expected in a million years that I liked or wanted to teach at all," confesses Jason Kline. "Jessica asked me how I felt talking in front of a roomful of people, and I looked right at her and said, 'No.' I was the kid who skipped all the public speaking classes. I was terrified of it. But once I got the job as sous chef, I was able to interject and explain what was going on. It's something I knew and loved and wanted to share, and all of a sudden, it was easy."
Hansen adds that Kline's teaching partner for the Argentine dinner, Kate Johnson, also went from introvert to star instructor.
"She makes people feel comfortable and capable," Hansen says.
Behind the scenes, Peterson's diverse crops drive the system.
"We had a big meeting in the wintertime to discuss varietals they're interested in," Peterson says. "We were trying to pick out certain things they're for-sure going to use or would at least have some interest in if they could access them."
That includes Thai chiles and an array of other peppers, 25 varieties of tomatoes, plus vegetables, herbs, and an array of fruits and berries. Peterson also planted 60 native tree species, wetland flora, and pollinator gardens.
"I think my biggest thing is to show the combination of functionality between edible systems and native plants, and to build on Jessica's vision of cooking hyperseasonally—as in, not what's ready in Oregon, but what's ready right here in her garden," he says.
Adds Jeremiah Scott, the team's senior chef, "It doesn't get any more farm-to-table than this." ‡
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