Communiversity class is all about homemade condiments

Christine Shuck hated mayonnaise.

“I thought it was greasy, bland and tasteless,” she says. “I couldn’t stand it on my sandwiches.”

That was before the writer, gardener and entrepreneur made the first batch of her own mayonnaise a few years ago.

“It was light, fresh and lemony,” Shuck says. “Nothing like you find in the supermarket.”

Shuck will be teaching a Communiversity class on making homemade mayonnaise and several other  condiments this Saturday, March 1, from 2 to 3 p.m. at her home in the historic Northeast (where she gardens, raises chickens, and home-schools her child). Shuck has been teaching a variety of food-related Communiversity classes since 2007; the class on Saturday is the first time that Shuck has tackled the theme of homemade condiments.

Shuck’s Saturday class will also present ways to make modestly priced brown sugar, maple syrup, ponzu sauce, and instant oatmeal.

“My theory is that almost any condiment can be made at home and easily, quickly and inexpensively,” Shuck says. “My version of maple syrup isn’t for purists. I’m not out there tapping maple trees. But my version is very tasty and costs about 6 cents per ounce as opposed to 60 cents per ounce.”

For more information on Shuck’s class, call the Communiversity offices at 816-235-1407. The class fee is $10, and the materials fee is $10.