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Brian Biggins' goal is to sustain himself entirely by working at his farm. As winter approaches, that means finding creative new ways to bring in money.

So he put his ingenuity to work Saturday evening and held an intimate bread-baking class in his well-appointed Adamstown kitchen for three eager foodies.

Biggins and his wife, Carolyn, who serves as his assistant, hosted the course – which essentially amounted to a mini cooking show – at their home at Miolea Organic Farm. Upon arrival, his students were greeted by the light, sour smell of yeast and a sample plate of one of the homemade breads they later learned how to make.

As they sat at the kitchen island, the three amateur bakers learned the finer points of advanced bread-baking, discussing topics ranging from gluten strands to steam baths, and from ballooning to tackiness.

Adamstown resident Gay Oddo, an artist who asked questions throughout the class about the more detailed parts of the process, said she took the class to help gain the courage to start baking again.

"I have made bread before, but I need to get inspired. It's so intimidating to get started again," she said. "Bread is like a lot of things on a farm. It's a lot of work, but the end result's worth it."

Biggins had prepared extensively to give everyone an authentic, professional experience – pre-measuring ingredients, making some of the dough ahead of time and calculating everything so no valuable teaching time was wasted.

Though they included many details and sage pieces of advice in their presentation, Biggins and his wife held a great rapport with the their three students, with a light and entertaining tone throughout the two-hour class peppered throughout with personal anecdotes and jokes.

"You should wait for it to cool down to cut it," Biggins kidded after pulling a piping hot loaf out of his double oven. "I can't tell you how long you're supposed to wait, though, because I've never waited long enough."

Biggins has never been formally trained as a baker or chef, but he says he grew up in an Italian culinary household and learned invaluable lessons and recipes from his mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, "Mom-Mom." He also spent nearly 10 years working in the restaurant business.

Currently, the Biggins family makes most of its living running an organic farm, growing and selling produce, preserves and breads, and raising chickens for Miolea's specialty, eggs. During fall and winter, when the growing season ends, the couple uses creativity and ingenuity to find ways to pay the bills – their goal is to live entirely off of the farm and these side ventures they host there. So as summer was drawing to a close, Biggins added a listing offering Italian cooking classes to Miolea's section of the Maryland Online Farmer's Market to accompany the one on Frederick County Virtual Farmers' Market Web site.

Adamstown residents Ryan and Nikki Wick discovered the classes through the virtual farmers' market. They had made bread before, but Ryan, a lawyer, said it tasted bad and turned out too "dense." After the class, he said he felt much more confident about his baking abilities.

"It's not just something where you open a book and whip some bread up," he explained. "You've really got to see someone do it."

Biggins, who wore a formal white chef's jacket with black collar, cuffs and buttons, does not only teach bread-making. Coming from an Italian family, he says he is an expert at all types of "rustic Italian" cooking, so he and his wife, Carolyn, also offer classes on a range of Italian cuisines, as well as some dishes from other traditions, such as Thai.

"We love to cook. I was taught Italian cooking early on," he said. "We teach how to make peasant food: spaghetti and meatballs, ravioli and bread. It's kind of a lost art.

"We're looking for that nostalgia food that we grew up with."

For more information, contact Brian Biggins at 301-466-2151 or miolea@aol.com.