Cucumbers 3 Ways: A Seasonal Fermentation & Pickling Workshop with Sam Paone

Three cucumbers, three techniques, three very different jars.

Join Chef Sam Paone, founder of Golden State Pickle Works, for this deep dive into preserving cucumbers!

You will learn to make:

• Classic Lacto-Fermented New York Dill Pickles
• Sweet and Spicy Quick-Pickled Mixed Cucumbers
• Chinese-Style Smashed Pickled Cucumbers

Class opens with a side-by-side tasting of fermented vs vinegar-pickled cucumber and a bite of potato salad showcasing both. Snack on a grazing platter featuring a fermented cucumber dressing while you work.

You will leave with three full jars to enjoy at home and the confidence to pickle anything!

No experience is necessary, and all materials and produce will be provided.

Instructor Bio

Sam Paone is a Sonoma-based cook, preservationist, and the founder of Golden State Pickle Works and Collective Cultures. She’s best known for her deeply seasonal approach to fermentation, pickling, and pantry-building—work that sits at the intersection of tradition, practicality, and everyday cooking.

Sam is the creator and host of Jarring Everything, a food series that explores approachable ways to think about ingredients differently. Filmed in her Sonoma production kitchen and rooted in local agriculture, the show focuses on techniques like fermentation, dehydration, vinegar-making, and preserving—not as trends, but as useful, hopeful skills anyone can learn.

Her work is driven by curiosity, care, and community. Sam collaborates closely with farmers, cooks with what’s abundant, and believes that learning how to preserve food is a way to feel more grounded in an often uncertain world. Whether she’s teaching a workshop, making hoshigaki from local persimmons, or talking through salt percentages on a gram scale, her goal is always the same: to make preservation feel accessible, human, and deeply nourishing.

Categories: Beginner, Cooking Class, Fermentation, No Experience Necessary