Re’s Bread workshop teaches beginners sourdough from starter to scoring

A sourdough class built for the part most beginners never get past

If sourdough has beaten you with a dead starter, sticky dough, or one more vague online video, this workshop is set up to solve that exact problem. Reanna of Re’s Bread is teaching a hands-on, beginner-friendly sourdough bread-making class at Nest on Main in Northport, and the promise is practical from the start: learn the full process, take home the tools, and leave with dough you can actually bake the next day.

The workshop runs Wednesday, May 27, 2026, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Nest on Main, 135 Main Street, Northport, NY 11768. Tickets start at $93, which puts this squarely in the “pay for a shortcut” category rather than a casual demo, but the structure makes the value easy to judge. This is not a lecture about hydration percentages or a loose tasting room talk. It is built like a starter kit for people who want to make one loaf turn into a repeatable habit.

What the class actually covers

The biggest selling point is the sequence. Participants are promised step-by-step instruction through the sourdough process, starting with how to feed and maintain a starter. From there, the class moves into mixing dough, stretch-and-folds, shaping, and scoring. That matters because those are the spots where first-time bakers usually stall out: the starter looks sleepy, the dough feels too slack, and the final slash on top is where a loaf can go from promising to flat.

That progression also matches what good beginner sourdough teaching tends to do best. Major baking guides consistently make the same point: sourdough becomes approachable when the process is broken into clear steps instead of treated like a mystery. This workshop leans into that idea hard, and for home bakers, that is the right move. It gives you the rhythm of the bake instead of just the recipe.

There is also a real technical reason that starter care gets top billing. King Arthur Baking notes that sourdough flavor comes from lactic and acetic acids created by bacteria and yeast in the starter and dough, which means fermentation is not just about rising. It is the source of the flavor you’re chasing. If you have ever wondered why one loaf tastes mild and another has that sharper tang, this is the piece of the process that controls it.

What you leave with

The take-home package is where the workshop starts to feel less like a class and more like a well-designed baking launch. Each participant receives a jar of sourdough starter, the dough they mixed in class to bake at home the next day, a printed guide, a straight-edge razor for scoring, another pre-prepared dough, and a proofing basket.

That is a serious bundle of useful gear, and it solves a problem most beginner classes ignore: the gap between inspiration and the first loaf on your counter. A starter jar is one thing. A guide, a razor, a proofing basket, and dough already underway make the leap into home baking much more realistic. The extra pre-prepared dough is especially smart, because it gives you another shot at shaping and handling without waiting for a full refresh cycle.

There is even a bread-and-butter tasting using the same recipe taught in class, which gives the session a concrete payoff instead of just a theory lesson. It is easier to understand why the dough matters when you can taste the result of the same formula before you go home and try to recreate it yourself.

Why Reanna and Re’s Bread fit this format

Reanna is the baker behind Re’s Bread, a sourdough microbakery on Long Island where naturally fermented bread is the focus. Her bread is described as being made with an eye toward quality and flavor, and she also likes teaching through hands-on workshops. That combination matters. A good instructor for sourdough is not just someone who can bake well, but someone who can translate what the dough is doing into something you can repeat in your own kitchen.

That is what makes this event feel more useful than a standard class demo. Reanna is teaching from the perspective of a working sourdough baker, not a general home-cooking presenter. If your goal is to get a loaf with a decent open crumb, a crisp crust, and a starter you can keep alive without panic-refreshing it every day, that kind of lived-in instruction is the difference between buying another kit and actually learning the craft.

Why Nest on Main is the right setting

Nest on Main is not a random rental room with folding chairs. It is a long-running community workshop venue in Northport that has been hosting events for 8 years, with about 1.7k followers, 1.5k-plus total events, and 7.3k total attendees. The venue’s public listing also puts it at 135 Main Street, Northport, NY 11768, and gives the phone number as 631-651-9173.

That matters because Nest on Main already works as a place where small businesses and makers get front-and-center attention through workshops and pop-ups. Its broader programming model is built around bringing people together around local craft, which makes a sourdough class feel like a natural fit rather than a one-off novelty. The audience for this kind of event usually wants more than a seat and a slice of bread. It wants a local experience with a real takeaway, and that is exactly what Nest on Main seems to specialize in.

Why this kind of sourdough class is selling now

There is a reason sourdough workshops keep landing with home bakers. Sourdough still has the reputation of being fussy, and in a lot of ways that reputation is earned. It asks you to think about timing, temperature, starter health, and dough feel in a way that a basic yeast loaf does not. But the learning curve gets a lot less steep when someone shows you the motions in person and hands you the starter, the guide, and the tools to continue at home.

That is the real appeal here. You are not just buying access to a recipe. You are buying a controlled first run through the process, with live guidance from Reanna, a bread you can taste, and enough equipment to keep baking after the class ends. For anyone who has tried to learn sourdough alone online and ended up with more discard than bread, that is a much better entry point. The point of the evening is not to impress you with sourdough theory. It is to get you from starter to scoring, then send you home ready to do it again.