Bailiwick (bay-li-wik) - One’s area of activity, interest, or expertise.
Kathleen Witman has made Oshkosh her Bailiwick. She set out to showcase the places and people who make this community an amazing place to live, one small workshop at a time.
A few weeks back Kathleen invited me to observe, and take a couple tastes, a workshop on how to make fajitas and salsa at La Avenida Mexican Store & Deli. As I had learned in a previous post, owner Dora Fabian has an infectious joy in her store and I knew this would translate exceptionally well to a hands on demonstration.
When I arrived a couple participants were already there peppering Dora with pre-workshop sneaks. Kathleen was able to maintain some classroom decorum and keep the snacking at bay. The aroma was already getting hard to ignore and at 5:30 my stomach was letting everyone in the room know my minutes of observation only were drawing down quickly.
The rest of the group arrived and thankfully the cooking began. In a Bailiwick workshop each participant is expected to jump in, chop, blend, slice and dice. Some took their responsibilities to a repressed place in their psyche. It didn’t take long before the classmates were all clamoring for the recipe and a list of products used. Dora and her store would make a tidy profit this night. I know I bought food to go and everything on her ingredient sheet.
That is the really neat thing about a Bailiwick Workshop, everyone walks away enriched. Kathleen’s workshops will show you wine making, how to fix a leaky faucet, hardscaping your yard, how to put a flourish into that plain cake and even the techniques involved in tossing pizza dough in the sky without it landing back on your face.
Check out the Bailiwick Workshop’s website to get a current list of scheduled workshops, but also sign up for the email list so you can find out early what is coming in the months ahead. These learning sessions are kept small and fill up quickly. The cost is amazingly low and often allows a “friend” discount if you sign up for two.
Perhaps after one or two of Kathleen’s courses, you will finally find your Bailiwick.
