10/16/2026
A new addition to Southampton Intermediate School, The Little Free Bakery, is giving students the ability to combine their growing culinary skills with lessons in agricultural literacy, entrepreneurship and the importance of supporting local farms.
Located near the school’s security desk, the Little Free Bakery features delicious samples prepared by students in the school’s new baking class using locally sourced and New York State agricultural ingredients. Staff members and visitors are invited to enjoy the treats, giving the 19 students in the class an opportunity to share their hard work.
The new baking class builds on the foundational skills that the students developed through the school’s home and careers program. Students explore baking techniques and learn how agricultural products are transformed into the ingredients used in everyday foods. They learn how to research agricultural commodities, develop recipes, calculate costs, design packaging and market their finished products.
Local agriculture is central to the program. By incorporating ingredients grown and produced on Long Island and throughout New York State, students learn about seasonality, agricultural production and the importance of regional farms and producers.
“The project reinforces the idea that agriculture extends far beyond the farm and is part of our everyday lives,” said family and consumer sciences teacher Christina Cassel Duryea.
With fall in the air, students recently baked pumpkin muffins made with Long Island cheese pumpkins, which students roasted and pureed from scratch. They also made honey cornbread featuring local popcorn kernels that they milled into cornmeal.
Students are also exploring the versatility of apples through a project that included a field trip to The Milk Pail in Water Mill to pick apples. They used the apples to make fresh-pressed c***r, which they also incorporated into homemade apple c***r donuts.
As the class progresses, students will be introduced to breads featuring additional New York agricultural commodities, including potatoes, oats and maple syrup, along with homemade butter.
