Durham’s SEEDS garden will host a homemade cheese workshop from 2-5 p.m. Saturday.

Cheese maker Laurel Shulman will offer a broad introduction to cheese, discussing its chemistry, culture and history. Then Shulman will teach how to make mozzarella and farmer’s cheese, using fresh herbs from the educational community garden to spice up the cheeses. Students are asked to bring a container to transport the cheeses.

The class costs $45 per person. To register, go to goo.gl/NEM3w.

SEEDS is at 706 Gilbert St. and the garden’s new entrance is located on Elizabeth St. across from Carlton St. The class will be in the outdoor classroom, which is in the far right of the gardens. Info: seedsnc.org.

La Farm Bakery owner Lionel Vatinet is hosting a longtime friend and fellow baker Dominique Homo who will be teaching two baking classes in Cary next week.

Both men are master bakers, originally from France. Both men coached the American team when it won its first gold medal in 1999 at the Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie, an international baking competition.

Vatinet, who has settled in Cary where he and his wife started the successful La Farm Bakery, has invited his friend to teach two classes:

• From 5:30-8:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 14, Homo will teach how to make a traditional enriched dough like a Viennoise dough and pate brisee, used to make apple tarts or quiche.
• From 5:30-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 15, Homo will teach how to make pate sablee, a dough used to make fresh fruit tarts, and beer bread using Fullsteam’s Pale Ale. Sean Wilson, owner of the Durham brewery, also will offer a beer tasting and discuss his line-up of local beers.

Each class costs $75. To reserve a spot, call 919-657-0657.

Greg Taylor spent 6,149 days in prison for the murder of Jacquetta Thomas in Southeast Raleigh. For 17 years he maintained his innocence, exhausting every appeal, turning down repeated chances to make up a story about a codefendant so that he could go free.

Eventually, Christine Mumma, executive director of the N.C. Center of Actual Innocence, reviewed his case and believed the state was holding an innocent man. Through Mumma's work, the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission voted unanimously in 2009 that Taylor's case warranted further review, and in 2010 he was the first person to be exonerated under the process.

North Carolina is the only state with an innocence commission.

Taylor spoke to honors law and justice students at Broughton High School in Raleigh today. Here are my notes. They are not verbatim.

Thanks to everyone who spent their Saturday morning with me learning about coupons, rebates and holiday savings. If this is your first time reading the blog, welcome!

I really enjoyed meeting all of you and hope you will make the Centsible Saver blog a regular part of your day as you look for coupon deals, freebies and tips on frugal living.

Look for new posts seven days a week. And be sure to check early Wednesday and Sunday mornings when I post the best sales and coupon matchups at the supermarkets and drugstores -- all of them tailored to Triangle shoppers.

If you're a coupon beginner, be sure to check out my Coupons 101 page HERE for basic information on couponing at the supermarkets and drugstores, a key to coupon lingo, tips on how to use the N&O's coupon database and much more.

If you're looking for the recipes I use for homemade foaming hand soap or homemade laundry soap...

One lucky reader has won two free tickets to my Nov. 3 coupon workshop at the Ronald McDonald House in Durham.

Thanks to everyone who entered. I enjoyed reading your comments and hearing your enthusiasm for couponing and frugal living.

For those of you who didn't win, there are a few seats remaining in the class so think about signing up to attend.  Most folks easily recoup the cost of the workshop in their first grocery trip.  Go to the N&O ZONE page for more details.

And now for the winner:

Deadline to enter is midnight tonight, Friday, Oct. 26.

If you've been wanting to attend one of my coupon workshops, here's an opportunity for you and a friend to attend for free.

I'm giving away two free tickets to my next class, scheduled for Nov. 3 at the Ronald McDonald House in Durham.

Just leave a comment by midnight Friday and you'll be entered to win. I'll announce the winner Saturday morning.

What you'll win:

Registration for you and a friend at the Nov. 3 class at the Ronald McDonald House, 506 Alexander Ave., Durham, NC 27705.

The class covers basic and advanced coupon techniques, frugal living ideas and meal planning, including information on:

Larry's Beans is offering a coffee cupping event, sort of a wine tasting for coffee, from 1-3 p.m. Nov. 10.

The tasting will explore how flavor is affected by how the farmers process their coffee beans. The coffee will all be from Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union in Ethiopia. Participants also will get a chance to sample Larry's Beans cold brew iced coffee, a new offering that the company is now selling online at larrysbeans.com.

The cupping event, which will take place at 1507 Gavin St., Raleigh, costs $5. Tickets are available at larrysbeans.eventbrite.com.

Registration is now open to the public for my Nov. 3 half-day coupon workshop.

For $20, you’ll learn basic and advanced coupon techniques, score a reusable grocery bag full of freebies and walk out with all the tips you need to cut your grocery bill by at least half.

The class, which will be held at the Ronald McDonald House of Durham, 506 Alexander Ave., will include information on:

• finding, organizing and using coupons for the items you already buy
• matching your coupons with the weekly grocery ads to maximize your savings
• tips on using digital coupons to your advantage
• the ins and outs of local grocery and drugstore policies and rebate programs
• meal planning and other frugal-living tips
• and ideas for celebrating the upcoming holidays debt-free

The class fee also includes parking, breakfast and a detailed class handout. Most folks easily recoup the cost of the class in their first grocery trip.

We’ll also do a drawing for prizes, which include grocery gift cards, movie passes, cookbooks, children’s books and more. Bring a donation to the Ronald McDonald House and get a second chance to win.

Go to the N&O ZONE page to register and check out the Ronald McDonald House wish list for its most pressing needs.

This & That Jam is teaching a class on how to can figs and make fig preserves at the SEEDS garden in Durham on Aug. 8.

From 6-8 p.m., Ben Filippo will lead an "an anthropological discussion on the history of food" while demonstrating the basics of canning. The class costs $15. To pre-register, call 919-683-1197. For more information, go to: http://on.fb.me/Q6KNLi.
 

Thanks to everyone who spent their Saturday morning with me learning about coupons, rebates and frugal living. If this is your first time reading the blog: Welcome!

I really enjoyed meeting all of you and hope you will make the Centsible Saver blog a regular part of your day as you look for grocery deals, freebies and other tips on saving money and living a frugal lifestyle.

Look for new posts about savings opportunities seven days a week. And be sure to check in on Wednesday and Sunday mornings when I post the best sales and coupon matchups at the supermarkets and drugstsores -- all of them tailored to Triangle shoppers.