When Christina Schindler and her husband made the decision to change their own (and their children’s) diets to focus more on from-scratch, all-natural foods, they were unknowingly making a life-changing decision. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the couple founded Modern Stone Age, a restaurant and food lab that uses ingredients and cooking techniques that date back centuries.
The Chestertown restaurant has proven popular, with Schindler using her skills as a former educator to host classes and workshops there. And she still has students in the form of Modern Stone Age’s young apprentices and part-time workers from local high schools.
Schindler lives in Churchill with her husband, Bill, and their three children: Brianna (21), Billy (19) and Alyssa (17).
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
Was there any specific impetus for changing your family’s diet?
It’s always been a part of how we raised our kids. As soon as we had children, we were looking more at our own diets. When I was trying to lose the baby weight from having my oldest, the South Beach diet was the thing at the time. But my husband with his archaeology background was looking into ancestral ways to process food to make it as healthy as possible, and that bled into every aspect of how we raised our children. You’d call us an “ingredient household” like people on TikTok do. Kids don’t come to our house for the snacks; they come for the meals.
What led you to found Modern Stone Age?
When Covid happened, my husband was teaching sourdough bread-baking classes to the community, so he decided to make some and donate it through the Social Action Committee. My oldest daughter, Brianna, was very bored in online school and was 16 at the time. She volunteered to bake with her dad, and they would bake 80 to 100 loaves a week. She started her own sourdough bread business, Rise by Brianna, and it really took off.
[My husband and I] had full-time careers and had zero intention of owning a restaurant. We met at a restaurant, and we didn’t like that lifestyle at all. We fought against calling [Modern Stone Age] a restaurant for the first two years because of that, but it’s a restaurant. We employ 35 people.
If Covid didn’t happen, I would still be the supervisor of special education in Caroline County, and he would still be a professor at Washington College. So, we are one of those Covid success stories.
How does your background in education influence the work you do now?
We’re providing access to real food to the community, but we’re also providing workplace employment opportunities. Students are critical for that, and it’s great to be able to give them jobs where they’re valued and can learn real-life skills. We’re approved as a Maryland Department of Labor youth apprenticeship site, and we’ve had two youth apprentices so far.
We also do a lot of programming in the community, with everything from 2-year-olds at the Judy Center learning to roll pretzels to adult workshops. I’m able to take my experience in special education and put it towards helping our employees develop life skills. The heart of what I’ve done for 20 years in education has resonated over here, too.
How do you encourage your kids to stay healthy now that they’re attending college and not always eating at home?
I feel like we’ve kind of come full circle. That first taste of independence with a driver’s license changed things, and there was a bit of a learning curve on that. We don’t fund any junk. If our kids want to go out for food with friends, they have to pay for that themselves.
But it’s important to not be too dogmatic, either. If you come down too hard on something, your kids will go in the complete opposite direction.
We gave them freedom, but they did notice a difference when they weren’t eating healthy, so we ended up not having to say anything about it or specifically tell them what to do and how to live.
Family Favorites
Food: Wood-fired pizza in our backyard
Local Spot: Butterfly Bay in Eastern Neck Wildlife Refuge
Vacation Spot: County Mayo, Ireland
Family Activity: Cooking
Game: Rummikub
