true loaf ….never run of the mill Win! A copy of How to Make Bread by Emmanuel Hadjiandreou See inside for details The quarterly magazine for Real Bread Campaign members Issue 8. July – September 2011 The Flour Sack This issue’s letter comes from Michael Gopfert, who is working on ideas for starting to bake Real Bread for his local community in Merseyside. I started with the dilemma of wanting to make more bread to develop my skills, but as we were only consuming one or two loaves a week at home this was hardly enough to keep my sourdough starter up to full vigour. My interest got intensified following my partial retirement from the NHS when I had the opportunity to work in a bakery in Munich for two weeks. As an aside: the word artisan does not mean very much there either! In February I asked my friends if they would make a 50p contribution per pound of dough if I made them some bread once a week. Some said yes and since then I have made a different loaf each week, never repeating the same. We organised a sampling meeting with some Ethiopian food including injeera [a traditional sourdough flatbread made using flour from a grain called teff], sourdough bread, and some sourdough beer, which was great because people who did not know each other could talk with one another. There was an agreement as to how we could move this forward without it becoming too big too fast. The idea is to develop skills in the group and see if the whole initiative can be broadened out. So there will be a rotating selection of four types of bread, one each week, a more realistic cost contribution and some joint bread making for those who are interested, and the hope that the two will eventually fertilise each other. Meanwhile I am keen to develop my own skills but a mix of family and work (part time) commitments makes this very difficult. I have a wish to do some work with the Welbeck Bakehouse by working there for a week, but any other place that could accommodate me with that and has something interesting going will be interesting to consider for the future. I would want to contribute to the work and be helpful in exchange for some experience. I would not mind another course, though in general I am fed up with the courses and want to do the real work in a real bakery. Simultaneously I am exploring whether I should put a slightly bigger micro-bakery in my garage. I am not sure yet how to do that financially but someone already asked the question whether we need to build a bread oven and I would not say no. To contact Michael to chat about his plans or offer advice, please login to The Real Baker-e, our online members’ forum. Also there you can find notes of Michael’s bread club plans. Stay In touCh You can share ideas and information, join in TAKE ACTION! with general Real Bread chit-chat and keep If you are a professional baker and would like to up with the very latest related goings-on in offer Michael – or one of the many other would-be the following places out in the virtual world: community/professional bakers on our waiting list – • The Real Baker-e: http://groups.yahoo.com/ a voluntary apprenticeship, please email realbread@ group/realbreadcampaign/ sustainweb.org for details of our scheme. • Follow @RealBread at twitter.com • Become a fan (click ‘like’) of the Campaign If you’d like to see your letter (no more than 300 words) published here, please on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/ send it to us by email or post by the next issue’s deadline. We can only publish one realbreadcampaign per issue but might instead choose to publish certain letters in the blog section of • View and share pictures on Flickr our website. www.flickr.com/photos/realbreadcampaign/ For much more information about Real Bread and the Campaign please visit: www.realbreadcampaign.org Credits Issue 8, July – September 2011 True Loaf is the quarterly magazine of the Real Bread Campaign, part of Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming. Editor: Chris Young Design: Becky Joynt Contributors: Jonathan Cook, John Downes, Emily Earhart, Michael Gopfert, Angela Morris, Kelly Parsons and Andrew Whitley Photos: Unless otherwise stated, all images by Chris Young/the Real Bread Campaign, available under a Creative Commons not-for-profit attribution share alike license. Cover / inside cover: Patrycja Rejnin in Andy Forbes’ mixed-wheat-population-covered south London allotment last summer by Vincent Talleu / Sacks, Miguel Saavedra, http://www.rgbstock.com/populargallery/saavem. The Real Bread Campaign is funded by the Big Lottery Fund’s Local Food scheme and the Sheepdrove Trust. Printed by RAP Spiderweb with vegetable based inks on Print Speed paper, which has an FSC Mixed Sources accreditation. Contents Starter Starter 01 In a break from today’s marathon True Loaf editing session, I popped into a local shop and was greeted by The Bread Board 2 - 2 a large purple and yellow (mmm… tasteful) banner The Gallery 03 across the top of The Daily Mail that yelled: ‘IS YOUR BREAD MAKING YOUR ILL?’ Aha, I thought, so today’s Pappiness in your hands 04 when they’re running the feature that freelance Loaf: thy neighbour 05 journalist Alex Renton offered to write as a result of one of our media releases. Cheers Alex! Bread Hero: Kenny Rankin 06 This was not the first, nor will it be the last, fruit of How many Real Bread bakers our work to encourage the country to say that after does it take to change a food system? 08 half a century of the Chorleywood ‘Bread’ Process Competition 09 (CBP - the additive-laden, no-time system by which most factory loaves are made), it’s time Britain got Sourdough...the real thing 10 real. BBC Breakfast broadcast the story three times Who are ya? 11 in a morning, it appeared in Delicious magazine, and Millers’ Tales 12 at the time of writing, Lucas Hollweg of The Sunday Times, Dan Lepard of The Guardian and Bee Wilson of Poster back cover The Daily Telegraph have all told us they’ll be telling of our mission. For the latest updates, keep an eye on Breadcrumbs, The Real Baker-e and our Twitter and Facebook feeds. Also on the horizon (future as I write, past as you read) is the launch of an initiative by Leicestershire brewer Everards to support Real Bread bakers, artisan cheese makers and other real food entrepreneurs in setting up WANTED businesses in pub outbuildings. Also in that temporal bubble is Bethesdabakin’, Mick Hartley and co’s annual Real Bread skills sharing weekend in Wales, which I’m sure will provide inspiration for other people to organise similar events elsewhere. We’ll be reporting back on both. But to this issue, in which Emily Earhart looks at the For the information and entertainment of your history of CBP and a future beyond; Andrew Whitley fellow members. shares with Kelly Parsons his calculations of how many True Loaf wants your: Real Bread bakers we’d need to replace CBP; Angela • News stories Morris talks to Bread Hero Kenny Rankin, who’s • Photos committed to passing Real Bread skills to some of • Bread and flour related features that next generation; and Jon Cook reports back from • Cartoons this spring’s grain chain building From Crop to Crust REWARD: a magazine that’s more about you and conference. Oh, we’re giving you the chance to win how you are helping the rise of Real Bread. the new book from Campaign ambassador Emmanuel APPLY: [email protected] Hadjiandreou. Deadline for issue 9 (October – December): 2 September 2011 Ready for this and more? Then tuck in! Disclaimer The views expressed in True Loaf are those of the individual writers and not necessarily those of the Real Bread Campaign or Sustain. Inclusion of a product, service or organisation in Project Officer, the magazine does not imply an endorsement. the Real Bread Campaign Chris Young by Katharine Hillier 1 The Bread board Bread making workshop and celebration of Real Bread Events 13th July: Bread and ale evening, Topsham, Devon Fitting bread making into a busy daily routine; sourdoughs 16th July: Bread weighing, ale tasting and medieval fayre, and yeasted bread (short and long process) the milling Ashburton, Devon process; what goes into factory loaves; the story of setting up local bakeries; Community Supported Bakeries; secret 16th July: Brockwell Bake open day, south London Lammas rituals! All this and more will be explored on this 30th July: Community Bread Baking Day, Lovedays Mead, Stroud, 31st July event organised by Ipswich Food Co-op in support Gloucestershire (also 27th August) of the Real Bread Campaign. Confirmed speakers include: 15th August: Local Loaves for Lammas, Nationwide Nancy from Mains Restaurant Baking Club, Andy Cole from 4th August: A Slice of real ale (beer and bread tasting), Great Felixstowe Craft Bakery, Tim Lukehurst from East Bergholt’s British Beer Festival, London th August) Slow Dough Bakery, David Eddershaw from Pakenham 9th - 11th September: Bread trail, Ludlow Food Festival, Shropshire Watermill; plus members of the Food Co-op offering an (Festival Loaf competition on 20 informal skillshare, with more guests to be confirmed. For 24th September: The Eye Bread Festival, Leominster, Herefordshire more details, contact Gemma Sayers [email protected] 07971 863 586 Full details on the events calendar at www.realbreadcampaign.org The WI Are you a member of your local Women’s Institute? If so, you are in Knead to Know the best position to help to get not only your group, but also your If you’re one of more than 550 people local federation and even the national organisation to champion who’ve bought a copy of our book – thank Real Bread values and support our initiatives.