Soil to Slice

At the beginning of November, groups from the Soil to Slice network joined us amidst the autumn colours of Comrie to thresh their harvest. Making use of small-scale equipment (purchased in 2015 thanks to the generous donations of our supporters) we worked together to process grains grown across Scotland, getting them ready to mill into flavourful flour for locally-grown loaves.

We are grateful to John Castley – founder of Wild Hearth Bakery – and his team for hosting us and sharing his knowledge, both of baking and of growing grains with the local primary school. The group was particularly interested to learn about the various types of wood fired ovens and lucky enough to sample a delicious lunch made in the ‘white’ oven used at the bakery.

Each group has exciting and varied plans for their grains: Green Routes hope to bulk up their crop in a larger growing area; Granton Community Gardeners will have theirs baked into delicious loaves available to the community through their pay-as-you-feel bakery; and St Andrews Botanic Garden will share their maslin (mixed grain) flour with visitors along with a recipe for them to try at home.

Photo credit to John Castley of Wild Hearth Bakery

It has and continues to be a busy few months for Soil to Slice communities as they harvest and celebrate their locally-grown grains in many different ways! Here is just a taster of what is going on around the country:

• Visitors to a sunny St Andrews Botanic Garden harvest picnic got hands-on to help thresh, winnow and mill the wheat and rye sown at our spring gathering.
• The long straw of our varieties came in handy for a straw-weaving workshop at the Granton Community Gardener’s harvest festival, where young and old alike created corn dollies and beautiful crowns.
• Canal View Primary School pupils are looking forward to a lesson on baking with the wheat grown in their playground.
• Leith Community Growers were proud to use their very own flour to make sourdough crackers in a recent workshop led by baker Mahala Le May. We are delighted to be involved in their upcoming Climate Festival, where we will be helping more people see grains differently with seed selection and grain-tasting activities.

While we enjoy the results of this season, preparations are already beginning for the next… The mill is busy packing and posting out winter seed to several communities recently welcomed to our network, as well as those keen to continue their grain adventures by experimenting with new varieties!

“Today was the day. The rain poured, the sun shone and then the rain poured again! We got stuck in and planted, it was such fun, lots of laughter…Tea break with discard scones, cookies and brownies…Lots of smiles and laughter. Loved it.”

Many thanks to Lili Culbert for this update on their wheat and rye seed-sowing day on Sunday 1st May. Psychotherapist and mindfulness teacher Lili has started ‘bread therapy’ workshops in Castle Douglas and Kirkcudbright in Dumfries & Galloway, and has added seed-sowing to the project so course participants can: “share in the excitement of breaking soil and planting together. An informal gathering accompanied by delicious sourdough delights!”

The group is called Increased Access 2 Psychological Support; it’s a mental health charity described as ‘Mindful and Compassion Based.’ Their work highlights the many potential aspects of our Soil to Slice project, with different groups picking up and focusing on those most relevant to their community – for example food sovereignty, creating local food systems, skill sharing, education, nutrition, citizen science, participatory plant breeding, and / or physical and mental wellbeing.

Lili said: “What a great day planting seed yesterday from The Soil to Slice Programme. Some of the Bread Therapy participants got stuck in on a wet Sunday to plant 43g of Balkaskie Spring Landrace and 14g rye. Over the coming months we shall be maintaining, and harvesting before we eventually mill our grain and bake our Sourdough Bread together in the Autumn! We’ll also be gathering feedback from the project participants on the stages they took part in, which stages they enjoyed the most, the skills and knowledge gained and of course the impact on overall wellbeing. Thank you so much to everyone involved.”

Photo credit to Lili Culbert.