tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9535925395454894482024-03-05T17:13:58.788-08:00Transient DelightsA globetrotting sourdough baker setting off to seek his fortune. No, seriously. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15879744077696316061noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-953592539545489448.post-51323253189116420242015-07-10T08:29:00.001-07:002015-07-10T08:29:39.152-07:00Scotland the bread, crowdsourcing and a signal boost!I wanted to share a really exciting project that Andrew and Veronica from Bread Matters have on the go. I love bread, I love grain and I love Scotland so I guess there is no great mystery about why I find this so exciting! lol.<br />
<br />
Veronica and Andrew are both passionate about putting good bread and the means to make it (and in this case grow and mill it) into the hands of communities around Scotland. To this end they are crowdsourcing for £6000 which will be match funded by a loan from A Team Challenge (so if they make it to the £6000 mark your contribution is effectively doubled). They have already passed the tipping point where the money pledged will be made available for the project and are well on the way but there are only 17 days left so there is still time to make a difference. Pledge something, read, share the information far and wide. Bake a loaf, take it to a friend and talk about it, then tell them to pass it along. <br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.buzzbnk.org/ScotlandTheBread" target="_blank">Scotland the bread on Buzzbnk</a><br />
<br />
When you are done have a look at the <a href="http://breadmatters.com/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=16" target="_blank">Scotland the bread</a> page on the Bread Matters website, it goes further into the supply chain, wheat breeding (easier than pandas and tastes better too) and opportunity for community involvement.<br />
<br />
I've baked with local wheat, both in bread and in cakes and love it. It tastes of something, becomes more than just a white/brown bulking agent. Your baked goods suddenly own a story and a history, a story about farmers and rain, the fields it grew in, the cold sea mists and the glorious sunshine on the east coast of Scotland. You can talk about the people who milled it, harvested it, baked with it and got it to your table. If you are persuaded and would like to read more about or bake with local flour you could try the <a href="http://www.mungoswells.co.uk/about-us/" target="_blank">Mungos Wells</a> website. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15879744077696316061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-953592539545489448.post-77822146648533521532014-02-07T13:12:00.003-08:002014-02-07T16:19:13.563-08:00baking with the zen mastersWhen I was a teenager I had the usual boiling cauldron of teenage angst going on, the sort that causes outbreaks of black lipstick, skull earrings and listening to the same song on repeat for, oh four hours or so. In 2001 when I was no longer quite a teenager A whole new You by Shawn Colvin was released... I loved that cd, listened to it straight through (I was evolving you see) and then listened again. My favourite song turned out to be not the title track but a song called Anywhere you Go, a short musical meditation on finding your place in the world, a theme I could identify with as a young transguy not yet out and wondering where I was headed.<br />
<br />
One line stuck with me, I often muttered it under my breath when having a bad moment "chop wood and carry water" it said to me "keep going, pick up your foot and take a step, keep talking and moving and you'll find a way". Bread is like that line for me, I (despite testosterone therapy) am not a born wood chopper, but I can take raw flour, water and salt and turn them into the staff of life, how much more zen can you get? In the same way that a perfectly stacked wood store is satisfying (bark up or down? pyramids or square?) the feeling of looking at racks and wires stacked with crusty, flour speckled and crackling loaves from the oven is much the same. Your hands worked it and made it and there is the product of your energies cooling and singing. They will leave your hands and be passed from person to person (in an ideal world) to the end consumer. A piece of you goes with them (ok I'm sorry, I'm sounding like a hippy here) your Will to create a wholesome bread that truly nourishes every part of a person, body and soul matters. If you didn't just pull a sick bag from under your desk you may be a community baker.<br />
<br />
As you'll gather baking for the community is what I want to be doing and I continue to take baby steps towards that goal. In the meantime I'm very lucky, you see I get to fill in time in the home of good bread. When Andrew and Veronica from Bread Matters moved about four miles from my house I was stunned. What crazy world was this where a person I admired for their skill and real commitment to bettering our food system just turns up here? I had long pined after the courses on offer in Melmerby, poring over the course guide each year and imagining being able to afford to go, but never believing I'd actually meet this godfather of real bread. I'm less awed now, less fanboy at a concert more happy citizen of a diverse community that believes in the importance of bread.<br />
<br />
I got to know Andrew and Veronica better as we worked with a community group to start a community supported bakery on Whitmuir farm. They were very real and warm. The bakery started and I worked there a few months as lead baker. But I was in the wrong place with the wrong people, and no amount of warm bread vibes could cure that. I mean it when I say make sure your whole group defines community in the same way you do, ditto radical, different and socially inclusive. <br />
<br />
I do however spend some of my time volunteering at Bread Matters. I go in on days courses are running, usually in the morning and weigh down ingredients for the budding bakers who will arrive later. The woodfired over is snapping away as it builds heat for the baking and there is an air of quiet busyness and preparation. After weigh downs I often hoover, or peel and chop vegetables and fruit for the midday or evening meals. These jobs are no less to me than baking a loaf. They are not nothing, they are not unimportant. I enjoy cleaning the potatoes, as I scrub and peel I think about the bakers and my wish for them to feel cared for and nourished. When I wipe down oven trays I imagine the next course and want the participants to feel as if this is just for them, clean and new and ready.<br />
<br />
I love seeing parts of the courses as they run, the people on the fundamental courses getting their hands into the dough for the first time and feeling it stick and cling, kneading (forever it seems!) and feeling the dough come alive under their hands. My favourite though is the Baking for the Community course which is running this week (tommorow is the last day). There is an energy in the room, none of the people are there to create a purely profit driven business, they believe in something more. It's a pleasure to work there listening and dreaming as loaves are kneaded, baked, discussed and tested. The business side of things investigated and digested over tea and coffees at regular intervals.<br />
<br />
Tommorow is the team bake day. the bakers split into two teams, discuss products and decide on running orders then bake them as though in a commercial bakery situation. I think it is one of the most invaluable experiences on the course, you can tell someone how it feels to have bread overproving and nowhere to bake it, but experiencing an oven jam is more memorable (experiencing it and learning to avoid it and deal with it using timing and temperature) and visceral. It's great to see the comradeship that has built in the last few days coming together and baking. Shared bread, the baking of or the eating of brings a sense of wholeness to a group, it doesn't matter that you are very different people, the bread is there, the bread is real. Chop wood and carry water, listen to the world breathing and make some bread.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15879744077696316061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-953592539545489448.post-72774686288723269342013-03-08T14:25:00.001-08:002013-03-08T14:25:43.662-08:00On the end of indiegogo...Yeah, ok, it has a few hours to run, but without a bizarre sort of miracle thing happening I'm never reaching that target. I'm sad, dissapointed, of course! who likes failing? But overall gratitude is my feeling.<br />
<br />
Gratuitude that people took time to read and think, some people backed my project, they believed the thing I was trying to say. I'm grateful, for the chance to make that video and talk to all those people about bread, for the new connections I've made.<br />
<br />
This afternoon I made bread, loaves of twisted tree branch sourdough country bread. Then I took two cartons of creme fraiche and churned them into slightly tangy, rich butter. I used the buttermilk for a cake for our visitors tommorow. These are the things that make me happy, they have always made me happy and I really hope that someday I'll have a chance to share that with other people.<br />
<br />
This is not the end, just knocked back and ready for a second rise!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15879744077696316061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-953592539545489448.post-65085436876781601692013-03-07T11:49:00.003-08:002013-03-07T11:49:57.382-08:00The family meal<br />
I was sitting in the car today, waiting for the squid (appropriately enough having a nice swim) and thinking and reading.<br />
<br />
And I thought, I love cooking, I love taking care of people, how can I do more of that stuff? So, I've come up with this concept, The family meal. I want to host a meal, once a month for four people to come join us for dinner, nothing fancy and it's free, but it will be a family meal. I'm actually quite excited. I want to start by experimenting on folks I know then cast the net further!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15879744077696316061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-953592539545489448.post-43427524669299467882013-03-01T01:42:00.003-08:002013-03-01T01:42:34.559-08:00Gumtree and giant push!<br />
Oh, eight days to do!! ok, so now (thank you supporters) 5% of the way, I still need 709 people to pledge £10 each, but I'm <b>still</b> not giving up! Today I posted a featured advert on Gumtree, you can see it <a href="http://www.gumtree.com/p/community/community-bread-and-baking-project-709-x-10/1011028318" target="_blank">here</a>. my next plan is to contact some local radio stations/businesses.<br />
<br />
Even if you cant pledge, please do tweet, retweet, blog and post on facebook, if my page on indiegogo gets enough movement on it they will feature it on the front page of their website (massively boosting my visibility!), this is based on my GOGO factor! which sounds fun, like perhaps it should be wearing pink fluffy boots.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15879744077696316061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-953592539545489448.post-24448976425770211722013-02-27T02:41:00.001-08:002013-02-27T02:41:16.493-08:00aargh, 10 days to go!Please commence flailing around now.<br />
<br />
No, I'm kidding I'm totally <strike>freaked out and panicked by</strike> calm and at ease with emailing and cold calling as many people as I can possibly think of. With ten days to run I'm 4% of the way there with funding, which is good, but it isn't enough, of course not. With all or nothing funding I'm starting to fear this could be nothing.<br />
<br />
But even if it doesn't work I am completely determined to make this work. This is too important to just give up on, real bread is for everybody! Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15879744077696316061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-953592539545489448.post-74440677963271785222013-02-06T06:49:00.000-08:002013-02-06T06:52:52.691-08:00Day two!<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /><iframe frameborder="0" height="486px" scrolling="no" src="http://www.indiegogo.com/project/330793/widget/2336628" width="224px"></iframe> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
I have my first backer, which is very exciting indeed. I've spent a lot of time today making posters (and uploading them to the gallery section of my campaign, feel free to download, print & display them anywhere!) and emailing people. I realise now that actually looking after a crowdsourcing project is a big job! but I'm really enjoying it.<br />
<br />
Plan for tommorow? a trip to Edinburgh to posterise as many places as I can find! oh, and bake some bread, sometimes it's nice to remember exactly why I love this so much.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15879744077696316061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-953592539545489448.post-48438272941662209942013-02-05T04:12:00.002-08:002013-02-05T04:13:04.247-08:00Indiegogo!! it livesI have created a monster!! yep, my campaign is now live on <a href="http://igg.me/at/WithBread/x/2336628">indiegogo</a> the crowd sourcing platform... feel free to share, distribute and disseminate this link far and wide!<br />
<br />
I'm nervous, I'm chilly, I'm about to learn to make tear off posters!<br />
<br />
I'll leave you with some bread porn, mmm... bread.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoV5w55_dJVo_AucXBa35P5nvBqpvSp4jFtMycpdLgjXb8rUbRWjBbtgDjATwlkrysr2Gz2EvzYuadrvnrcOM-6fbw-fAkFuZWoFk3J3hR7leMOR3ASuRRnPuAyPeqbrQ46Lq0v2GDGNfn/s1600/london+064.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoV5w55_dJVo_AucXBa35P5nvBqpvSp4jFtMycpdLgjXb8rUbRWjBbtgDjATwlkrysr2Gz2EvzYuadrvnrcOM-6fbw-fAkFuZWoFk3J3hR7leMOR3ASuRRnPuAyPeqbrQ46Lq0v2GDGNfn/s400/london+064.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15879744077696316061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-953592539545489448.post-1016368711193189292013-02-02T04:44:00.001-08:002013-02-05T02:33:20.852-08:00video! Phew! what a learning curve that was, I'm definitely a baker not a film maker. That said it's actually been a lot of fun.<br />
<br />
The idea to make the video using signs was born one night when sleep wouldn't come quietly, so I sat with my notebook and tried to figure out how to get my idea out of my head and onto the internet. The next morning I headed to freecycle and got my first models. Freecycle upped my confidence and I started asking folks on the street, mostly I had very positive reactions. Everyone likes bread, almost all the folks in the video had a story to tell of a bakery, a loaf of bread, their mum or gran baking... they spoke of missing real bread, that the smells and flavours for them evoke good memories (something a plastic wrapped supermarket pretender could never hope to do) and feelings. I'm so grateful to everybody who participated, it's great to know that something as basic as bread can touch so many lives and that so many people are willing to stop and share something of their experiences around it.<br />
<br />
The text on the signs reads....<br />
Hi, I'm Connor. I'm a community baker, I bake real bread.<br />
what is real bread?<br />
real bread is flour, water, salt and yeast<br />
or some sourdough starter<br />
it is also time, care, skill & nurture<br />
it is not processing aids, enzymes, additives, pesticide residues or misleading labels<br />
bread over time has inspired...<br />
love<br />
civil unrest<br />
poetry<br />
acts of kindness<br />
and prayers<br />
bread, made by hands that care<br />
nurtures more than the body...<br />
when communities own their own bakery<br />
trust becomes part of the transaction<br />
it is good for the community as a whole<br />
growers, producers, consumers working together<br />
to create a more humane way of doing things<br />
when we break bread with our family<br />
we invite the world into our homes<br />
community supported bakeries are on a mission<br />
to get more of this<br />
to people who need it<br />
because<br />
real bread loves everybody!<br />
it is for you, me, your neighbours, old people, kids and everybody else<br />
choosing real bread creates a ripple effect<br />
that touches lives beyond the immediately obvious<br />
real bread can<br />
start a conversation<br />
build self esteem<br />
grow communities<br />
and jump economic lines<br />
break down social barriers<br />
and create real jobs<br />
not bad eh? (it also tastes good)<br />
I'm on a mission too<br />
I want to go and meet other community bakers<br />
to find out how they are engaging with their communities<br />
how they defined those communities<br />
and what creative ways they have found<br />
to get real bread into new places<br />
and meet the needs of their customers <br />
because small is beautiful<br />
and all communities have individual needs and strengths<br />
community supported bakeries are responsive to those needs<br />
they are in and of their community<br />
and when I get back<br />
I want to start a community bakery and bake real bread<br />
for people I care about<br />
like you!<br />
<br />
Apart from making a video I feel like this experience taught me a lot
about what makes a community, it is much more complex than the obvious
geographical entity. Communities can be many groups intersecting and
coming togther to explore a common theme, they can be open, closed, welcoming (or not) and sometimes surprising!
I'm really looking forward to talking to other people to find out more
of their thoughts on this. When starting a bakery how exactly do you
decide who your community are? and once decided how do you make sure
that it is also open and welcoming to people from outside that
community?<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYVvIoGIqA-FwkGtbvQ2oIkqq0uI4YK3EO_IvKrgHEEXdN2rrS4Hl7PXh1bVmEAKisFvrA2UUXh_LuZBQXeAZIwtvIwTT1jmxRIcNGmUcJea6DHzh75RpzC71IL1AGokwGvwDOytRolxwT/s1600/PICT0046.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYVvIoGIqA-FwkGtbvQ2oIkqq0uI4YK3EO_IvKrgHEEXdN2rrS4Hl7PXh1bVmEAKisFvrA2UUXh_LuZBQXeAZIwtvIwTT1jmxRIcNGmUcJea6DHzh75RpzC71IL1AGokwGvwDOytRolxwT/s400/PICT0046.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15879744077696316061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-953592539545489448.post-30384757840931099242012-11-11T07:42:00.003-08:002013-02-02T05:36:48.264-08:00Authenticity?Everybody should be free to do the things that make their heart sing, to live in the way that is most authentically and essentially them.<br />
<br />
People trapped in a cycle of poverty and deprivation, working two, three jobs to maintain a lifestyle that falls well below the <a href="http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/MIS-2012">minimum income standards</a> are not singing, trust me.<br />
So, next time you are considering making a value judgement, feel a sweeping <i>"the poor have only themselves to blame for their problems they drink/smoke/gamble too much/only eat crap"</i> think twice<br />
<br />
We are all just trying to get by and if a glass of wine helps or giving up smoking would deprive you of one pleasure or comfort too far, so what? Ducks live in luxurious house, people wear dresses that cost a months income, people sleep in doorways and children leave school without being able to fend for themselves and without any real hope for their future.<br />
<br />
While all this happens people in power debate how often a winter coat should be bought, yearly, every two years, three? and is 2nd hand acceptable?<br />
<br />
Who are <i>"people like us" </i>& what about everybody else? Who is my community, not the place I live for sure. Are they fellow queers, low income families, benefit claimants?where Can I go to find them and how can we start to organise ourselves to take back some power?<br />
<br />
I get it, it is hard to care about the big picture, carbon footprints in food production and zero carbon aims when day to day survival is at the front of your mind. But unless ordinary people become invested in these issues then it will only ever be a kind of game for the wealthy to play, green one-upmanship (my car is greener than yours/our holiday home is carbon neutral).<br />
<br />
Language matters, cheap and nasty, cheap, rubbish, crap, poor quality. No wonder people on low incomes are miserable, absorbing the messages that we are stupid, lazy and irresponsible coupled with the innate knowledge that the food we are able to provide our families is substandard, harmful (to the planet as well as out bodies) and in many peoples opinions not fit for animal feed is hard to cope with.<br />
<br />
I wrote this at a conference, a conference which I enjoyed very much. But however much I enjoyed it I can't help but feel uncomfortable. It seems to be inevitable that these things are run by nice, middle class people for nice middle class people, I sometimes imagine the attendees collectively shitting themselves if some of the people they want to <i>"reach out to"</i> actually tried to attend. It's a rather disjointed and not very polished collection of notes I made as the day wended along, but it began to form a kernel of an idea in me, rather like the overdone grit/pearl analogy.<br />
<br />
I want to make a difference, change can only happen when enough people get behind it and start using their energy to push it along. I'm tired of listening to people in positions of power tell me how I'm doing things wrong. I'm sickened by the thought that because her parents are on a low income that my daughter has fewer opportunities in life. It's wrong, the dominant system is wrong. If organic food, renewable energy and sustainable living are for some they should be for all! These things shouldn't be the exclusive province of the middle classes in fact, they mustn't be. Children, all people must be given a sense of ownership, of power within their community and the wider society. They should eat nourishing food, wear clothes that aren't soaked in the sweat and tears of underpaid/unpaid workers, to be assured that they matter, they have worth!<br />
<br />
Big stuff huh? ok, I'm not a politician and if you ever met me you'd never believe I thought so much (I'm pretty quiet in person) . I can bake though, I can take flour, water and salt and turn it into bread. Bread has a unique ability to bring people together and forge new bonds. It's a staple food that almost everybody eats, all cultures have some kind of bread product. It often has meaning beyond food, it features widely in religion and mythology. Bad bread, made with indifference gnaws away at society, it becomes a symbol of something bigger and altogether nastier. A people who are willing to throw those on the bottom of the heap to the wolves. Good bread, made with care, by hands that are not only involved in baking but that uphold other parts of the community, nurtures more than the body. A very simple meal of soup becomes something much more than the sum of its parts when a great loaf of bread is at the heart of it. Put very simply, if you eat poor you feel poor.<br />
<br />
But, <a href="http://www.sustainweb.org/realbread/">real bread</a> must be available, you can't choose something which isn't being offered, bakers have to be brave and step away from the comfort of nice areas with affluent customers into places less scenic but with a desperate need for real bread and real food. The idea of community supported bakeries is simple but powerful. Community supported bakeries, rooted in the communities they serve can bypass social barriers and economic lines to provide good bread to people who need it. The bakery should stay within its area, small enough to be responsive to the needs of its customers. Once it becomes successful it goes on to facilitate the start up of bakeries in other communities.<br />
<br />
I want to start a bakery, a short sentence but I have a feeling it could be a long trip.<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15879744077696316061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-953592539545489448.post-59098469006126147962012-11-11T06:08:00.005-08:002012-11-11T06:08:39.739-08:00Define, Distill.<h2 class="def-header">
<span>Definition of <em>TRANSIENT</em></span></h2>
<div class="sblk">
<div class="snum">
1</div>
<div class="scnt">
<span class="ssens"><em class="sn">a</em> <strong>:</strong> passing especially quickly into and out of existence <strong>:</strong> <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transitory">transitory</a> <span class="vi"><<em>transient</em> beauty></span> </span><span class="ssens"><div class="break">
</div>
<em class="sn">b</em> <strong>:</strong> passing through or by a place with only a brief stay or <a class="d_link" href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sojourn%5B1%5D">sojourn</a> <span class="vi"><<em>transient</em> visitors></span> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="sblk">
<div class="scnt">
2<span class="ssens"><strong> </strong></span></div>
<div class="r">
<span class="ssens"><strong> :</strong> <a class="d_link" href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/affect%5B3%5D">affecting</a> something or producing results beyond itself</span> — <strong>tran·sient·ly</strong> <em>adverb</em></div>
<div class="r">
<em> </em></div>
<div class="r">
<h2 class="def-header">
<span>Definition of <em>DELIGHT</em></span></h2>
<div class="sblk">
<div class="snum">
1</div>
<div class="scnt">
<span class="ssens"> <strong>:</strong> a high degree of gratification <strong>:</strong> <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/joy">joy</a>; <em>also</em> <strong>:</strong> extreme satisfaction </span></div>
</div>
<div class="sblk">
<div class="snum">
2</div>
<div class="scnt">
<span class="ssens"> <strong>:</strong> something that gives great pleasure <span class="vi"><her performance was a <em>delight</em>></span></span></div>
<div class="scnt">
<span class="ssens"><span class="vi"> </span></span></div>
<br /><div class="scnt">
<span class="ssens"><span class="vi"> </span></span></div>
<div class="scnt">
<span class="ssens"><span class="vi"> </span> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="sblk">
<br /></div>
<em> </em> </div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15879744077696316061noreply@blogger.com0