No, I'm kidding I'm totally
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!
Wednesday, 27 February 2013
aargh, 10 days to go!
Please commence flailing around now.
No, I'm kidding I'm totallyfreaked out and panicked by 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.
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!
No, I'm kidding I'm totally
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!
Wednesday, 6 February 2013
Day two!
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.
Tuesday, 5 February 2013
Indiegogo!! it lives
I have created a monster!! yep, my campaign is now live on indiegogo the crowd sourcing platform... feel free to share, distribute and disseminate this link far and wide!
I'm nervous, I'm chilly, I'm about to learn to make tear off posters!
I'll leave you with some bread porn, mmm... bread.
I'm nervous, I'm chilly, I'm about to learn to make tear off posters!
I'll leave you with some bread porn, mmm... bread.
Saturday, 2 February 2013
video!
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.
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.
The text on the signs reads....
Hi, I'm Connor. I'm a community baker, I bake real bread.
what is real bread?
real bread is flour, water, salt and yeast
or some sourdough starter
it is also time, care, skill & nurture
it is not processing aids, enzymes, additives, pesticide residues or misleading labels
bread over time has inspired...
love
civil unrest
poetry
acts of kindness
and prayers
bread, made by hands that care
nurtures more than the body...
when communities own their own bakery
trust becomes part of the transaction
it is good for the community as a whole
growers, producers, consumers working together
to create a more humane way of doing things
when we break bread with our family
we invite the world into our homes
community supported bakeries are on a mission
to get more of this
to people who need it
because
real bread loves everybody!
it is for you, me, your neighbours, old people, kids and everybody else
choosing real bread creates a ripple effect
that touches lives beyond the immediately obvious
real bread can
start a conversation
build self esteem
grow communities
and jump economic lines
break down social barriers
and create real jobs
not bad eh? (it also tastes good)
I'm on a mission too
I want to go and meet other community bakers
to find out how they are engaging with their communities
how they defined those communities
and what creative ways they have found
to get real bread into new places
and meet the needs of their customers
because small is beautiful
and all communities have individual needs and strengths
community supported bakeries are responsive to those needs
they are in and of their community
and when I get back
I want to start a community bakery and bake real bread
for people I care about
like you!
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?
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.
The text on the signs reads....
Hi, I'm Connor. I'm a community baker, I bake real bread.
what is real bread?
real bread is flour, water, salt and yeast
or some sourdough starter
it is also time, care, skill & nurture
it is not processing aids, enzymes, additives, pesticide residues or misleading labels
bread over time has inspired...
love
civil unrest
poetry
acts of kindness
and prayers
bread, made by hands that care
nurtures more than the body...
when communities own their own bakery
trust becomes part of the transaction
it is good for the community as a whole
growers, producers, consumers working together
to create a more humane way of doing things
when we break bread with our family
we invite the world into our homes
community supported bakeries are on a mission
to get more of this
to people who need it
because
real bread loves everybody!
it is for you, me, your neighbours, old people, kids and everybody else
choosing real bread creates a ripple effect
that touches lives beyond the immediately obvious
real bread can
start a conversation
build self esteem
grow communities
and jump economic lines
break down social barriers
and create real jobs
not bad eh? (it also tastes good)
I'm on a mission too
I want to go and meet other community bakers
to find out how they are engaging with their communities
how they defined those communities
and what creative ways they have found
to get real bread into new places
and meet the needs of their customers
because small is beautiful
and all communities have individual needs and strengths
community supported bakeries are responsive to those needs
they are in and of their community
and when I get back
I want to start a community bakery and bake real bread
for people I care about
like you!
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?
Sunday, 11 November 2012
Authenticity?
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.
People trapped in a cycle of poverty and deprivation, working two, three jobs to maintain a lifestyle that falls well below the minimum income standards are not singing, trust me.
So, next time you are considering making a value judgement, feel a sweeping "the poor have only themselves to blame for their problems they drink/smoke/gamble too much/only eat crap" think twice
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.
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?
Who are "people like us" & 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?
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).
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.
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 "reach out to" 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.
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!
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.
But, real bread 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.
I want to start a bakery, a short sentence but I have a feeling it could be a long trip.
People trapped in a cycle of poverty and deprivation, working two, three jobs to maintain a lifestyle that falls well below the minimum income standards are not singing, trust me.
So, next time you are considering making a value judgement, feel a sweeping "the poor have only themselves to blame for their problems they drink/smoke/gamble too much/only eat crap" think twice
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.
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?
Who are "people like us" & 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?
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).
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.
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 "reach out to" 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.
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!
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.
But, real bread 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.
I want to start a bakery, a short sentence but I have a feeling it could be a long trip.
Define, Distill.
Definition of TRANSIENT
1
a : passing especially quickly into and out of existence : transitory <transient beauty>
b : passing through or by a place with only a brief stay or sojourn <transient visitors>
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