Earth Talk: Mind How You Bake! The Transformative Power of Sourdough Bread with Andrew Whitley
Channel: Dartington Trust
Date: 2015-05-06

Andrew Whitley, founder of the Village Bakery and co-founder of the Real Bread Campaign is one of the major figures behind the revival of healthy artisan bread in the United Kingdom. Join Schumacher College’s mindful baking students to hear Andrew’s evening talk  on the transformative power of sourdough and  gain a new perspective on why bread means so much to us -  so much more than just a mouthful  of carbohydrate to soak up butter, jam or gravy!  Learn about how healthy bread can be - and why it hasn’t always been that way.  You’ll be able to sample some of the breads baked under Andrew’s tutelage and you’ll see our leavens bubbling away in the background calling you to be part of a new, more compassionate and  interactive way of creating food and living together!  If you’re not already baking your daily bread, this talk may well inspire you to get kneading - and who knows, you might even leave wanting to join the movement for good honest bread and set up your own micro bakery!

Baking bread mindfully engages us with three areas of life – cultural, nutritional and political. Mindfulness demands more than simply ‘paying attention’ to the process as we bake. Bread still defines our food culture and, made well, has the ‘capacity to enliven’ both individual bodies and communities. For too long, however, its production has been dominated by linear thinking and the seductive demands of cheapness and convenience. 

Sourdough embraces different methods and values. It is circular, self-renewing, time-respecting, self-cleansing and collaborative. In an active sourdough, power is dynamically balanced so that no element can dominate or monopolise resources. And so, as sourdough microorganisms transform raw dough into nourishing bread, we, the bakers, find ourselves challenged to see the world differently and to make it better, one loaf at a time.

- See more at: https://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/