A day making sourdough at the juniper and rose cookery school in Northamptonshire

Oh I’ve loved every minute of today. I’ve been teaching a sourdough course to some really great people and milling our own flour. These is so much in the media about how to make your own sourdough but nothing quite beats being taught face to face. There is still washing up to be done in the bowl but the smell of fresh baked bread is still wafting around. The children are home from school and really looking forward to supper. It’s such a privilege to be able to teach. I love the relaxed environment, and that people want to learn not just about making bread, but about the flour, the mill and the farmers. We talk about the provenance of food and about Fairtrade food. Today I baked banana muffins made with Fairtrade banana’s and Ndali vanilla that I brought back from Uganda. I milled the vanilla beans in with the grains in the Komo mill. The smell takes me straight back to the processing house and remembering how empowered the farmers were that I spoke to. I was remembering the pride the farmers have in their produce. The Vanilla powder is exquisite, it’s quite simply it is the best vanilla in the world.

We made sourdough loaves in the morning using Doves Farm Organic Flour and had a big plate of carrot and caraway soup with lemon for lunch and a glass of Fleurfields wine from the Vineyard which is just a mile away.

Once the Grissini, the bulls eyes and sourdough pizza were in the oven we sat at the table and tasted some Organic Grenada Chocolate. The kitchen smelt of baked bread and we sat putting the world to rights with a pot of tea eating custard tart made with eggs from my hens in the garden. I chatted about the Tres Hombres and Fair transport, which is the boat on it’s way back from Grenada with 50,000 bars of the Grenada Chocolate on board. Really truly there is something truly lovely about baking. A room full of complete strangers with so much in common, it’s always such a friendly easy atmosphere. of course it cant be anything other than fun.

For me teaching a course isn’t just about learning to bake. It’s more than that. It’s about teaching that seasonal, local, organic and sustainable food contributes to the well being of our world. Being ethical is’t a hassle .. it’s really just making simple delicious everyday choices.

We all can change the world one bite at a time.

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