New Substack article to reflect on a day with @lukedoesbread and @landracemilling at @westcombe with the South West Grain Network. 24 bakers gathered to dive into Landrace's way of working - intuitive, embodied and relationships focussed. We met ten different varieties of grain working with colour, texture, smell, and taste. What stood out was a different way of working. Not controlling the grain, but listening to it. Not chasing uniformity, but responding to variation. A system built on relationship, between farmer and baker, mill and grain, people and place. Small, slow, and collaborative, but already shifting how things are done. Thank you so much to Luke and Steve and the wider @landracebakery team. Thank you to Tom at Westcombe and to all the bakers who made the day special. @happybellybakeryuk, @mariannebakes, @sidwellstreetbakehouse, @heylbakery, @farrobakery, @glebehousedevon, @shepherds_corner_dorset, @fika.exeter, @hartsbakery, @thekindkitchenbakery, @the_kind_kitchen_baker, @fieldbakery, @leola_bakery, @britishlarderlout, @lunasbakehousedevon, @dartingtonmill New piece on Substack (link in bio) #milling #baking #peer-to-peer #southwestgrainnetwork

Huge thank you to @sidwellstreetbakehouse for hosting a flurry of Zine creators yesterday. Members of the South West Grain Network gathered with @exeterseedbank and members of the @landworkersalliance for a day of creativity, radical inspiration, conversation and analogue re-set. Inspired by Joe @wearebriarbakery who, tired of social media, is choosing to connect to his customers with an old school hand made Zine. If you grew up in the 90’s attending punk, DIY and hardcore shows, fan zines - hand made and traded for free or pennies were everywhere. This day of creativity brought in the joy of making in a low fi and un pressured way. In the world of baking and much of the rest of our lives - the pressure is felt to perform to a perceived aesthetic perfection. Returning to the simplicity of hand made, imperfect zines reaffirms a position of radical acceptance and resistance to a commodified, industrialised and now increasingly AI generated world. This was the first public facing and actively collaborative event with sister organisations who are deeply aligned with SWGN values and it offered a richness of conversation and possibility. It was also great to welcome families to join with kids and hold a playful space together. If you want to collaborate and share space with the SWGN please feel free to reach out. The answer is always community 💚 #zine #DIY #creativity #handmade

🌾I’m excited to have been included in the upcoming Rural Futures: Local Solutions to Global Problems hosted by @messumswest and @commontreasures_ This will be a weekend of talks, walks and shared food bringing together people working in rural places across the UK on community-led projects that build social and economic resilience while actively caring for the landscapes and ecosystems they belong to. The theme of the weekend is how local and regionally specific approaches can address complex planetary issues, with a focus on the role networks and co-operative structures play in enabling distributed action, particularly in rural places. I’ll be contributing from the perspective of the South West Grain Network — sharing some of what we’re learning about rebuilding regional grain economies, supporting farmers, bakers and millers, and creating more connected, place-based food systems. I’m also excited to be there for the launch of COMMONPLATE with @cherrytruluck , @t.wilford2 and @lizzyhaughton — a radical community-supported dining project developed out of @canteen_frome. It’s a powerful example of what it means to treat food as a shared commons: re-localising control, widening access, and working in relationship with nature rather than against it. Alongside the talks, the weekend includes a series of shared meals that celebrate land, season and locality — from a fire-cooked communal lunch to a feast rooted in food traditions, a slow breakfast, and even a leftovers picnic (nothing wasted). 🗓 9th May 📍 Messums West, Tisbury If you’re interested in rural futures, food systems, or how local action connects to global challenges, it would be great to see you there. Tickets via the Messums website (link in bio). I’m speaking alongside a host of excellent people: * Jez Ralph @evolving_forests * Laura Tyley @thislivingplace * Loretta Bosence @localworkstudio * Maria Benjamin @dodgson_wood ; @lake_district_tweed * Tim Crabtree @wessexcommunityassets * Tom Ebdon @tom_ebdon_architecture * Ambrose Gilick @ais4architecture * Ian Thomas @welcometoourwoods *Andrew Admondson @andrewamondson

Join the South West Grain Network for a creative social Zine Making Workshop in collaboration with @landworkersalliance and @exeterseedbank We'll be @sidwellstreetbakehouse in Exeter on Sunday April 26th 10-3.30pm (sign up link in our bio) Zines have a long, radical history. They are small, self-published booklets made by ordinary people who want to share ideas, stories, art, and knowledge outside of mainstream publishing. From punk scenes and feminist movements to environmental campaigns and community organising, zines have been a powerful DIY tool for people who want their voices heard. Part of what makes zines special is how simple and accessible they are. A zine might be made with a pen, a pair of scissors, and a photocopier. Anyone can make one. There are no rules, no editors, and no gatekeepers — just a chance to express something that matters and share it with others. For communities like the South West Grain Network, zines offer a creative way to document knowledge, celebrate local food cultures, and tell the stories behind the grain: from field to mill to bakery. They can hold recipes, growing experiences, drawings, reflections, practical skills, and ideas about building a better food system. In this workshop we’ll explore the spirit of DIY publishing and make our own zines together. You don’t need to be an artist or a writer — just bring curiosity, stories, and a willingness to experiment. #zine #zinemaking #DIY #selfpublish #agroecology

This ones for all you Wild Farmed lovers.... What system do we want? Gails on every street? Mills in communities?

Our lovely fine flour mill... See Tim @rye_bakery feed for more info on how to dress them. Makes amazing 300 micron flour. Hand made in Normandy. Listening to the mill and felling the grain and flour is the key.

What it says....... A radical act! Food is politics, food industry is the biggest in the world, Wheat is the most grown and profitable food in the world.... Tell that to UK farmers!!

Down in Devon we mill flour - an act of revolution, of change, of belief... Today I get the honour of showing and talking about what I believe our network is and what milling on a small scale means.... I'll be posting every hour, if milling and making pasta doesn't get in the way.

We hope you have enjoyed our @swgrainnetwork takeover today. Thanks for following along with Tim at @moulin.astreia. The best way to support the @realbreadcampaign is to either get down to your local bakery and buy some fresh bread, or pick up some locally milled flour and have a go at making your own bread at home. Come and visit us when you’re next in Frome. Have a good evening and stay tuned for tomorrows take-over xx #realbreadweek #southwestgrainnetwork

All of the flour used in our @rye_bakery bread, pastries and pizza is either organic or grown within regenerative agricultural systems. We are especially proud of our links to the @swgrainnetwork which has allowed us to work more closely with other bakeries, millers and farmers who are looking to make real food from small scale partnerships. When we open up a bag of True South West flour or have a farmer drop round another ton of grain, we know the pressure is on us to do something good with what we have received. Photography: @katherineneedlesphotography @realbreadcampaign #realbreadweek

Every flour that shapes the identity of our bread has its place and part to play from farm to mill, mill to dough. The two most important flours that shape our @rye_bakery White and Brown loaves are True South West flour milled by Stoate and Son in Dorset, and our own fresh milled flour ground on site from grain that we have sourced ourselves from farmers who share our values. We can tell you which wheat varieties are in the flour, where each bag of flour comes from and even which farmers grew the grain. After all it is the grist in our mill, our bread and butter...our bacon and eggs. @rye_bakery @realbreadcampaign #realbreadweek #southwestgrainnetwork

Welcome to today’s @swgrainnetwork take-over, we’re @rye_bakery in Frome, Somerset. Today we’ll be sharing a bit of what we do at the bakery on the grid, whilst Tim, head of bread, shares his day at Moulin Astreïa in France on the stories. @moulin.astreia built the mill that makes our fresh milled flour at the bakery and Tim has headed out there to learn how to redress the millstones as well as more about the craft that has gone into a fundamental part of our work! Stay tuned xx @realbreadcampaign #realbreadweek #southwestgrainnetwork

Real Bread Week round up! We've had a great day taking over the South West Grain Network Instagram to tell the story of how we grow organic milling wheat for flour for real bread. 🪱 Mob grazing the cattle is an important part of our system; the cows graze diverse herbal pastures leaving behind cow pats and hay residues which feed soil health and wildlife. This creates the fertility we need to grow arable crops. 🐮 After 3-5 years in herbal ley/ grass we cultivate our fields to plant milling wheat. This year we are growing @wakelyns YQ winter population wheat intercropped with beans, Zollen winter spelt and Mariagertoba population spring wheat. 🌾 We sell our YQ and Mariagertoba to the SWGN True South West Flour project; if you've baked with this flour from Cann Mills you could be baking with our wheat! 🦅 Our regenerative farming system is built on feeding soil biology and boosting biodiversity. Wildlife is a key indicator our land is in good health and heart. 🍞 We love to see bakeries and home bakers turn our wheat into loaves! One of the cool things about growing wheat on the farm is taking a sample straight from the shed, milling it at home and making bread. 🧡 Thanks for following our ode to #realbreadweek @realbreadcampaign and thanks to Robyn from SWGN for asking us to contribute! #organicfarm #regenerativefarming #populationwheat #cotswolds

Thanks for spending the day with us during Real Bread Week. Behind every loaf is a chain of care, farmers growing diverse grains, millers keeping stone milling skills alive, volunteers shaping dough, and a community choosing to support small bakeries. Real bread thrives when these relationships stay strong. Buy from local bakeries, ask where flour comes from, bake when you can, and keep supporting human-scale food networks that value soil, skill and nourishment. • • • #RealBreadWeek #RealBread @realbreadcampaign

We bake with heritage and population grains every day. Einkorn, spelt, rye, barley and emmer, alongside wholemeal Öland flour in every loaf we make. For us, this is part of what makes bread “real”. Real bread begins in the field, with grain grown in ways that allow nature to stay present. In fields that support insects and pollinators, mixed plantings that grow together rather than vast single crop monoculturesm Heritage and population grains often sit more comfortably in these biodiverse systems, helping create landscapes where birds, microbes and wild plants can exist alongside food production. Moving away from conventional monoculture farming helps reduce reliance on heavy inputs and encourages resilience in the landscape. Something that matters if we want grain growing to have a long future in the South West. The same thinking runs through everything we bake at Sidwell Street Bakehouse: wholemeal flour in our sweets, rye pastry for tarts, spelt in cookies. It’s a way of baking that connects land and nutrition. Bread isn't only shaped by a recipe, but by the fields it comes from too. • • • #RealBreadWeek #RealBread @realbreadcampaign

Bread at its best is a simple food: flour, water, salt and time. At Sidwell Street Bakehouse we use long sourdough fermentation not just for flavour, but because time changes how the grain behaves. Slow fermentation helps break down the flour, making nutrients more available and creating bread that is nourishing. Something that stands apart from the speed-driven, additive-heavy breads that dominate today’s food culture. Whole, diverse flours carry fibre, minerals and flavour that are often lost in highly refined products and slow fermentation helps make that nutrition more accessible. Working with regional grain through the South West Grain Network, alongside the wider work of the Real Bread Campaign, keeps the focus on bread as nourishment first: food that supports the body, respects the land it comes from and feeds communities in a more meaningful way. Real bread asks us to rethink value, not just how quickly food can be made, but how deeply it can nourish. • • • #RealBreadWeek #RealBread @realbreadcampaign

Grain - flour - dough - bread. The flour we use isn’t anonymous. We know the farmers growing it and the millers producing it, that relationship shapes the bread we make every day. Different grains behave differently, and being close to the people producing them means we bake with more understanding. Not just following a cheat sheet but working with real flour that changes with the seasons. Much of the modern flour system is built around consistency, scale and price, dominated by a small number of large producers. That model often pushes diversity out of the field and turns bread into a fast, standardised product. Choosing to work with local growers and millers is a way of stepping outside that cycle and keeping knowledge, value and decision making closer to the communities involved. Real Bread Week is a chance to make those relationships visible; to show that bread starts long before the mixer turns on. The South West Grain Network helps make this possible by connecting farmers, millers and bakeries across the region. For us at Sidwell Street Bakehouse, it means flour with a story behind it, bread with a sense of place, and a supply chain built on trust rather than commercial viability. • • • #RealBreadWeek #RealBread @realbreadcampaign

swgrainnetwork@gmail.com