The bread revolution being waged from a Badenoch horse box
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A wholesale change in eating habits – indeed a wholemeal one – is being led from, of all places, a horse box in a Badenoch garden.
At 28, bread maker Rosie Gray is quite literally ‘Reviving Food’ – the name of her company – with friends across Scotland and beyond who want all the goodness put back and left in.
“It’s all about encouraging more baking with wholemeal flour in our communities,” she told the Strathy at her base in her garden at Rose Cottage in Kincraig.
“I’ve been on a course since March and, as part of this training, I am going to pass the message on – a kind of multiplier effect really – by running a workshop and producing recipes, flour packs or any other ideas really to get more information out there.
“My event for this will hopefully be in November, and will involve the video which will be put online via all my social media links.”
Rosie’s fresh bread has been attracting long queues to the horse box where she does all the baking.
She is rarely left with any stock after her weekly four days of selling from her garden base.
Initially the plan was go to around the country spreading the ‘sourdough’ word but Covid-19 has done its worst to that, so the tour will be a ‘virtual’ one, which Rosie will now do as part of “Baking in the Community” co-hosted by Nourish Scotland and Scotland the Bread.
She has just done a two-day film shoot to get the word out as part of this.
Rose explained: “It’s all being funded by the Scottish Government’s Pockets and Prospects Scheme via the Scottish Community Alliance and it’s such a buzz to get the support and arouse lots of new interest.
“Bread Matters has been successful in getting a grant from Innovate UK to get more Scotland the Bread flour to where it is urgently needed.”
Scotland the Bread is a member-owned community benefit society campaigning for a better, more biodiverse flour and bread supply.
Rosie’s colleague Abi Fenwick is baking wholesome pastries at the bakery this month, both women using flour from Scotland the Bread and Mungoswells flour mill of East Lothian, which uses an old Swiss army roller mill.
Rosie said: “Nearly all the grain is grown organically on the farm. By growing modern varieties, they offer another option for bakers wanting more strength in a flour, and still using more local and organic grains.
“I blend flours to get the flavour, structure and nutritional properties I like, to create my kind of breads.”
Scotland the Bread began in 2012 as a project within Bread Matters.
It brings together plant breeders, farmers, millers, bakers, nutritionists and citizens with the common purpose of producing nutritious grain, milling it close to home and using it to make wholesome, slowly-fermented bread.
For more information on Rosie’s initiatives visit @reviving_food on Instagram and Facebook.
