From seed to sourdough

The Hackney School of Food is a dedicated not-for-profit food education hub in the heart of east London, set within the grounds of a state primary school. I joined the team in 2019 as Head Food Educator to develop and deliver the curriculum and oversee things day-to-day. We teach people of all ages and abilities about growing and cooking food, focussing on using produce from our own gardens in our award-winning, purpose-built kitchen. We work with schools, families, community groups and businesses to inspire and instil a love of good food created from scratch.

Using the plot

We are lucky to work with the phenomenal WildFarmed, who supply flour for our bread education lessons. As classes of primary-aged children baked delicious bread, we realised the opportunity to encapsulate our seed-to-spoon mission fully by exploring the process from the very beginning, starting with growing our very own wheat in the city!

In September 2021, we invited the WildFarmed team to join children from Mandeville Primary School for a day of planting and baking; learning about traditional processes that we believe are good for our bodies and the planet. We rolled up our sleeves and weighed out the flour, salt, water and yeast to start making lunch for everyone. As the dough proved in the kitchen, we harvested the toppings from our growing beds, snipping sprigs of fresh basil, oregano, and picking tomatoes straight from the towering vines. 

With the heat roaring in our outdoor wood oven, we fired the freshly-prepared pizzas, fuelling ourselves up for an afternoon of farming. Having cleared the 15m² plot of weeds and prepared guide-strings for planting straight rows, our Head Gardener, Lidka D’Agostino guided us on methods similar to ones used by some of the growers  in the WildFarmed Growers Community.  We drilled holes (with bamboo dibbers rather than machines) and dropped in a mixture of wheat, barley, rye and oat varieties. We then  scattered cover crop seeds amongst the rows to out-compete weeds and lock nutrients into the soil. The children enjoyed the hard-work, with one 8-year-old commenting “I feel like a real farmer today, it’s interesting to see how flour is grown.”

Early harvest

After our labours, we stood back and watched the slow process of growth throughout the seasons; from first shoots peeking through in the autumn, to brushing snow off the crop during winter, all the while checking in with WildFarmed to make sure we were on track. As the year turned warmer, the stalks began their headlong rush to the sky and we charted the growth with different ages of schoolchildren standing amid the stalks. Eventually even the tallest pupil was obscured as some stalks reached two metres high! As mid-summer 2022 approached, we waited for the right moment to harvest, mesmerised by the crop waving in the wind as the heavy ears of the seed heads drooped and turned golden.

As the school year neared its end in June, we invited more children to harvest our microplot. They scythed the wheat, cutting stalks at their base to create straw that we’d use as bedding in our chicken coop, saving the ears, or ‘plaits’ as Lidka told us they’re known as in Poland. Our wonderful volunteer Rima taught us to bundle up the sheafs to be hung and dried over the summer holiday . We even used barley stalks as drinking straws to quench our thirst. 

Back to the grindstone

Returning in late summer, we entered the final stages of our journey. The ears were put into paper bags and given a hard shake to release the seeds, an energetic job done with great enthusiasm by the children. After sifting the seed to remove chaff and dust, we headed into our kitchen to discover ancient methods of milling. Our rotary quern was a particular favourite as a simple, effective method with lots of eager hands to turn the millstone, and tangible excitement as the fresh flour poured out. We experimented by smashing some of the larger grains using mortar and pestle to create an even finer wholemeal flour. 

Once the flour was ready, we got to the real staff of life - making bread. This time using a sourdough starter for our baking, we weighed, stirred and kneaded with gusto to develop an airy-soft dough. When it came to shaping, imaginations ran free and we saw creations such as plaited mermaid tails, a family of spikey hedgehog rolls, and even pesto and mozzarella stuffed picnic crowns. As one baker said: “I didn’t realise you could make so many shapes with dough, I thought plaits were just for hair!”

Second proof

Following the life cycle from seed-to-sourdough was an eye opening and enthralling experience for everyone at each step. That an inner-city plot of land, a stone's throw away from primary school classrooms, could be used to show hands-on farming was an incredible sight. Since this first project, WildFarmed have created a handy guide for schools to embark on growing their own microplots.

For the second year of this project, we have rotated our microplot to another area, where by May 2023 the new wheat crop was already standing 30cm tall. Our original site is currently home to curly kale, purple sprouting broccoli, peas and alliums to allow the soil to recover.  We can’t wait to show the next batch of young farmers, millers and bakers what seed-to-spoon food education really looks like. 

@hackneyschooloffood

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Originally published in True Loaf magazine issue 55, July 2023.

Are you ready to Bake Your Lawn?
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See also

• Seed to sandwich in Shaky Toon
• Bakers’ bush
• A breaducation
• Class act
• Home grown loaf
• Grassroots grain Britain