Bake Your Lawn

The grow a loaf challenge 2012

Would you like to help take kids on the Real Bread journey from seed to sandwich?

On Monday 23 January, Real Bread Campaign ambassador and star of Channel 4's The Fabulous Baker Brothers, Tom Herbert sowed the Bake Your Lawn challenge for schools around Britain: grow your own loaf!

If you’re a teacher or work in a community youth group, read on for details of how to get hold of a handful of organic wheat and our free grassroots guide on how to grow it, mill it, bake it, eat it.

Join the #realbread #bakeyourlawn conversation on Twitter.

Download our FREE grassroots guide here now!

The 2012 launch
Who's this for?
When?
How to get involved
Get wheat seeds
Supporters
Funding and support
Mill it
Companions
Bake Your Lawn events
Links

Wheat diaries

The 2012 launch

On Monday 23 January, Real Bread Campaign ambassador and star of Channel 4's The Fabulous Baker Brothers, Tom Herbert visited Horsley Primary School in Gloucestershire to help pupils sow wheat at the Bake Your Lawn launch.

Click here for pictures and here for a short video clip of the launch.

Who's this for?

The guide is aimed at teachers, parents and other people who work with children who want to support them having fun in finding that Real Bread starts in a field, not a factory.

We’ve also included tips and pointers to further information for allotmenteers, would-be good-lifers and everyone else who wants to make getting a sandwich a bit more inspiring than a trip to the chiller cabinet at a petrol station.

‘School Food Matters wants every child to understand where their food comes from. What better place to start than bread? Most children enjoy a slice or two every day and the excellent Real Bread Campaign is helping to make sure they’ll be factory-free tasty slices of home-grown goodness.’

Stephanie Wood of Bake Your Lawn supporter School Food Matters.

When?

You can download the FREE pack NOW to plan for either the spring (late January - late-April) or winter (October and November) sowing seasons. Whichever sowing season you choose, your wheat should be ready to harvest from late July onwards, depending on the weather.

We’re encouraging people around the country to organise community harvesting, milling and baking days from August.

If you’d like to help bring people together this way, you can find (and add) details of public Bake Your Lawn activities on our events page.

How to get involved

Everyone - download the free grassroots guide and find out how to Bake Your Lawn
Seed merchants, farmers and millers - sell (or perhaps donate, in the case of schools) small quantities of bread making wheat seed direct to the public, either locally or by mail order
Farmers (and other landowners) - invite local people to help till, rake, and sow a small plot with wheat the traditional way. Then invite them back to follow the process during the year, from weeding, through to harvest
Millers (and people with small domestic mills) - organise a community milling day in the autumn. Invite local people to bring the handfuls of wheat they've grown to put into a community grist. This can then be milled for flour to bake truly local loaves
Bakers and others with bread making skills - run lessons using the resulting flour to pass on your skills

Perhaps you could join with family, neighbours and other friends to build a communal clay/mud bread oven.

You can share ideas, and call for help or inspiration at the Real Bread Campaign Facebook page or using the #bakeyourlawn and #realbread hashtags on Twitter. Real Bread Campaign members can also chat in The Real Baker-e.

Get your wheat seeds

From the Real Bread Campaign (for schools and youth groups)
Other suggestions

From the Real Bread Campaign

2012

Organic Seed Producers kindly donated organic wheat seeds for us to distribute to schools and youth groups. Each 100g packet is enough for a plot of about 2-4 square metres, which should produce enough flour for a loaf or two.

21 February 2012: Sorry - we've had such a great response that we've run out of wheat seeds in just one month! We won't be getting any more in, but please see below for suggestions of other places from which you might be able to get some.

To give you and idea of how our scheme has grown since last year, in 2011 we had 220 enquires over the spaces of four months. Of these, around 50 ordered seeds. In 2012, we had 70 orders in just one week! Three weeks later, we'd distributed more than 280 packets of seeds to nearly 190 schools and youth groups.

2011

In 2011 Trevor Cope Seeds and Organic Seed Producers kindly donated packets of wheat seeds to the Real Bread Campaign, which Bakery Bits distributed for us.

We recieved enquiries from over 220 schools and community youth groups and published pictures and wheat diaries from some of those that got growing.

Other suggestions

Here are some suggestions of places from which you might be able to get bread making wheat seeds. What you need to ask is if they have any milling wheat (rather than feed wheat) of a variety suitable for bread making.

If you're planting it January-April, then it needs to be spring wheat, and if you're planting from September-November, then you need winter wheat.

A flour mill If you're lucky enough to live near a traditional flour mill, you could ask if he or she would be willing to let you have a handful. They might also be able to help you with the milling bit at harvest time.
A local cereal farmer might be able to help. We don't have a list, but perhaps one taking part in Open Farm Sunday might be willing to help you with wheat seeds, and perhaps also a farm visit.

Having contacted dozens of grain/seed merchants, farms, mills and enthusiasts around the country, the following are those that have told us they will offer seed wheat in small quantities.

Garden Organic is making wheat seeds available to their members as part of their Members Experiments scheme
Be Vital wheat seed in packets of 500g and above. 'Suitable for bread making and for growing organically.'
Grains2Mill - 'premium wheat from Yorkshire of a variety that has been grown with an increased sensitivity to the environment.' Available in an 8kg tub or 450g bag.
Kings Seeds - untreated winter wheat seed for sowing in September. For more information call 01376 570000 or email peter.miller@kingsseeds.com
Brockwell Bake Association - can offer small samples of heritage spring wheat varieties for sowing in March and April to a very limited number schools or community gardens (particularly in London) whilst stocks last. Email atty[at]area3.net for details.
John Innes Centre - The Germplasm Resources Unit at JIC can offer schools small samples (up to 50g depending on availability) of the older types for their own use. email JIC.geneticresources@bbsrc.ac.uk

If you offer bread making wheat seed in small quantities (e.g. 100g for mini-plots, or 1-15kg bags for larger educational projects) either for collection or by mail order, please email the details to us and we'll add you to this list.

Other places to search

OrganicXseeds - The official UK database of organic seed availability funded by Defra and managed by the Soil Association, working in partnership with FiBL and NIAB. The website includes a list of licensed seed merchants and a list of available seed, sorted by type, e.g. spring wheat and winter wheat.
Organic Farmers and Growers - Publishes a list of organic seed suppliers.
The Plant Varieties and Seeds Gazette - Special editions include a full list of licensed seed merchants.

Distributing wheat seeds without a licence

If you don't have a seed merchant's license (e.g. you're a farmer or miller) but would like to sell/give seeds to a school for an educational project, please click here for advice.

Supporters

The Real Bread Campaign is not the only group that understands the value of Bake Your Lawn in helping children to find out and ask questions about where their food comes from.

As well as many Real Bread bakeries and traditional mills around the country, the following organisations are proud to support the initiative:

If your national or regional organisation would like to join the fun by promoting Bake Your Lawn to your members and other supporters, please email realbread [at] sustainweb.org for details and to be added to this list.

Funding and support

Awards for All

As a school or voluntray community organisation, you might be eligible for a grant from the Big Lottery, if you can prove that your wheat growing project offers one or more of the following outcomes:

People have better chances in life – with better access to training and development to improve their life skills.
Stronger communities – with more active citizens working together to tackle their problems.
Improved rural and urban environments – which communities are better able to access and enjoy.
Healthier and more active people and communities.

http://www.awardsforall.org.uk/

Capital Growth

If your wheat plot is in a London borough, accessible to the local community ( this includes school grounds) and at least 5m x 5m, you could be eligible to register as a Capital Growth community food growing space. To read details of the funding, training, competitions and other support Capital Growth can offer, click here.

You can find a list of other organisations that can support your wheat growing project in the Useful Books and Links chapter of our free Bake Your Lawn grassroots guide. Click here to download your copy now.

Domestic mills

If you can't find a community milling day near you, maybe a small domestic flour mill might be an option for you. Here are some suppliers.

If you're skipping the 'grow it' bit of Bake Your Lawn, some offer grain that's ready to mill.

UK Juicers domestic flour mills
Grains2Mill also offers 'premium wheat from Yorkshire of a variety that has been grown with an increased sensitivity to the environment.' Available in an 8kg tub or 450g bag.
Lakeland manual grain mill (out of stock but told us that they will consider re-introducing if there's enough demand)
Brow Farm domestic flour mills and UK-grown milling wheat
WonderMill UK domestic flour mills

Companions

In additon to Bakery Bits, Trevor Cope Seeds, and Organic Seed Producers, the following national organisations are supporting Bake Your Lawn:

The Traditional Cornmillers Guild, the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings and The National Trust are all encouraging their member wind and water mills to hold community milling days. The Soil Association and Garden Organic are encouraging members to Bake Your Lawn and keep it organic, and the initiative is also supported by Slow Food UK.

Already baking their lawns…

To read about and see pictures of previous Bake Your Lawn projects, click here.

The following people and organisations are (or have previously) run small-scale wheat growing projects.

If you have posted a blog, pictures or other details about a wheat growing project, please drop us a line and we'll add a link here.

Bake Your Lawn events

If you’d organise a public Bake Your Lawn activity or event, please feel free to add details to our events page.

Real Bread Campaign