Making bread together

Sharing knowledge and skills is important to all SCSA group members. Lifestyle changes that lead to sustainability are easier to make when we work with and learn from each other. This year our group members are participating in and delivering workshops on a variety of topics. All our workshops have a sustainability focus in that they encourage the homemade and homegrown. The only other requirement is that we learn something useful and have fun!

On a cool Saturday afternoon in autumn, we learnt how to make bread ‘the old-fashioned way’… from scratch, with our hands.

A few group members and neighbours gathered in our kitchen. They brought pen and paper, aprons, tea towels, bowls, wooden spoons, baking tins and lots of enthusiasm. We supplied the ingredients and two years of experience, trial and error.

A ten minutes demonstration covered ingredients, mixing and kneading techniques. This was quickly followed by hands on practice with everyone involved making two or three loaves of bread each.

We covered our dough with a clean, damp tea towel and  placed it in a warm spot. We waited about an hour until it roughly doubled in size. After a second kneading and another half an hour in the sun, the loaves were ready for baking and, twenty minutes later…

Ta-dah!!!!

When one of our neighbours heard about this workshop, he asked if we could do another one for him…and so we did. If you are new to home baking, here is a good recipe from Rhonda: Down to Earth: Baking bread.

Baking our own bread saves us many trips to the supermarket. It reduces our use of plastic bags by up to two hundred per year for a family of four. We know exactly what has gone in the bread and we can make many different types of bread including plain, sweet and savoury, bread rolls or baguettes. And who does not like a freshly baked loaf straight from the oven? Delicious homemade bread – an everyday luxury we can all enjoy.

Check out Veronique’s blog here!