March 8 Medieval Bread Baking Workshop at Landed Learning on the Farm

We had an amazing workshop at Intergenerational Landed Learning on the Farm last Saturday! Many thanks to Stacy Friedman, Tathali Urueta, John Ames, Myron Medina (and Susan Gerofsky) who led this workshop, and Bryan Driscoll who planted and harvested the wheat at the Orchard Garden last summer.

We took the wheat we grew, harvested and dried in the shed and threshed, winnowed and ground it to flour, then baked it into delicious whole wheat bread. Meanwhile, we talked about the science of yeast and traditions of grain and starch processing and bread making from Medieval Europe to contemporary Belize, India and

Ethiopia. We also learned to sing a song about Medieval crop rotation practices (Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley Grow) and a dance that goes with it. We also had a tour of the UBC Farm Children's Garden and learned about cob building, although unfortunately the cob wood-fired oven needed an important repair, so we had to use a conventional oven to bake our bread.

The sun was shining, the weather warm, flowers blooming! We had a record turnout of 30 people, in a group that included several kids and the parents of one of the teacher candidates. Most of the elementary teacher candidates doing their CFE in the Orchard Garden were there, along with their FA Jeannie Kerr, some of the grad students, and others who are committed to doing as many of the workshop series as they can. Thanks to everyone who came out for this lovely day.