South West Grain Network

Calling all chefs and bakers in the South West 🌾🥖 If you want to explore locally grown grains and learn how to use their amazing flavours in your kitchen, joining the @swgrainnetwork is the way to go. It’s a fantastic community of chefs, bakers, millers, brewers, farmers & growers working together to build an alternative grain economy; one that is non-commodity and grounded in friendship and collaboration. The benefits of joining the community? 👉Gain knowledge & wisdom from peers within the network 👉Discover different grains and their amazing flavours & qualities 👉Strengthen your food business by using climate-resilient grains 👉Help foster ecological (think soil health and grain diversity) & social well-being Head to @swgrainnetwork and check out their substack/website (in their bio) to explore how you can get involved and change up the grains in your kitchen. Based elsewhere in the UK? Find your local network by heading to ukgrainlab.com where there is both a list and map of all the networks in the UK! #swgrainnetwork #ukgrainlab #todaysmenu

Follow the South West Grain Network on Substack! (link in our bio) This is a fresh space for our newsletter; to share stories from across the network and showcase the incredible actions of farmers, bakers and milers from the South West who are taking active steps to bring into being a new food system. You can read news and stories from members such as @fika.exeter , @gothelneyfarmer , @farmer_johnp , @fieldbakery , @hughlt and Carrie Triffet Spot the faces in the photos of talented folk such as @sidwellstreetbakehouse @longstrawbakery @lunasbakehousedevon @hylstenbakery @heylbakery @lucho.bakes @woodadventfarm @landracebakery @ampneybrookfarm @heloisetrott @ruperts_bakehouse @leola_bakery @velobakery @hobbshousebakery @mariannebakes @wearebriarbakery @the_kind_kitchen_baker @the_experimentalfarmer @tamarisk_farm @manorfarmdorset @fortescue_farm @dartingtonmill @apricotcentre @cornish_golden_grains @shillorganics @glebehousedevon @ombexeter @thebreadshedcornwall Subsatck offers a view into the interconnectedness of the network and helps to platform voices from micro-bakeries, to mid scale farmers, to product development experimentation, to knowledge exchange - all telling the story of real change and dare I say it hope. Follow us - subscribe - donate - add your voice. #substack #foodsystems #bread #grain #farming

New Substack article to reflect on a day with @lukedoesbread and @landracemilling at @westcombe with the South West Grain Network. 24 bakers gathered to dive into Landrace's way of working - intuitive, embodied and relationships focussed. We met ten different varieties of grain working with colour, texture, smell, and taste. What stood out was a different way of working. Not controlling the grain, but listening to it. Not chasing uniformity, but responding to variation. A system built on relationship, between farmer and baker, mill and grain, people and place. Small, slow, and collaborative, but already shifting how things are done. Thank you so much to Luke and Steve and the wider @landracebakery team. Thank you to Tom at Westcombe and to all the bakers who made the day special. @happybellybakeryuk , @mariannebakes , @sidwellstreetbakehouse , @heylbakery , @farrobakery , @glebehousedevon , @shepherds_corner_dorset , @fika.exeter , @hartsbakery , @thekindkitchenbakery , @the_kind_kitchen_baker , @fieldbakery , @leola_bakery , @britishlarderlout , @lunasbakehousedevon , @dartingtonmill New piece on Substack (link in bio) #milling #baking #peer-to-peer #southwestgrainnetwork

Huge thank you to @sidwellstreetbakehouse for hosting a flurry of Zine creators yesterday. Members of the South West Grain Network gathered with @exeterseedbank and members of the @landworkersalliance for a day of creativity, radical inspiration, conversation and analogue re-set. Inspired by Joe @wearebriarbakery who, tired of social media, is choosing to connect to his customers with an old school hand made Zine. If you grew up in the 90’s attending punk, DIY and hardcore shows, fan zines - hand made and traded for free or pennies were everywhere. This day of creativity brought in the joy of making in a low fi and un pressured way. In the world of baking and much of the rest of our lives - the pressure is felt to perform to a perceived aesthetic perfection. Returning to the simplicity of hand made, imperfect zines reaffirms a position of radical acceptance and resistance to a commodified, industrialised and now increasingly AI generated world. This was the first public facing and actively collaborative event with sister organisations who are deeply aligned with SWGN values and it offered a richness of conversation and possibility. It was also great to welcome families to join with kids and hold a playful space together. If you want to collaborate and share space with the SWGN please feel free to reach out. The answer is always community 💚 #zine #DIY #creativity #handmade

🌾I’m excited to have been included in the upcoming Rural Futures: Local Solutions to Global Problems hosted by @messumswest and @commontreasures_ This will be a weekend of talks, walks and shared food bringing together people working in rural places across the UK on community-led projects that build social and economic resilience while actively caring for the landscapes and ecosystems they belong to. The theme of the weekend is how local and regionally specific approaches can address complex planetary issues, with a focus on the role networks and co-operative structures play in enabling distributed action, particularly in rural places. I’ll be contributing from the perspective of the South West Grain Network — sharing some of what we’re learning about rebuilding regional grain economies, supporting farmers, bakers and millers, and creating more connected, place-based food systems. I’m also excited to be there for the launch of COMMONPLATE with @cherrytruluck , @t.wilford2 and @lizzyhaughton — a radical community-supported dining project developed out of @canteen_frome . It’s a powerful example of what it means to treat food as a shared commons: re-localising control, widening access, and working in relationship with nature rather than against it. Alongside the talks, the weekend includes a series of shared meals that celebrate land, season and locality — from a fire-cooked communal lunch to a feast rooted in food traditions, a slow breakfast, and even a leftovers picnic (nothing wasted). 🗓 9th May
📍 Messums West, Tisbury If you’re interested in rural futures, food systems, or how local action connects to global challenges, it would be great to see you there. Tickets via the Messums website (link in bio). I’m speaking alongside a host of excellent people: * Jez Ralph @evolving_forests * Laura Tyley @thislivingplace * Loretta Bosence @localworkstudio * Maria Benjamin @dodgson_wood ;  @lake_district_tweed * Tim Crabtree @wessexcommunityassets * Tom Ebdon @tom_ebdon_architecture * Ambrose Gilick @ais4architecture * Ian Thomas @welcometoourwoods *Andrew Admondson @andrewamondson

Join the South West Grain Network for a creative social Zine Making Workshop in collaboration with members of the @landworkersalliance and @exeterseedbank We'll be @sidwellstreetbakehouse in Exeter on Sunday April 26th 10-3.30pm (sign up link in our bio) Zines have a long, radical history. They are small, self-published booklets made by ordinary people who want to share ideas, stories, art, and knowledge outside of mainstream publishing. From punk scenes and feminist movements to environmental campaigns and community organising, zines have been a powerful DIY tool for people who want their voices heard. Part of what makes zines special is how simple and accessible they are. A zine might be made with a pen, a pair of scissors, and a photocopier. Anyone can make one. There are no rules, no editors, and no gatekeepers — just a chance to express something that matters and share it with others. For communities like the South West Grain Network, zines offer a creative way to document knowledge, celebrate local food cultures, and tell the stories behind the grain: from field to mill to bakery. They can hold recipes, growing experiences, drawings, reflections, practical skills, and ideas about building a better food system. In this workshop we’ll explore the spirit of DIY publishing and make our own zines together. You don’t need to be an artist or a writer — just bring curiosity, stories, and a willingness to experiment. #zine #zinemaking #DIY #selfpublish #agroecology

How we make #RealBread 🥖 The aim of Real Bread Week is to champion bread that is made with chemical raising agents, "processing aids" or any other additives. These can typically be found in many of the prepackaged loaves you find for sale in your local supermarket, and are a consequence of modern industrial food production processes. The sad fact is that these methods, and other modern food practices (such as breeding high gluten, chemical dependent wheat varieties), make these breads less nutritious, blander, and, for some people, harder to digest. We don't use any of these in our bakery. We rely solely on our sourdough levain to prove our doughs, which is made with locally grown stoneground flour, water and salt. Simple, tasty, nutritious and sustainable. #heylbakery #sourdough #Plymouth #bread

After a week of fantastic posts from other members of @swgrainnetwork it's our turn here at @heylbakery to celebrate Real Bread Week! 🎉🍞 For those who don’t already know us — we are a small, independent sourdough bakery based in the heart of Plymouth. We make everything by hand using organically grown UK grain, naturally leavened with sourdough. Nothing artificial, nothing rushed — just flour, water, salt, and time. Everything we do is vegan-friendly, and we’re passionate about supporting a better grain system from field to loaf 🌾🌱 We'll be posting more about the bakery and real bread throughout today, so stay tuned for more! #RealBreadWeek #swgn #heylbakery #realbread @realbreadcampaign #sourdough

This ones for all you Wild Farmed lovers.... What system do we want? Gails on every street? Mills in communities?

Our lovely fine flour mill... See Tim @rye_bakery feed for more info on how to dress them. Makes amazing 300 micron flour. Hand made in Normandy. Listening to the mill and felling the grain and flour is the key.

What it says....... A radical act! Food is politics, food industry is the biggest in the world, Wheat is the most grown and profitable food in the world.... Tell that to UK farmers!!

Down in Devon we mill flour - an act of revolution, of change, of belief... Today I get the honour of showing and talking about what I believe our network is and what milling on a small scale means.... I'll be posting every hour, if milling and making pasta doesn't get in the way.