All You Need for Hearty Bread

To follow on from Matts article and videos about making ‘no knead’ bread here is a source of the most important ingredient, flour.

Deep in the heart of Northumberland is the North East’s only organic flour mill. Gilchesters Organics’ mill at Stamfordham gently stone grinds rare breed grains into some of the finest flour that you can lay hands on. In fact, the Gilchesters process is special from start to finish. The rare breed grain is specially suited to conditions in this corner of the world. It is grown in pure, unadulterated soil, free from pesticides, herbicides fungicides and agrochemicals.

This healthy soil acts as a living reservoir from which the grain draws the nutrients it needs to grow away from diseases, shade out weeds and produce its full complement of minerals and vitamins. Only when the time is absolutely right is the grain harvested and then the mill goes to work slowly and gently unlocking the goodness, ensuring a better gluten structure and leaving the concentrations of vitamins intact.

Gilchesters only mill what they grow themselves, so they can promise total trace-ability from seed, to soil, to stone grinding. They can also promise flavoursome nutritious flour that delivers all the goodness you should be getting with your daily bread – naturally.

You can buy Gilchesters flour and hand made spelt biscuits in the BigBarn MarketPlace or call 01661 886 119 and ask for Andrew or Sybille Wilkinson or to find your other nearest flour producers in MarketPlace.

Or click for more information and recipes on their website

I’ve spent a lot of time trying to make a decent loaf of bread, and for whatever reason it never comes out quite right. Either the crust is too hard, or the insides are too dense and spongy. Whether it’s the ratio of ingredients or the temperature of my oven, something along the way doesn’t quite work out. I can make killer pizza dough, but I’m yet to conquer the farmhouse loaf or baguette.

I recently stumbled across a couple of videos on YouTube that explain the “no knead” method of bread making – basically, the ingredients are simply mixed together and then left to ferment, rather than being kneaded. I tried the method last weekend – a little skeptically I might add – but it seemed to work very well.

I just made a basic white loaf, but proponents of the technique claim that the basic recipe can be adapted to make pretty much any kind of bread you like. Some recipes I have seen call for the addition of extra gluten (in powdered form) but this seems to take away the “naturalness” of the bread, so I didn’t use it (not that I know where you could find it anyway!)

Here are a couple of videos to explain:

Quality of ingredients is important, so you can buy your flour, salt and yeast in the BigBarn Marketplace.

To celebrate the release of Janey Lee Grace’s new book Look Great Naturally…Without Ditching the Lipstick, Hay House Publishers in association with BigBarn is offering free gifts and prizes including an overnight stay at a health spa, free downloads and much more!

This impressively extensive guide to holistic living with style is stuffed with tips on everything from health and beauty to your living space.

To find out how to claim your free gifts, watch an interview with Janey, read top tips and learn more about this fantastic book visit here

This week’s featured producer is Richard Bertinet, whose latest book (referencing BigBarn), Cook, will enable you to cook almost anything with confidence.

ABOUT RICHARD BERTINET

Acclaimed chef and long term BigBarn member, Richard Bertinet, founded The Bertinet Kitchen cookery school in Bath in September 2005. The Bertinet Kitchen offers a range of relaxed and fun courses for food lovers of all abilities. The school has won many accolades and was recently awarded the South West Tourism Excellence Award for Best Tourism Experience 2008/9.

Richard’s first baking book, Dough, was published in 2005, followed by Crust in 2007. His third book, Cook, is out now and aims to make techniques and recipes simple and easier to understand so you have the confidence to make dishes on your own.

Using 50 classic recipes, he uses them to illustrate a wide range of useful techniques. Q&A’s and Bertinet’s Tips appear throughout, answering the questions most often asked during classes at the cookery school.

In addition, the book includes a DVD of Richard Bertinet demonstrating several of the techniques. You can buy by clicking  COOK in the BigBarn Marketplace

This weeks featured producers are Robert and Hamish Campbell of R-Oil.  Cold pressed 100% virgin rape seed oil, healthier than virgin olive oil and half the price!

Like many farmers Robert and Hamish needed to diversify to make a profit.  Adding value to their rape seed crop seemed like a good idea when they could see that their carefully grown crop was being crushed and mixed with chemical solvents to extract the oil.  These solvents extracted more oil, but were difficult to remove leaving a contaminated oil.

By pressing the seed on the farm and filtering the oil they were left with a clean, virgin, quality oil, and a pulp to sell as animal feed.  Hamish and Robert have now been selling their oil for over 5 years and even run their delivery van on old oil from restaurant fryers.

Scientific test show that rape seed oil is lower in saturated fat and has more omega 3 and 6, than olive oil.  It is therefore no surprise that there are now a number of farmers around the UK pressing their own rape seed and trying to build a local market.  We are starting to see more on supermarket shelves but there is a perception that olive oil is the best.

To combat this Hamish and Robert offer their oil at a price significantly lower than Olive oil to encourage consumers to try it.  In my case we buy a case of two 5L cans every month and share it round the family.  We all use it for cooking and dressings and make a big saving.  And are doing our bit by cutting imports and food miles!

You can click to buy from Campbells R-Oil in the BigBarn MarketPlace

Or click to find your nearest supplier in MarketPlace

The story of raw milk may sum up the food industry. The Food standards agency say it is dangerous, whilst many others, including some scientist, say it is the only milk to drink. Read on and we welcome your feedback.

Raw milk is fresh from the cow, cooled and has a shelf life of about a week. All of the milk in the shops is pasteurised and or homogenised and lasts for about 3 weeks.

Raw milk is said to cure many allergies, including eczema, and can be made in to cheese or yoghurt as it sours naturally. Other milk last for 3 weeks and if not consumed turns putrid.

Pasteurising means heating the milk to kill any bugs and homogenised means passing the milk through tiny holes at pressure to emulsify the fat in to tiny bubbles. This means the fat stays in the liquid and does not separate with the cream rising to the top.

Pasteurisation ALSO; destroys enzymes, denatures anti-microbial and immune stimulating components, diminishes nutrient availability, denatures fragile milk proteins, destroys vitamins C, B6 and B12, kills beneficial bacteria, promotes pathogens and is associated with allergies, increased tooth decay, colic in infants, growth and behavior problems in children, osteoporosis, arthritis and heart disease. www.realmilk.com

So why is raw milk banned in Scotland and only available in this country direct from the farmer? A dairy farmer is not even allowed to sell his raw milk to a local farm shop!

This a classic UK ‘food industry’ fix for the milk industry. Ignore the positive effects of raw milk and enforce pasteurisation.

This means that small dairy farmers cannot poison anyone, increase shelf life of all milk to allow a longer supply chain and make milk a commodity to reduce price, and stop people making their own cheese and yoghurt.

All very interesting, and why I am signing up raw milk producers to sell through our MarketPlace. I will be buying in bulk and freezing some for later use, and hope to see the slight rash on my right arm disappear. We of course, welcome your comments below.