A screening I attended of Dirt! The Movie last Wednesday turned out to be more than it seemed. One of the Sooke Awareness Film Night offerings, it was held in a local school where we encountered a hall full of people and stalls,

offering seeds, seedlings,

vegetables, snacks,

awareness

and even tips on mushroom growing before the screening. The film itself was very watchable, and although it did talk about the dangerous loss of topsoil happening around the world (the scenes of coal strip mining were particularly appalling) and the risks of erosion, desertification and pollution that go hand in hand with this, it offered a good number of optimists and activists working to improve the situation. The film’s advice: do what you can; plant trees; replenish the soil you work with; and be aware of dirt’s role in our lives.

Sunday’s entertainment was a trip to Esquimalt, where VIVA‘s monthly Raw Vegan Potluck event regularly attracts 30 or 40 people

who bring all manner of dishes to share

Hemp cheese… raw vegan chocolate balls… nettle sweet potato casserole with edible salmonberry blossoms

Blueberries & bananas in cashew cream… raw vegan zucchini pasta with pesto… and strawbs.

The society also offers a raw food lending library, and a vendor was there selling ingredients, cookbooks

and tools of the trade.

Each meeting features a speaker: this month it was raw food nutritional advisor Shawna Barker, who teaches, consults, cooks and sells raw foods (at her Living Foods kiosk and through a Meals on Wheels enterprise). Her theme was Nutrition 101, with some extra nutritional tips for raw foodists (mostly around getting enough vitamin B12 – her top tip was to use an algae marketed as E3 Live).

I enjoyed it – though like all potlucks you get pot luck with the food. But some was very good and the requirement for ingredients labels means you can really know what you’re eating; some of the participants provided recipes rather than straight labels, which would be helpful for some of the more complicated dishes. Because to novices, preparing raw food can be very complicated indeed. My main qualm about this way of eating is the dependence on imported ingredients; very few of the dishes were local or seasonal (I brought a brussels sprout slaw, and there were several other salads featuring seasonal greens) though my personal favourite – kale chips (dressed and dehydrated) – was definitely seasonal, and disappeared quickly. By the time I reached it there were only a few crumbs in the bottom of the bowl, but they were tasty. Here’s one I took earlier!

In her book English Bread & Yeast Cookery, Elizabeth David, writing in 1977, makes a point of value to us in these days when we are so distanced from our food supply: that for every ounce of bread we eat (a thin slice), an ounce of grain has been grown, harvested, transported (often long distances) to mills, cleaned, dried, conditioned, ground into flour, treated, stored and finally delivered to bakeries and bread factories.

Wanting to get closer to my bread, I attended an artisan bread-making class last weekend, and here’s what I did at school that day….

Started off with lessons on yeast. Active dry yeast is the yeast of choice since it’s reliable and durable (can be stored for years in a freezer, though officially has a 3 month shelf life)

But fresh yeast is preferred by purists (assuming they are making bread in volume, since a cake only keeps for a month) – can be hard to find though.

Instant yeast comes in big granules; what the purists don’t like about it is that coating on the granules means you’ll get about 25-30% dead yeast together with the live cells, meaning you need to use about twice as much as active yeast, and soak in water, for reliable results.

Moving on from yeasts, we were introduced to sourdough and rye starters

Rye is particularly valued, because of its high amylase content, stable at high (baking) temperatures. Amylase is an enzyme – also present in seeds (contributing to germination) and saliva – which converts starch into sugar; starch is what hardens during baking to create firm, airy loaves. Since amylase breaks starch down during baking, rye contributes a moist, dense texture in bread. We didn’t use the rye starter in this class, but I hope to take the next installment which is all about fermentation techniques.

Then there was Poolish – which originated in French kitchens (the name a nod to the Polish bakers who probably introduced it). Simple to make and only needing a night to ferment, it is gooey and puffy, and went into our baguettes:

and Biga, an Italian starter, which is thicker and sturdier than Poolish, and used later that day to make ciabatta.

We watched our instructor – Martin Barnett – make a Challah dough

while he explained why it is better to weigh ingredients than go by volume (a cup of plain flour is not the same as a cup of whole wheat, etc.) and paused at intervals to demonstrate different stages of gluten development

stopping only when it had advanced to the stage when you can make a window to read through. Then he covered it and left it to carry on with its first rising (primary fermentation).

Lessons learned, we proceeded to make buttermilk seed bread

and some dough for baguettes.

Some of us made ciabatta, and others (like us) Tuscan loaves; then we readied our ingredients for wholemeal brioche and went for lunch (pizzas we assembled ourselves on fresh pizza dough). After lunch we put our bread into loaves, and then made the brioche dough, rolled it flat, buttered it and sprinkled it with sugar, cinnamon and raisins; rolled it up

and cut it into buns

which were baked and then brushed with apricot glaze

and some lemony icing.

We rolled our baguettes and popped them into forms to rise

and then started reaping the bounty. Ciabatta

baguettes

and our seed and Tuscan olive breads. Not a bad haul for 8 hours’ work.