Global or local? Real bread.

Discussions about politics and gender; feminism; migration; neo-liberalism and power have been continuing under the hot Bolsena sunshine.  These are all huge topics and each is worthy of a week devoted solely to it. However, I can't help feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the scale of the problems facing so many of the people in this world. My inclination is to start on a smaller scale and try to facilitate individuals, but where to start?

Our visit to a local artisan baker at the Coop il Sambuco near Viterbo yesterday was an inspiring example of a group of people getting together to make such a small scale change. Ten producers joining in a co-operative venture, to grow, mill, bake and supply organic loaves of the highest quality. Using ancient varieties of wheat, locally produced hazelnut shells to fuel the brick ovens, and a pasta madre (yeast mother or leaven) that has been nurtured for 150 years, this was a wonderful example of small-scale, sustainable production. The loaves produced from the thrice weekly baking last up to 10 days and are chewy, delicious and sustaining. But the Co-op don't only produce bread. The ovens are fired to a high temperature for the bread making and, as they cool, the residual heat is used to bake varieties of grissino and sweet biscuits. The smoke from the firing passes by and gently heats a cupboard for drying pasta so not even that heat is wasted. The bakery produces bread to order so no loaves are wasted and deliveries are made to restaurants, specialist suppliers and organic shops all over the region and as far as Rome.

Each batch of bread takes 24 hours to make from start to finish. The long period of feeding the pasta madre and then allowing the dough to ferment permits the development of complex tastes and helps to improve the texture of the finished loaves. We all got to taste a sample to prove it. Before we left the bakery there was an opportunity to buy some dried pasta, grissini and sweet biscuits. There will be packets of Coop il Sambuco pasta travelling all over Europe at the end of the week taking a little memory and taste of Italy home with each of us.

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