After four months since the launch of Silo, the UKs first zero waste restaurant, coffee house, brewery and bakery its great to be working in such an innovative environment, where the focus is on nutrient dense food and drink, with no material waste from the kitchen or restaurant. We are a young team with big ideas around sustainability and the future of food, our soil and planet. Working alongside good friends from the Old tree brewery, a co-op that I've seen grow over the last couple of years selling ginger beer and elderflower champagne alongside my sourdough bread and pizzas in Lewes. They now produce almost all Silo's drinks and we are working on traditional barm bread recipes together, as bakers and brewers have throughout history. Its common to hear us debating the nature of yeasts and fermentation in its varying forms. It feels like a natural progression to be sharing the Silo basement developing our ideas and feeling part of a Brighton community that is embracing new and radical approaches to food waste. Seems to be catching on too, every week selling out of bakery products with tables full with happy customers, not just critics and bloggers, but everyday brightoners.
In the kitchen we've been Sprouting grains for salads, as well as in our weekly rye bread to cram as many nutrients into our bread as possible and making the most of our organic grains, milled fresh and mixed same day to keep it's goodness. The myth of aged flour has gone out the window for me, as a baker, I'm convinced the way to respect the grain and creating a healthy product is to stone mill, mix it the same day and ferment it properly. We are lucky to have this privelage!
The wheat flour (currently organic Ameretto wheat) is a hard one to crack, getting consistency with no sifting and relying on manual adjustment of the mill daily means adjusting hydration most days when we hand mix the Silo sourdough, according to the absorption of our flour. Less science, more instinct and faith in the feel of the dough and gentle development during bulk fermentation means we now have a consistent light, naturally fermented bread for service in the restaurant and for customers to take home. Overall a primative method with emphasis on proper old English style bread, using uk grown grains and pastry made with flour from Michael Stoate at Cann mill.
Whilst working at Silo has fulfilled my desire to make bread and pastry in an environment that makes a difference, there's more going on in Brighton for those that are further interested in food waste. The Real Junk Food project is pioneering great changes to our approach to food waste by opening up 'pay as you feel' cafés around the country. Our own PAYF community cafe is just emerging, every Friday at the OneChurch on Gloucester road from the 20th February. Helping get the project up and running has opened my eyes to another side to zero waste, last night I joined Adam Buckhingam, Director of TRJFP Brighton, in picking up surplus food to feed the homeless. Seeing soup kitchens and religious groups giving out food on the street sheds light on the food systems failures throughout society and the need to address the disgusting amount of waste created by the current system.
I aim to run baking workshops using surplus ingredients in the hope that more people can have the opportunity to make and eat decent healthy food rather than the most common sight in a supermarket bin, arguably the most dangerous product to the future of our soils biodiversity and human digestion; supermarket bread!
Watch this space for bread making workshops, collaborations, a talk from ancient wheat expert John Letts at Silo and further radical fermentations. Oh and it's nearly time to fire up the pizza oven!
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