Scotland The Bread

16/12/2025

Following on from our last re-post, a new report from charity Sustain: The Alliance For Better Food And Farming (of which we're a member) shows that a small increase in government support for organic fruit and vegetables could deliver huge national returns for communities across the UK. Based on nine pilot projects across the UK, the report shows that connecting organic, sustainably grown produce from small and medium-sized farms with low-income households can generate £8.78 in social value for every £1 of public investment, matched with £1.10 from shoppers.

Read the report here: https://www.sustainweb.org/news/dec25-bridging-the-gap-report/

15/12/2025

We've added a super simple People's Bread recipe to our website that will make a loaf, four flatbreads or three pizza bases.

https://scotlandthebread.org/2025/11/27/the-peoples-bread/

What is People's Bread?
It's a community standard for nourishing flour and bread. A Real Bread that meets the needs of our times: well fermented, nutritious, affordable, accessible. Bread made with organic Scottish grain in a low emission, soil-to-slice community.

All the evidence tells us that the best bread is made with organic wholemeal flour, slowly fermented with natural yeasts and beneficial bacteria (sourdough). This recipe explains how to do it. The dough can be baked in a tin or in many other shapes – flatbread, pita, pizza etc. It can be enriched with fat, seeds, nuts, fruits etc. Start with the basic recipe; once you’ve got the hang of it, get creative.

We suggest using our Fife-grown flour which has a softer (and arguably less indigestible) gluten than commercial flour. For a slightly bolder loaf – especially if you are a sourdough bread beginner – you may choose to replace up to 25% of the wholemeal flour with ‘strong organic white’ (we recommend Mungoswells Malt & Milling flour from East Lothian). The greater the proportion of wholemeal, the fuller the flavour, the higher the percentage of fibre and the more nutritious the loaf will be.

12/12/2025

Come say hi, we're at the Bow House Christmas Market today and all weekend 👋!

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Our 3-day Christmas Market is here!

Join us for a fantastic line up of food & drinks traders, alongside a curation of arts & crafts from .

We will have love music, coffee and street food in the lean-to. Kids gingerbread decorating, drop in wreath making and much more!

Friday 12th, 12-6pm
Saturday 13th & 14th, 10am-4pm

12/12/2025

10/12/2025

Congratulations to the coordinator Chris Young for a richly deserved win in this year's Slow Food in the UK awards. He shares the Person of the Year title with the late Pam Rodway, an organic farmer who helped to establish Slow Food Scotland and Soil Association Scotland.

Shane Holland, Executive Chairman of Slow Food in the UK said: 'Our person of the year, or persons for the first time ever this year, highlight the leadership of those within our wider food community to fight for good food for everyone.'

Chris works with very limited resources to champion Real Bread (made without chemical raising agents, so-called processing aids or any other additives) and those who make and sell it.

He also finds the time, on four days a week, to lobby for an Honest Crust Act of better loaf composition, labelling and marketing laws; he created and runs Sourdough September; Real Bread Week; Real Bread For All; Together We Rise promoting therapeutic/social benefits and bread making; the No Loaf Lost surplus reduction initiative; as well as Lessons in Loaf and Bake Your Lawn for schools. He’s the author of the 'Knead to Know…more' microbakery handbook and 'Slow Dough: Real Bread' recipe book; and edits 'True Loaf' magazine.

We're always pleased to work alongside Chris, grateful for his dedicated work, and couldn't agree more with this award!

📸 www.realbreadcampaign.org CC-BY-SA-4.0

08/12/2025

Written by STB co-founder and honorary chair Andrew Whitley, we're delighted to see that 'Do Sourdough' is still a bestseller 11 years after publication, its simple method still making sourdough baking as convenient as possible. With timings designed to help fit breadmaking around a busy work / life schedule, this is the guide for those wondering how they can make a sourdough-baking habit work for them.

Pick up a signed copy at our stall at the Christmas market this weekend (12th, 13th & 14th), or through our online shop - cut-off date for Christmas delivery 12th Dec.

04/12/2025

Scotland The Bread rents a small paddock at Stenton farm as a trial plot for continuing research into wheat and rye varieties that combine adaptability and resilience to local climate and soils with desirable flavour, baking quality and nutrient density. A tall order! This August, with indispensable assistance from Philip Sheane, Erik Crnkovich, the reaper-binder rig provided by Peter Small and a motley crew of Whitley children and grandchildren, we gathered in significant amounts of the following varieties - find out why and read more in our most recent Newsletter here: https://us14.campaign-archive.com/?u=27a70b4f4413dea5181297d02&id=881f5bc70e

🌾 Rouge d'Ecosse
🌾 Golden Drop
🌾 Balcaskie Winter Landrace
🌾 Dalarna
🌾 Shirreff’s Bearded Red
🌾 Mariagertoba

It took two sessions with our trusty Alvan Blanch Aspra Major threshing machine to process all the above. Many thanks to Alistair Rider, Jennifer and John Anderson, John Henderson, Erik Crnkovich, Philip Sheane and Caroline Rochford.

As soon as they’d been cleaned, polished and milled (thanks again, Philip!) we baked some of the fresh flour, using our standard People’s Bread recipe – wholemeal, sourdough. The Mariagertoba was indeed a bit ‘bolder’, though its naturally darker colour was a surprise. We’ll report back on further testing in future Newsletters, and on our social media.

People's Bread recipe: https://scotlandthebread.org/2025/11/27/the-peoples-bread/

04/12/2025

The people want to know: what's in our bread?! Real Bread Campaign survey results show overwhelming support for the Honest Crust Act proposals.

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New research echoes Honest Crust Act calls

The Real Bread Campaign believes a new survey indicates that many people would support our proposed Honest Crust Act changes to ‘bread’ labelling and marketing standards.

The survey of UK adults was conducted on behalf of the Real Bread Campaign in October 2025 by M·E·L Research, on a pro bono basis.

Of the 1506 respondents, the majority: agreed that ingredients and additives should be listed for ‘bread’ sold loose / unwrapped; believed that many supermarket ‘baked in store’ or ‘freshly baked’ claims are misleading; said that it’s unacceptable that ‘sourdough’ isn’t defined in food labelling law; said that wholegrain ‘bread’ should contain at least 51% unrefined grain ingredients by law.

You can find the survey results, and more information, in the latest news section of the Real Bread Campaign website.

24/11/2025

Mark us down as fellow labelling nerds , we also want to know what's in our flour as well as our bread. Ours needs no fortificants as our low temperature cyclone mill retains all the nutrients of the whole grain, while producing a soft, fine, organic all-purpose flour that's as delicious in sourdough as it is in pastry.

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For food labelling nerds... By law, millers have to add 'fortificants' to most non-wholemeal wheat flour sold in the UK - iron, calcium carbonate, niacin, thiamine and (by October 2026) folic acid.

If you see a product made with non-wholemeal wheat flour that does not have the 'fortificants' named in brackets after it on the ingredients list, it means one of the following:

> the product was made outside the UK from 'unfortified' flour, then imported for (legal) sale here.
> the product was made in the UK using 'unfortified' legally sold by a small mill that produces less than 500 tonnes a year.
> the product was made in the UK using illegally sold 'unfortified' flour.
> the manufacturer failed to comply with the requirement to list the 'fortificants' on the label.

(Another possible explanation is that the flour was milled from wheat other than Triticum aestivum, in which case it should be listed as spelt, durum, einkorn, emmer etc. rather than just 'wheat flour')

For more information about flour 'fortification' and product labelling / marketing, please visit the Real Bread Campaign website.

That's also where you can read an article that addresses the question 'where can I buy "unfortified" flour and bread made from it?'