Locally grown and baked

EARTH - GRAIN - FIRE

OUR DREAM

Our dream is to grow fresh ingredients on a small scale for our business. This includes heritage varieties of grain, as well as fruit, herbs, vegetables and edible flowers. We’ve never grown food for a business before so we cannot claim to be experts, but we’re learning from others and giving it a go. We hope to use these home grown ingredients in our bread and pastries and at events.

THE BEGINNING

Right now we are working with local farmers, growers, and neighbours near Machynlleth to trial growing wheat in the Dyfi Valley, pooling knowledge, land, equipment, time and resources to learn to grow together. In the future we are interested in growing some of the rarer varieties of grain falling out of production in Wales (e.g. Hen Gymro), with support from the Gaia Foundation Seed Sovereignty programme.

We have also been developing our food growing skills with support from the Mach Maethlon Pathways to Farming initiative. This scheme trains local growers to set up their own food growing businesses and supply local produce to the Dyfi Valley. In our case, this is growing ingredients for Rye and Roses, to add value to our products and events.

THE FUTURE

We are fortunate to be surrounded by beautiful countryside where we can share land with others to grow food. Above our future wood-fired oven we hope to build a drying platform where we can dry our locally grown produce, making the most of the residual heat from the fire. With time, not only do we hope to grow some of our own ingredients for our bakery and events, but develop new types of food for sale at Machynlleth Market and through local shops. 

Why grow our own food?

Our world is changing. In the future access to food may become more difficult due to climate change, challenging politics and economics and even global pandemics. By learning to grow our own food locally we hope to provide for our family, learn from our farming community and contribute to our local community and economy.

We also hope to encourage biodiversity by welcoming bees, insects, birds, and arable plants and animals back to the land through nature friendly farming methods. We also hope to learn to grow food adapted to the Welsh climate, and rebuild rich and fertile soil.