One recent summer’s evening, we hosted an intimate midsummer feast to celebrate our Wheat Project and the farmers, millers and bakers at the heart of it. Surrounded by a garden in full bloom, with a welcome breeze animating broad, sunlit trees, the setting felt worlds away from its central London location. It was an emboldening spot to discuss letting nature lead the way. Because that’s what the Wheat Project is all about: turning the grain supply chain upside down by working with, rather than against, nature.
Conventional wheat farming is at odds with the natural world, where farmers are under pressure to deliver high yields of identical grains. Farming with chemicals and genetically altered wheat not only devastates soil health but ends up with bread that is devoid of nutrients and flavour.
Putting heritage grains back on the menu
Through the Wheat Project, we’ve been working with Shipton Mill and a group of nine farmers to produce more heritage wheat: ancient, original grain varieties that are more nutritious, flavourful and climate resistant. Farming this type of wheat all starts with healthy soil that’s rich in biodiversity.
Now, three years into the project, we’re using the grains from last year’s harvest in three new GAIL’s products: the Good Earth Sourdough, Heritage Grain Crispbreads, and Heritage Grain Vanilla Shortbread.
Each of these products starred in our Midsummer Feast menu, developed in collaboration with chef Kitty Coles, along with barbecue oak-smoked beef brisket from Cobble Lane Cured. But before our guests tucked into their starter — chunks of nutty, Good Earth Sourdough with a zesty, charred aubergine dip — we heard a few words from our Founder, Tom Molnar, in conversation with our host, food writer Clare Finney.
Using our scale to do good
“It would be good to address the elephant in the room,” said Clare, standing in the dappled shade. Our guests listened intently, sat along two long dining tables dressed up in flowers and wheat dollies hand-crafted by Penny Maltby. “People can have an aversion to talking about sustainability in the context of a nation-wide chain. How are you doing things differently?”
“We believe we can use our scale for good,” said Tom. “When we first spoke to the farmers doing good things with their soil, they told us how the system doesn’t always value their efforts.
“They need a partner who can cope with uncertainty: both around how much wheat they produce and what the exact specifications of the flour will be. The way we’re structured as a business means we’re able to manage that, on a scale that hasn’t been possible before.”
Reviving a community
Tom continued: “The Wheat Project is about making farmers decision makers again, rather than being in service only to the commercial system. It’s about farmer, miller and baker each using their expertise and working together in a more connected way.”
Currently, the market for heritage grain products is small. We’re on a mission to help change that, using our scale to help create a more connected, nature-led and soil positive food system. “To me, the point of business is to find a way to improve something,” said Tom. “At GAIL’s we think the food system should and can change.”
But we can’t do this alone. “I don’t want to own this space, we’re trying to play a positive role — the system needs good people across the board,” said Tom. “What we’re doing is providing an example of how things can be better.”
We hope the conversation at our Midsummer Feast will be first of many, helping to revive a community centred around food and the people that grow it. And now, as we approach the fourth year of our Wheat Project, we hope it's a community you’ll be a part of, too.
