Last Saturday saw me taking my first class at Acton Scott Museum. I was joined by eight lovely students for a day of bread making.
Here they all are doing a fold of their spelt/ wholemeal dough. We kept ourselves very busy. We made a wholemeal or spelt dough and shaped it into a tin, an olive oil dough that we shaped into a fougasse or a focaccia and a white dough that we shaped into a boule and proved in a banneton.
The highlight of the day was cooking our white loaves in the Bailiff’s cottage’s bread oven. Mike, the Bailiff, had lit the wood fired bread oven and made it ready for our loaves. It was fascinating being able to step back in time and cook our loaves the traditional way.
Whilst we waited for the loaves to cook it gave us all a chance to have a wander around the farm yard and coo over all the new babies that had recently arrived. There was a litter of nine day-old Tamworth pigs, some week to ten day-old calves and some very adorable chicks. The working horses are always worth a look and I never miss the opportunity to steal a glance at Dusty the Donkey (if only he fitted into the back of my car…).
Acton Scott is a working farm museum following the farming methods of the Victorians and is well worth a visit if you find yourself in Shropshire.
I am looking forward to my next couple of courses there, Home Dairying on 25th June and Sweet Doughs on 24th September.
