The Sourdough School

Baking eating and sharing bread to improve physical and mental health

A Social Enterprise: Providing Training & Support for Bakers & Healthcare Practitioners to Teach and Socially Prescribe Baking as Lifestyle Medicine.
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Baking as Lifestyle Medicine for Bakers and Clinicians

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bookings@sourdough.co.uk
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Vanessa Christmas
mindfulness retreat

7 day in person Sourdough Retreat + Certificate in Baking as Lifestyle Medicine

£3,999.00

Combined Course

Enrolling on this course registers you for:

1 Week (7 day) in-person Retreat here at The Sourdough School +

12 Month Online  Baking as Lifestyle Medicine Certificate starting  September 28th 2023 RRP £1999

OR a Pre-course Baking Syllabus to follow before you attend your Retreat.

FOR: Bakers & Healthcare Professionals

 

It takes more than just a week to learn sourdough. It’s about both understanding and practice. Our courses are fully supported by our online learning platform, and our books, with over 70 video tutorials, features, regular new recipes, articles & a Forum to include you in our baking community, helping you to continue your practice so that you will keep on learning.

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This unique offering combines a 7-day in-person Sourdough Retreat with a comprehensive 1-year online Certificate in Baking as Lifestyle Medicine (BALM). . Prior to enrollment, it is essential to review the guidance tabs provided below for detailed information on what to expect throughout the program. This holistic approach to sourdough and baking education brings together immersive, hands-on learning and in-depth online resources, ensuring a well-rounded understanding of BALM principles and practices.

Additional information

Retreat dates

May 15th – 21st 2023, June 19th – 25th 2023, September 11th – 17th 2023, July 22nd – 28th 2024

What will we make? 

What recipes will we make?

All recipes will be based on the recipes in the Sourdough School books.

  • Create a Botanical Blend flour
  • A sourdough fizz
  • Sourdough Pizza
  • 10 minute Focaccia
  • A sourdough Boule
  • A fermented cake and a probiotic accompaniment such as cultured butter
  • A symbiotic recipe such as a soup to eat with the bread
  • Vegetable or fruit probiotic pickles such as kimchi or sauerkraut
  • Fruit compote

What will I learn?

You will learn more than you even knew there was to learn, just by being here for the week.

  • Every step of making sourdough
  • Starter refreshment
  • Blending and milling flour
  • Timings
  • Familiarisation of the variables affecting fermentation
  • About fibre, protein & gluten in the flour
  • An overview of nutrition & digestibility of bread
  • Eating symbiotically for optimal gut health
  • Why diversity is key to gut health
  • About the gut microbiome and why the kind of bread you eat matters
  • Probiotics & prebiotics
  • How to make sourdough central to your lifestyle

What is included?

What is included:

  • An exclusive ceramic jar with breathable wooden lid & some of our sourdough starter to take home
  • A set of sourdough record cards
  • A personalised signed The Sourdough School book worth £24.99
  • A Botanical Blend flour that you will create and mill on your course
  • You can also book a wine tasting & tour of the vineyard (providing the proprietors are available)
  • All trips, food & drinks whilst at the school are provided, including lunches and supper at the windmill

What is the teaching style?

Retreat Teaching Style .. some modules are quiet…

All courses are run in the same style and it is really important that you understand that our teaching style is not that of a cookery school.   We teach using a participative demonstration style,  making sourdough, and working with one mixer, Vanessa will make larger batches of dough.  There will be ample opportunities to touch, taste, smell and feel the dough. It is important, however to understand that The School is a classroom, and the teaching style is about understanding the principles of sourdough rather than each of our students individually making bread. Some classes are taught in silence to allow students to connect to the process.

The practical side of learning to shape is supported by the Sourdough Club video tutorials for when you get home. This teaching style enables us to still run courses by maintaining a safe learning environment for both students and the team at the school.  We ask that students are considerate of this approach and that you read and agreed to follow our COVID-19 guidelines before attending the school.

What is not included?

You will need to budget for your:

  • Travel
  • Accommodation
  • Insurance
  • Food outside of teaching hours

Essential reading: Why we check your baking level 2 months before your retreat.

General about the week here

The retreat itself is about baking for the joy of it.  A retreat, to bake and laugh and de-stress, and before you come you join the 1 year Baking as Lifestyle Medicine starting 29th September 2022. So please do book your place on the Retreat before September 2022 to ensure you are able to start the ‘Bake for Health’ course on time.

We have a beautiful week planned of sourdough baking, wild swimming, making fruit compotes, cultured butter, fermented cakes and of course our classic sourdough boules.

You will immerse yourself in connecting to the Botanical Blend flour concept this week, and make your own blend.

We have a visit to a flour mill to find out more about how stone ground flour is still being milled today in an incredible historic mill, followed by a pizza evening.

We have yoga, and a life coach to plan how to use sourdough and the schedule to re-centre your priorities.

Places on this course are limited – if you are unable to attend please do request a copy of our prospectus to see if you are able to attend any other course options we have.

Please note all visits and non-baking events within the course are subject to change depending on their availability. We reserve the right to change them to suitable alternatives as and if required. Thank you.

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