From the Cosmos: Heirloom Red Fife Sourdough

This bread has reached into my cellular make-up and awoke potent emotions I was not expecting. The smell alone took me back to fond memories in my childhood, spending time with dad in the family barn. The air got heady with wheat dust, floating like tiny fireflies in sunbeams, when the auger moved millions of grains up into the loft. This bread tastes and smells like that memory, and layers of memories before me, I am sure.

I have finally fully embodied what I learned about at an Indigenous food sovereignty gathering last year. Chef Nephi Craig travelled to Vancouver from his traditional Apache territory to share recipes and wisdom. Certain foods have endured colonialization and agricultural/scientific interference he said, because taste is cultural. When we eat something for the first time, a new pathway is made in the brain; these neuro connections impact our food choices and sense of comfort/belonging throughout life. The gastro-intestinal system is our second brain, it is where we hold memory. The saying, ‘gut-feeling’, comes from that internal wisdom we hold. A single kernel of corn is like a microchip. It carries culture, nutrition, creation stories. It grows from the energy of the sun, the cosmos. When you eat that corn, you internalize that long chain of history, culture and cosmic energy. (Note that Nephi has granted permission for me to share his reflections.)

While growing up in Saskatchewan in the 70’s and 80’s, in addition to oats and alfalfa for the Holstein’s feed, dad grew Red Spring wheat and moved his cash crop as a member of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. At an earlier time, grandma and great-grandma would have held some grain back and milled it for the family’s bread supply. I can’t help but wonder if our prior generations would have grown the Red Spring’s mother heirloom seed, Red Fife, on that fertile land. I am now eating what my ancestors ate for millennia, long before they migrated to this continent. I feel connected to something I was perhaps searching for after years of feeling ‘culture-less” in my mixed ethnicity with no ties to a homeland other than the family farm from which I was the last of 4-generations to dwell.

Red Fife is said to be Canada’s oldest wheat, brought by early settlers- some say by Scottish, others say by Ukranians. It became the dominant crop of Canada’s bread basket until the early 1900’s and had virtually disappeared until revived again in 1988 through the Heritage Wheat Project in response to growing awareness and desire for healthier heritage foods and the 100-mile diet and Slow Food movements. In 2007, Sharon Rempel brought Canada’s first Bread and Wheat Festival to Victoria. Since then, sowing, cultivating, and milling Red Fife has become an important mainstay for a handful of local bakeries on Vancouver Island, offering highly prized organic, nutritional artisanal breads from heirloom grains.

My and my spouse’s growing interest in baking our own heirloom bread led us to Nootka Rose Milling in Metchosin on my birthday last weekend, the only place we have found nearby that mills locally grown Red Fife flour.  Using his sourdough starter, I crafted my first Red Fife loaf today. My DNA must be flickering with each bite, because I am so energized and moved by this special bread!  

Recipe for Red Fife Sourdough

Sponge:
2 TBSP sourdough starter
1/3 c water
1/3 rye flour
Mix these together in a bowl. Cover loosely with a lid and leave at room temperature until it has bubbled up, 6-10 hours.

 Dough:
Sponge, above  (set aside 2 TBSP of sponge to use as starter for your next loaf)
2 c water
4 ½ c Red Fife sifted flour
1 TBSP salt
Mix above ingredients by hand until the dough comes together in a loose ball. Cover with lid or beeswax wrap for 6-8 hours.
Scrape the dough out onto a floured surface and cut into two equal-sized pieces. Shape into roundish loaves and place seam-side down on a well-floured tea towel and let rise for 1-2 hours.
Preheat oven to 450°F. Turn loaves out onto a parchment lined baking sheet or hot baking stone, seam-side up and bake 35 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Chew slowly, taste the cosmos.

Enjoy the first slice on its own while still warm. Take a moment and smell it, note the delicious crunch of the crust on the first bite. Let the soft texture and nutty flavours on the inside linger a bit. Close your eyes and find gratitude.

Then eat it with anything and everything!

Enjoy ❤️

I would like to respectfully acknowledge that my memories growing up are as a 4th generation settler and descendant of uninvited guests in Treaty 6 territory and traditional lands of the Métis. I cannot change my historical circumstances, but I do honor the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and stand in solidarity and advocacy for Reconciliation actions in my personal and professional life.