The Art and Science of Baking Sourdough to Support Health

It’s about more than bread—it’s about baking with purpose, a delicious stand for the world we want. Baking long, slow-fermented bread is a quiet, beautiful resistance to the globalisation of our bread. Crafting artisan loaves with ingredients to bring our communities together is activism that supports mental well-being and nourishes those we love.

Learn more from Baker, Dr Vanessa Kimbell, as she inspires a slower, more nourishing approach to baking, with thoughtful recipes, nutritional insights, and artisan knowledge that will transform the way you bake, eat, and share bread.

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The Sourdough School Course Information
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Lifestyle

Sourdough School Retreat 1 Week in person (August 2023) +1 Year Online Bake for Health Certificate

£3,999

Monday 7th   – Sunday 14th August 2023
7 days with Vanessa Kimbell

It takes more than just a week to learn sourdough. It’s about both understanding and practice. Our courses are fully supported by our Sourdough Club 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.

Includes a pre-course 1 year syllabus, our Bake For Health Certificate starting in September 2022 RRP £1499

+ a 7 day Retreat

***All Club Members, current and past Sourdough School students (online and in-person) are eligible for a £1000 discount upon request, before the end of July 2022. Please email [email protected]

Fully Booked

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The retreat 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 Bake For Health Certificate 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 to just 5 people- 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.

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
  • Membership to The Sourdough Club (if not already a member) and a place on our 2022 Bake for Health Certificate
  • 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?

Teaching Style

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.  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.

All of our information for attendees can be found here. Please read our Terms and Conditions before you book.

What is not included

You will need to budget for your:

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

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