ISSUE 11 – JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016 – FREE
Televised baker: experiencing the Victorian way Vintage Guns of Corve Street Inspirational Nicola North Winter gardening Macbeth Woodyard Gallery Wimbledon to Ludlow The Dog Hangs Well Walking football
“I ask John if he ever wanted to do something else. ‘Gospel truth: watching Dad when I was younger, I wanted to do anything else but baking – it looked too much like hard work to me’.” SPENDING a number of hours in the company of renowned baker John Swift is akin to being in the eye of a hurricane. Fast-talking and full of ideas, energy and passion, he’s a veritable human whirlwind. A fifth generation baker from the Swift family, this baby-faced chap (actually 35 but looking a decade younger) is currently wowing millions of viewers across the country with his starring role in Victorian Bakers, a BBC Two reality-TV series in which a handful of bakers recreate the life of Victorian breadmakers. Stepping outside of his regular work at Clee Hill-based Swifts Bakery has been a bit of a revelation for John. When I meet him he’s already done dozens of media interviews, as the interest in
the show has been so high. He must be exhausted but looks wide awake, fit and happy – and he doesn’t even touch coffee “or energy drinks – just tea and water. I’m trying to give up the beer too,” he says with a grin. “John Foster from the show (one of the other bakers) said it would be my downfall. He bet I couldn’t do it and I did three weeks without a drop and now only drink a bit at weekends so, y’know, I won.” What was the bet? “Pride” he says, and bursts out laughing. Like most bakers, John’s day starts frighteningly early – he’s at work by 2.30am. By 6am, the ‘bake off’ is finished and the produce is off to the Swifts outlets in Ludlow, Clee Hill and elsewhere, on the vans and out to wholesale. “My granddad always said ‘get it out
there, bread won’t make you money sitting on the shelves’.” After the day’s bread is out, they then gear up for making the next day’s bread – and an average day for John Swift ends at around 4pm or 5pm, well over 13 hours. Up on Clee Hill, Swifts bake around 2,000 loaves a day with more at weekends, and up to 7,000 on special occasions such as Christmas. They make everything from standard white loaves to speciality loaves (like honey & sunflower, and the malted Shropshire brown), French breads and sourdoughs. “We’re a jack of all trades,” John says with a grin. “Sourdough, speciality breads, French breads ... all are scratch dough and we make them and bake them, sticking to
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how they would be made in the regions they come from.” They have some clever gear to help them along the way with their regular loaves too – the wonderfully named “Koma machines, which use cold fermentation to allow the dough to ferment very slowly over a period of 10 or more hours.” This is quite different to the big brand bakeries, John explains. “Big bakers will make a tonne of dough, will hot steam it so it’ll be proved for maybe half an hour and then it will be baked. They’ll use enzymic technology, pick out the enzymes that they most want, chuck it in their dough and use it in their bread. It’s made for a market; people want white sliced loaves that are cheap.”
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