The Spelt Project 1, July 2014 | Page 52

‘It takes more than one season to grow a crop.’ Bill Kerr & everyone else Urban idealist Amanda Rowland wanted to create a loaf of bread from scratch that ticked all the boxes: it had to be delicious, nutritious, and from paddock-to-plate aim to enhance soil, plant and human nutrition while working with notions of self-sufficiency and sustainability. After meeting a few farmers, her idea took off in directions she would never have envisaged. Along the way Amanda encounters local legend Mary Maley the Whole Wheat Queen, buys a tractor (who wouldn’t?) and learns that there is no magic bullet to getting a good yield. All cropping requires hard work, local knowhow – and nothing succeeds if it doesn’t rain at the right times. M M Maley, circa early 1900s