ON THURSDAYS, SHE LIGHTS THE OVEN:
A PROFILE OF OAK AND SWAN SOURDOUGH BAKERY
WORDS BY JACI HICKEN
Oak and Swan Sourdough is a Gippsland-based, family-run bakery committed to a holistic and organic approach to bread and baked goods.
There are a great number of well-known chefs that cross over into many cooking and baking styles.
However, if you take a peek into a commercial kitchen, you will find that rather than attempting to wear every hat themselves, the head chef will instead have a sous chef, baker, a butcher, a cake maker—each one a master of their specialty.
My area of cooking specialisation was large functions where I would make the same thing, the same way, up to one thousand times in a single day! But, put me on the pots and pans at a pub and ask for a measly one hundred meals to be cooked and served in an hour ... I can do it, but my legs will go to jelly.
My attitude is the same with sourdough bread, as it is not my baking speciality. Sure, I can bake it. And yes, when I do, the household loves it: a whole family fed by wholegrain loaves and sourdough pizza coming out of my oven! But, like a lot of people, I would rather purchase my bread from a person that specialises in bread. Someone who bakes fantastic, traditional sourdough using the freshest and most organic produce available.
That is how I found Betsy from Oak and Swan Sourdough.
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Betsy and her husband Greg run Oak and Swan, a traditional sourdough bakery on their farm in Mardan, just outside of Mirboo North in South Gippsland.
Together, Betsy and Greg—along with their three children—have built a wood fired bakery on the property. Their farm, set in the lush green rolling hills that South Gippsland is known for, has high natural rainfall, fertile volcanic soil and is farmed following organic principles.
They produce beef, along with all the organic grown fruit and vegetables their family and the bakery needs.
‘For Oak and Swan loaves, clean rainwater is mixed with organic flours to create traditional slow-fermented hand-crafted sourdough bread.’
Betsy makes many different breads and baked treats using her own eight-year-old sourdough starter— sourdough bread is not made using conventional baker’s yeast but with a wild ‘starter’ forged via the natural fermentation of flour and water—and a holistic approach to baking. Baking sourdough since she was in her twenties, Betsy is very passionate about it; she lovesbeing able to provide people with wholesome, nutritious food. For Oak and Swan loaves, clean rainwater is mixed with organic flours to create traditional slow-fermented hand-crafted sourdough bread, sweet buns and wholegrain fermented scones. All the flours that Betsy uses at Oak and Swan are freshly stoneground on-site by her or Greg’s hand. Their starter materials are organic wheat out of Murrayville and wholegrains from Burrum Biodynamics in Marnoo in North West Victoria.
Betsy makes many different breads and baked treats using her own eight-year-old sourdough starter—sourdough bread is not made using conventional baker’s yeast but with a wild ‘starter’ forged via the natural fermentation of flour and water—and a holistic approach to baking. Baking sourdough since she was in her twenties, Betsy is very passionate about it; she loves being able to provide people with wholesome, nutritious food. For Oak and Swan loaves, clean rainwater is mixed with organic flours to create traditional slow-fermented hand-crafted sourdough bread, sweet buns and wholegrain fermented scones. All the flours that Betsy uses at Oak and Swan are freshly stoneground on-site by her or Greg’s hand. Their starter materials are organic wheat out of Murrayville and wholegrains from Burrum Biodynamics in Marnoo in North West Victoria.
Betsy starts making her bread two days before the bake. She ‘feeds’ and ‘bulks up’ her sourdough starters and cultures with freshly ground, unbleached organic flour, then lets it slowly ferment, before an ambient heat bake. For Betsy’s ambient heat bake, all the bread is mixed in the morning, and has a ‘bulk proof’ before being shaped into the individual loaves. It has a final proof before baking on the same day as it is mixed. The long fermentation produces lactic acid in the dough, which in turn creates the sour taste we all know and love in sourdough bread.
On Thursdays, Betsy lights her wood fired Alan Scott oven with timber—naturally harvested from fallen trees on her farm—to allow the oven to build up a hot store and radiant heat for her ambient bake. Alan Scott was an Australian-born blacksmith and world expert in building wood fired ovens that better retain and radiate heat. The bread baked in his ovens is moist on the inside but has the crisp crust we expect from a loaf of fresh sourdough.
The range of sourdough offered by Oak and Swan changes each week, depending on what flavourings Betsy has grown on her farm or can source seasonally from other organic producers. In an average week, Betsy bakes 350 loaves, with customer favourites being Oak and Swan’s seeds and sprouts, wholewheat, spelt or rye breads; fruit loaves with organic apple, oats and sultanas; and her wholegrain fermented scones! Betsy always bakes on a Friday, so Saturdays are when you can find her and her Oak and Swan sourdough at one of the many South Gippsland farmers’ markets. You can also buy Oak and Swan sourdough at discerning cafes, health food shops and local farm gates throughout South Gippsland, along with a range of Oak and Swan pantry staples including flour, porridge mixes and pancake mixes.
While we are all practicing the social distancing required by the COVID-19 pandemic, Betsy is still baking. With many of us turning to cafés and restaurants to source our local produce, many of the vegetable and food boxes now on offer include Oak and Swan sourdough and pantry staples. Oak and Swan also sells online for delivery to select Melbourne suburbs and greater Gippsland through Prom Coast Food Collective.