Why I am making sourdough.

For those of you who live nearby, you’ve probably tasted my sourdough – or at least seen countless photos of it on Instagram.

I started baking sourdough in 2019, thanks to my sister-in-law, Ruth. At the time, I was nearing the end of a strict elimination diet but still struggling to digest gluten. The dream of eating a slice of regular pizza felt far far away. Ruth told me that sourdough might help – and that got my full attention. She handed me a jar of starter, but no instructions.

I had only ever baked shortbread and banana bread, never bread. I was told to “feed” the starter and thought, Where’s the mouth? Unlike Ruth’s beautiful loaves, mine were so dense that they would be fit for the foundation of a skyscraper.

My mum, ever supportive, said, “it tastes very healthy. I’m sure it’s good for me.” as she tried to swallow a dry slice slathered in butter and cheese to make it palatable.

Hundreds of loaves later – with my husband Adam’s daily encouragement, my in-law’s patience, and the help of an excellent cookbook, I can now bake bread that looks good and tastes great. I love the quiet expectation on people’s faces when they spot a fresh loaf cooling on the rack. I enjoy baking everything from rustic country loves to my seasonal go-to purple sweet potato sourdough. I’ve even ventured into pizzas, focaccias, brioche, cinnamon rolls and bagels.

I still use the same organic, biodynamic ancient grains – but no one says my bread “tastes healthy” anymore, not even my mum. Instead, they say it’s delicious or just go for the next slice.

As I learn more about the harmful impacts of glyphosate (the herbicide known as Roundup), other agricultural chemicals, and the systemic exploitation of the farmers and farmworkers in industrial agriculture, I’ve become even more committed to supporting organic and biodynamic food.

I want nothing to do with “franken-wheat” often grown from patented seeds controlled by Big Ag, heavily treated with agrochemicals from Big Chemical, and traded on global commodity markets as if they were just another financial instruments – alongside stocks and bonds – rather than something to be grateful for its role in nourishing and sustaining our lives.

The only ones truly benefiting from this system are the corporations behind it (and their actors of course): Big Ag, Big Chemical, Big Foods, and Big Pharma.

What frustrates me most is that these food companies present themselves as benevolent, claiming to care about public well-being by offering “affordable food.” Dare I say it – the food they produce lacks real flavour – lacks nutritional value – and damages our health. What we are actually tasting are artificial additives, along with excessive salt, sugar and oil - used in abundance to compensate for the loss of real flavour.

It brings me real joy to have created something that others genuinely enjoy. I married into a family of incredible cooks – from my mother-in-law all the way to my nephew – and as a lifelong expert eater, I know how incredibly lucky I am. But I also wanted to contribute more than just washing up after family dinners.

After a recent, slightly heated discussion with Adam about how much time I spend baking, I started reflecting more deeply on why I’m so obsessed with sourdough – beyond the obvious joy of sharing it and its therapeutic quality I experienced. That’s when I came across the work of complexity scientist Stuart Kauffman, and it all clicked: I am drawn to the process of facilitating emergence.

Emergence refers to the complex, often unpredictable patterns and behaviours that arise from seemingly simple systems – the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Nature's modus operandi. Take sugar, for example: it’s made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, none of which are sweet on their own. But together, in a certain structure, they create sweetness – an emergent property.

Kauffman explains that when working with complex systems, we can’t control or predict the exact outcomes – but we can facilitate the conditions to allow desired outcomes to emerge.

That’s exactly what I do with sourdough.

My desired outcome is a moist, airy crumb, a crisp crust, and of course, delicious flavour. I facilitate that by bringing together, in a certain way, a flour combination of the day, water, starter, salt and sometimes inclusions like potato or oats. The rest is literally up to the wild yeasts, and the flour already created by the invisible and visible collaboration between soil, rain, sun, farmers and millers.

This sourdough's emergence somehow seems to parallel with documentary filmmaking. The aims of a documentary film is narrative change by appealing to the emotions. But we do not know if this narrative change will happen and if it does happen we don’t know how it is going to express itself in different people in their lives when we carry different experiences.

My own documentary, nearly six years in the making, began with a vision: to inspire people to see themselves as part of nature – not above it, not separate from it. I imagined that this connection could emerge in many different ways: reducing food waste, advocating for better policies, cooking from scratch, growing our own food, protecting insects, leaving water out for birds, eating seasonally or cleaning rubbish from our waterways - any actions that resonates deeply within us to reaffirm our relationship with nature. But that emergence still feels far away. My old friends, "you-are-not-good-enough" and "who-do-you-think-you-are" kept extending their stays and I have been struggling.

And then I pull a sourdough loaf from the oven in under 24 hours of my involvement – and it reminds me that facilitating emergence is possible. It gives me something tangible, nourishing and visceral that I – and others can experience right now.

With Kevin and Natalie from Storyboard Studios, and Maria from Emjay Productions at Kunsthalle Charlottenborg during Copenhagen Doc Festival 2025

Despite difficulties of raising funds resulting from the current economic climate and ongoing cuts to public funding, we’re still moving forward with the film. In fact, I am very grateful that our team has expanded since our last update – we’ve welcomed our co-producer Maria Robstad from Emjay Productions in Denmark.

A few friends have suggested I open a bakery, but I probably won’t. I’m not exactly fast at baking or consistent for that matter and making just three focaccias for the Hackney School of Food’ new building launch party nearly wiped me out (though they were very well received!). It was wonderful to be welcomed back to the location of our first shoot, to mingle with my friends from Chefs in Schools and to see the enthusiasm of the young school children discovering the connection between nature and delicious food for themselves.

Thank you so much for your ongoing encouragement! Here’s to the next phase of My Delicious Revolution – and many more loaves to come!

With love,

Bumjoo

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