This content was originally published on 2 March 2026 on The Regional Grain Network Newsletter Substack. Subscribe to get full access to the newsletter and publication archives.
This newsletter exists to share tales, insights and news from the UK’s emergent movement towards an agroecological grain system. Our news is as rich as what you share, so please do use this space to broadcast the seeds you want other Regional Grain Networks in the UK to sow!
With Real Bread week 2026 freshly behind us, we would like to share some delicious highlights….
The Common Grains network have been busy! Saturday the 28th of February saw the 10th annual Scottish Festival of Real Bread at the Bowhouse in Fife, hosted by Scotland the Bread. There were a record number of entries to the baking competition (over 260!) featuring the best of innovative bakers around the country, highlighting work with Scottish wheat, rye, barley and oats. There was a great buzz about the festival and it was great to catch up with members of Common Grains including Lisa of Lauriston Farm, Lyndsay Cochrane from Granton Community Bakery and Coralie Henke who was selling her flour from Lapwings Community Mill. As always with these precious opportunities to meet in person, there were plenty of great conversations and plans hatched over great food.
Lisa Houston of Common Grains says “Our areas of work include mapping what grain-related machinery equipment is being used and might be available to borrow. Some of us are looking into how possible a mobile machinery ring might be for small to medium scale growing. We are also talking about how to bulk up heritage varieties, and how to share these more widely. Last year’s get together developed some energy around skills sharing between bakers, as well as pondering the possibility of developing a Scottish Loaf brand”. They are planning a meet up in July this year – watch their Insta for details.
West Midlands Grain Network members have been doing test bakes with Cornovi population wheat, Mariagertoba, April Bearded and Rye. Sarah Corbridge says “Several of our bakers have been testing various types of grain from growers in the network and sharing the results via pictures and stories of how they’re relaying this to their customers. It really has been great to see the passion and love for these local grains taking off and being shared with pockets of communities in the region”.
Members of EAGA met in Suffolk on the 21st January to meet old friends and new, and to discuss how the group might like to move forward. The sessions included a tour of Hodmedod’s warehouse, mill and bakery, and some blind tasting of Henrietta’s savoury biscuits which had some interesting results, including the popularity of rye and buckwheat! We also had some special guests – Robyn Minogue and Fred Price from SWGN – who kindly shared their experiences and learning of developing a local grain economy in the South West.
EAGA’s next step is to plan four meet-ups a year, each with specific themes or intended outcomes. The first of these will be at Shimpling Park Farm on Tuesday 7th April where we will have the opportunity to see diverse grains growing in the fields, as well as being milled, baked (and hopefully eaten!) at Biddles Bakery, which is a new addition to the beautiful organic farm. During the day, we will work on developing our ideas on ‘What do we want our values/aims/membership to be/look like?’ and ‘What do we want to grow/mill/bake/eat?’. EAGA welcomes new members, please get in touch via grains@eaga.co.uk or join the Whatsapp group East Anglian Grain Alliance
Regional Grain Networks (RGNs) are grassroots groups of people working in networks to organise themselves to share knowledge, connect and put practical steps in place to rebuild local grain economies. RGNs tend to include a mix of farmers, millers, bakers, researchers and eaters. They can be vibrant communities of people working together to diversify the fields around them and revive regional foods and artisanship.
Currently working together within the RISE Community of Practice;
A booming community of grain changers who are taking active steps into an alternative grain economy, one that is human scale, non-commodity and grounded in friendship and collaboration. Substack: https://substack.com/@southwestgrainnetwork Insta: @southwestgrainnetwork Website: https://www.southwestgrainnetwork.co.uk/
Committed to transforming the food system through a fundamentally different approach to grain production and consumption. Insta:@yorkshiregrainalliance Website: https://fixourfood.org/yorkshire-grain-alliance/
A Scottish grain revolution! Insta: @commongrains
Reviving rare Welsh oats and slowly building an oat processing hub together. Hosted by the Gaia Foundation’s Seed Sovereignty Programme: https://www.seedsovereignty.info/regional-networks/wales/ Email: katie@gaianet.org
Working together, using locally grown alternative grains to modern commodity wheat varieties. Insta: @southeastgrainalliance Website: https://www.segrain.org.uk/
Working to create resilient and localised food systems. Insta: @eagalliance Email: grains@eaga.co.uk
A west midland community interested in a local heritage grain economy. Insta: @westmidlandsgrainnetwork Email: mimosa05@gmail.com
A co-operative flour mill & kitchen localising grain & putting food systems in the hands of citizens, not corporations. Insta: @nottinghammillcoop Website: https://nottinghammillcoop.co.uk/ Email : nottinghamillcoop@gmail.com
Run by the food and farming charity Sustain, the Real Bread Campaign invites Real Bread bakers, small scale millers and others behind the rise of additive-free bread to add their details to the free Real Bread Map. You are also welcome to post details of Real Bread making workshops, grainy gatherings, mill tours open / days and any other related public-facing activity to the latest events calendar on the Campaign’s website.
