Turning Grains into Bread with Third Graders

by Farmer Kristin McGee, published in the Fall 2024 issue of School Renewal

The journey of the loaf of bread is a curriculum cornerstone for the third graders at the Emerson Waldorf School. This journey starts in the autumn of second grade when students begin tilling the garden beds. The students love using the two-handled broadfork that lifts and aerates the soil, making light and fluffy conditions for the seeds. They pull back strongly on the handles and ride the tool all the way to the ground with wide grins. Compost is turned in the garden beds to ensure the grains have enough nutrition for their long-growing cycle. The wheat and the rye are sown as the weather turns chilly.

There is seemingly little action but slowly the seeds start to sprout. At first, the growth is hardly noticeable and then the garden turns a shade of light yellow-green. Throughout the winter, it sits this way, just sprouted, and is mistaken for the grassy pathway.

In the spring, when the students are growing visibly taller and more capable themselves, we see a leap in the grain beds. Each week, the grasses grow taller and taller. They take turns guessing how high they think they’re going to be, and very few imagine that the grasses will soon grow taller than they are. Once they grow to their full height the seed heads emerge with their beautiful braiding of kernels. The students love to pick a stem and act like a real farmer, with it dangling between their teeth! With enough dry weather and sunshine, the grains are the last crop to harvest before we head off on summer vacation, having taken most of the year to tend.

When the students, now third graders, return in the fall, threshing begins. Threshing involves separating the edible seed of the wheat or rye from the plant. We find small sticks to act as flails. We tuck the grain heads into small pillowcases and gently thump them. The students love to see the seeds accumulate and are amazed at how a large pile of stalks turns into a small pile of usable kernels. Then we winnow, which separates the edible grain from the outer chaff. Working as a team, one person pours the grain from container to container while another gently fans a breeze of air. The light chaff blows away while the grain falls into the container. Be careful not to fan too hard or you might just blow your wheat and rye onto the ground! The third step to turning our grains into flour is grinding. We use a small tabletop grain mill and take turns rotating the handle, watching the flour emerge from the chute. Students marvel at how our ancestors grew their sustenance from gains of all varieties and how much needed to be grown to feed their communities.

When bread-making day arrives at last, I love to use a no-knead bread recipe to bake up a crusty loaf. It uses four simple ingredients — bread flour, instant yeast, salt, and water. Its long, overnight rise makes it easy to incorporate into the school day schedule, since the dough can be made by students and then brought back the next day for its final rise and baked in a Dutch oven. We also typically mix up a batch of cornbread for students who are gluten-free. Whenever we make bread, we shake up a few mason jars of butter, add heavy cream and salt into a mason jar and pass it around. The students shake it past the state of whipped cream until the butterfat separates from the buttermilk. There are always oohs and aahs when they open the jar and see butter — like magic!

When students look back on the journey of making a loaf of bread, they recall the feeling of the soil in the autumn, the taste of the seeds that were being planted and the cool breeze on their skin. They look back on the hot sun of harvest day as they walk between the towering rows of rye, cutting the stalks and stacking them in the wheelbarrow, giddy that summer is fast approaching. They recollect the laughter and community that accompanied threshing, winnowing, grinding, baking, and breaking bread together. In each of these moments, they connect with one another and the ancestors that have come before them.

Gluten-Free Cornbread

(recipe attributed to glutenfreebaking.com, gluten-free-cornbread)

Mix all ingredients in one bowl and bake until brown.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Yield: 6 servings

1 1/2 cups coarse/ medium ground gluten-free cornmeal (see note) (8 ounces; 226 grams)

1/2 cup gluten-free flour, see note (2.5 ounces; 70 grams)

2 tbsp granulated sugar, see note (1 ounce; 28 grams)

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup milk, see note for dairy-free option (6 ounces; 170 grams)

2 large eggs (about 4 ounces out of the shell; 114 grams)

1/3 cup vegetable oil (2 1/3 ounces; 66 grams)

Preheat the oven to 425*F. If using an 8-inch cast iron skillet, place into the oven before preheating.

Farmer Kristin started her journey in sustainable agriculture at Perry-Winkle Farm in Chatham County, North Carolina. She took that knowledge with her to the Peace Corps, where she served in Kenya as an agriculture volunteer, serving women’s groups and families impacted by HIV/AIDS. Kristin has her Master’s in Social Work from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She has led the farming efforts at Emerson Waldorf School since 2016, where she manages the farm and teaches farming and gardening classes to Grades 1-8.