The Sourdough School: Diversity Flours & more

Award-winning author, inspirational teacher and writer, Vanessa Kimbell of The Sourdough School champions fresh flour, wild yeast and diversity in baking. We're delighted to share some of her work including our collaborative Diversity Flours milled from a blend grains, pulses, seeds & botanicals.

Diversity Flour: restoring diversity from soil to gut

Diversity Flour was created and developed by Dr Vanessa Kimbell at The Sourdough School, drawing on more than two decades of teaching and research into sourdough fermentation, nutrition and the gut microbiome. Each blend brings together a carefully considered diversity of grains, pulses, seeds and botanicals, reflecting the diversity we need in our soils, across our farms and within our diets.

Diversity Flour forms the foundation of Diversity Bread®, the bread taught by Dr Kimbell at The Sourdough School. Diversity Bread® is also baked commercially by licensed bakers working to the Diversity Bread Standard. Every bakery creates its own distinctive bread while following shared principles for ingredients, flour, fermentation, provenance and production. This means that every Diversity Bread® is different, while the integrity behind the name remains protected.

The collaboration between The Sourdough School and Hodmedod began many years ago. Today, Hodmedod holds the licence to mill Diversity Flour, producing these blends at the Bean Store from carefully sourced ingredients, including grains, seeds and pulses grown by British farmers.

The flour and bread is part of a circular system-change model. Income generated through the Diversity Flour milling licence is reinvested in the Educational Awards run by The Sourdough School, helping more people learn to bake Diversity Bread® and take this knowledge back into their own homes, bakeries, practices and communities.

Every bag therefore carries a connection: from soil and seed to farmer, miller, baker and the people who eat the bread. Diversity counts at every stage.