The Flour That Saved Us
or, pivoting til we are dizzy is one way to survive, but not always the best way.
Recently, I stumbled across the vlogs we made at the start of lockdown and I was taken back to that strange feeling we had in those early days of 2020. We’d spent the previous few years building an agrotourism business around the work of our croft. We hosted thousands of visitors via AirBnB experiences, workshops and events. And then we didn’t.
The uncertainty and worry and adrenaline of both losing a part of our business and watching the world change consumed us. The saving grace was a small part of our business that centred around sourdough bread. We had an online class and had been selling kits to go with it. When we couldn’t get flour for the kits, we managed to source whole sale 16kg bags by the pallet load.
And so, every week throughout April, May and June of 2020 an articulated lorry's worth of flour would be delivered to the courtyard. With no forklift or loading bay, each 16kg bag had to be loaded in and out of our studio individually, even quicker in the rain. We supplied flour all over the UK and sold 2 years’ worth of sourdough kits. Looking back, those months were a cloudy blur of sourdough kits, flour and back breaking work...but also connection, stories of people getting flour when they couldn't get out and baking bread for friends and neighbours.
Those orders saved our business. As we issued thousands of pounds of refunds for events and retreats, we knew we could still pay the rent and bills and feed the animals. But more than that, it felt good to do SOMETHING, you know? Something that meant we could help in a small way.
We became a "proper" e-commerce store - shipping hundreds of parcels a week. Kits, meat, soap, but mostly flour, flying out all over the country. Part of me loved this - its exciting to have orders going out and to pack pretty things, but the other part of me has at times struggled with mistakes in orders, shipping problems and negative reviews. I am not made of tough stuff and that is ok.
Then flour returned to the shops and as quickly as we mobilised, we decommissioned that side of the farm's business. I am really proud that we met this need in our local and larger community when it was most required. And I know that we can do it again if we need to, but mostly my back is really glad that it will not have to unload another tonne of flour from the courtyard!