Possibly the world’s coolest bakers (including one trained by us)!
The South Georgia Islands lie just off Antarctica, and are home to a British Antarctic Survey base doing research on climate change. Last year, Dr. Katharine Ganly from Derriford Hospital arrived at The Artisan Bakery School having just read the fine print in her new employment contract which stipulated that all BAS team members must take turns baking bread for the base. “I had never baked bread before, and I had already accepted the job,” she joked, “so I thought I had better come and learn!”
“Marcel is a true sub-Antarctic starter made here on South Georgia,” writes Katharine. “There is myself and another sourdough baker, the rest of the time it is usually bread made with packet yeast which is a bit quicker to make but also good. We eat a LOT of bread here- every day at 10:30 we have a break (called « Smoko » historically) where we manage to get through loaves of toast slices with jams and butter. I’m still here and will be here likely until December or January next year. We still have quite a full complement (27 on base at the moment) but will drop down to 10 next month. I’ll be doing more baking over the austral winter as my « turn » will come around more often. I am looking forward to it.
From over here life in the « real world » looks very strange. We have managed to remain the only continent free from coronavirus, but only by limiting polar operations. We are quite lucky in a way to be as geographically protected as we are, but we still get all the news and I think it makes people feel anxious here, worrying about others at home.”
“On a more positive note we have a King Penguin chick right outside my surgery here that was hatched only a few days ago. Quite a rare thing as usually they hatch in their colonies at locations remote to where we are- for some reason this pair have decided we are a good spot to raise a chick. I hope they are right and he gets fattened up before winter properly hits us here.”
“It is strange to think that 8000 miles away we are probably more ‘social’ in our small community than everyone back home is able to be at the moment. I am baking two more loaves today/tomorrow but it is a rather ‘busy’ weekend for here with some boating to pick up colleagues who have been on a field trip to a different peninsula- this involves ‘all hands on deck’ so I prefer to reply now lest I forget to later. The picture (above) shows some bread I made yesterday ( excuse the scalpel in the photo- I use it to slash the dough before putting it in the oven!). “
Please do feel free to use any photos on your blog/website for some positivity! I had wanted to take a picture of our penguin chick, but he is too shy at the moment and I don’t want to scare him off, so I have attached some others. I hope they all come through- our internet here is very limited at best.
With good wishes from South Georgia,
Katharine.”
Our thanks to Dr.Katharine Ganly and colleagues for the story, the lovely pictures and permission to share them with you.