The psychologist from Arequipa Martin Silva may not know it, but the act of accompanying is a constant in his life. In his work as a therapist at a school in California, he accompanied the processes of Central American migrant children and adolescents to the United States to help them assimilate the consequences of traumatic migration. Now, as a bread baker, he also accompanies. In Latin, being a companion or to accompany, means “the one who eats bread with you.” And Martin, in his mission to improve and give value to Peruvian wheat, accompanies those involved in this human chain that begins in the field and ends at the table.
His path to bread making was fortuitous. Or perhaps not so much. He had only been learning to produce bread empirically for a couple of months when his grandfather passed away. Despite the close relationship they had, Martin never knew that his grandfather dreamed of being a baker. His mother tells him, and the pieces begin to fit together. There was an ancestral matter in his recent obsession with this sourdough food. His library was filling with books on baking techniques, and on weekends, the smell of bread took up every space in the house. What began as a search for a solution to the health problems caused by industrial bread quickly turned into a kind of therapy for the psychologist. The long hours of the bread-making process required him to be connected to the dough, to get out of his head and live in the present. Grateful for this lesson and motivated by a dream that he now knew was also his grandfather’s, Martin left his job at the school to be part of a community of wild yeast and lactic bacteria.
Within this community, bacteria and yeast ferment the dough made only of flour and water. The hours it is allowed to rest are used by these organisms to break down the starches and proteins of the wheat. A highly nutritious food but difficult for humans to digest becomes much more assimilable through this process. Ten thousand years ago, when the first breads were made, the method was the same, and Martin understood that this ancestral knowledge should not be lost in the process of industrialization.
Back in Arequipa, with a mud oven, a baking technique consolidated by internships in San Francisco bakeries and a baby on the way, Martin knew that everything was falling into place. Thus, little by little, Masamama was born. A very small space at home served as a workshop for production and Arequipa’s markets as wheat suppliers. In California, Martin had learned that bakers used local wheat, established partnerships with farmers, grounded the grain in stone mills, and fermented the dough for many hours. The result of this convergence of factors was a sourdough bread with a thick crust and a slightly acidic flavor.
Continuing on the same path was not easy. In the markets, Martin faced Peruvian biodiversity, translated into multiple varieties of wheat and vendors with small quantities that may or may not be repeated in different weeks and whose origins were often a mystery. The consistency, then, of Masamama’s recipes was not assured. From this difficulty, Martin gained a new understanding. Peru had not given importance to the cultivation of this cereal introduced by the Spaniards during the conquest. The seeds adapted to our soils, but the farmers did not adapt to them as much, letting them grow semi-wildly. There was no development for seed management in the field to create, through natural crosses, wheat with specific characteristics. Despite being a very used ingredient in a variety of products, domestic consumption of Peruvian wheat only reaches 9%, and the percentage destined for bakeries is 1%. The lack of impulse in the development of the cereal resulted in a wheat that is not the best for making bread due to the lack of strength and elasticity of the gluten.
Wheat varieties from Colca, Majes, Siguas, Huancayo, Cajamarca, Martin tried them all in his search to find one that would serve him for bread making and a supplier that would ensure consistency and congruency. For years, he conducted organic agriculture tests with wheat from the Colca Valley, 3 hours from Arequipa and at an altitude of 3200 meters above sea level. One was spoiled by frost, another was lost when an entire hillside where the planting was fell into the river due to an earthquake. From others, they learned mainly from mistakes.
One fine day, at an organic fair, he found what he needed. The Alatrista family, a Peruvian-German couple of farmers, grew in the Camaná-Majes valley a variety of wheat called centennial. Developed between 2002 and 2004 at La Molina Agrarian University, this wheat was a response to the problem of not having high-performance bread wheat varieties and that did not provide economic security for farmers. Through the separation of seeds and crosses in the field, this improved variety was achieved and the Alatrista cultivate it organically. With the implication that introducing a new type of wheat into their recipes entails, because everything changes, Central and Kjolle already use it in their bakery and pastry. The link between both kitchens and Masamama materialized through Melissa Loayza, a cook and also part of the interdisciplinary team at Mater. Through this bridge established by Melissa, Martin and his business partner Joaquín arrived in Lima to train the respective teams and together create a user manual for this flour, which has its own characteristics and yields different results than those they were familiar with.
In Pitay, a town in the Siguas valley, Christian Vera’s biodynamic lands had wheat growing for 4 centuries. Dedicated to the ancestral fig trees that also grow in his fields, Christian had let the wheat do its thing, and when he sent Martin a 50kg sample, without knowing it, he had mixed 4 varieties in one sack. The semi-wild sowing pattern was repeated. As a result of the symbiotic relationship that usually arises between two people passionate about what they do, Martin and Christian decided to separate the seeds and cultivate them in different fields. Genetic tests made on three seeds also determined the Spanish and Italian origins of the wheats and which are their varieties.
The value of having this information was immense and allowed Masamama to take one step further. Recently, and after extensive tests with wheat from the area, they have been working hand in hand with farmers in the town of Ichupampa in the Colca Canyon, leaving behind the free growth. The intention is to train farmers in the most appropriate practices for the best development and growth of the cereal according to their varieties, types of climate, and ecosystem. Thus, a reciprocal relationship has already been established with farmers, revaluing their ancestral traditions, ensuring the purchase of their crops, and finally consolidating a consistent supply.
As an initiative of cooperation to move together towards better and greater development of Peruvian wheat that positively impacts people’s health and improves the lives of farmers, Masamama and Mater plan to study the genetics of different wheat varieties to reach their origins. Knowing it marks a before and after in the management given to it in the fields and in the kitchens. This rich path they want to travel is also multidisciplinary. Ecologists, farmers, geneticists, cooks, thesis students, and cultural managers converge to address this project sustained over time. As a research center, Mater wants to accompany in this process of developing better seeds, where differences mean different qualities and that are more evident in other ingredients such as cocoa and coffee. Different aromas and textures that give more valuable final results and put the value of Peruvian wheat that should always have been for the quality that still maintains from its intercontinental journey hundreds of years ago.
Martin wants everyone to eat bread. A Peruvian wheat bread of good quality, more nutritious, and accessible. In his dream, farmers, the environment, millers, transporters, plants, and animals are also included. That community that manifests itself with the bubbling of sourdough is incorporating along the way different actors who adapt to the collectivity that is making bread. Planting more and more wheat and giving value to this cereal that is not native to Peru but is already autochthonous is Masamama’s mission and one that Mater accompanies. The first steps have already been taken to achieve that virtuous circle where the positive impact reaches everyone. Like sourdough bread, it is rising and expanding little by little.
