SILAS FONG

Bread Whispers: A Study of Wheat

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Bread Whispers · Sabujak Residency, Yangpyeong · 2026

What can learning to make bread teach me about a place? In Yangpyeong, experiments with Korean-grown wheat became a way to meet farmers, cooks and neighbours. The work follows the connections between growing, making and sharing food, and the ordinary meals through which those encounters continue.

Sharing bread around a table with the elders of Obin-ri — Sharing bread with the elders of Obin-ri, 30 July 2026. My son joined the gathering.

Learning through encounters

After first receiving a sourdough starter in Gwangju in 2023, feeding it became part of feeding my family. In Yangpyeong I wanted to understand more about the flour itself. An enquiry to a local mill did not lead to a meeting; other introductions opened a different route through the area.

Chef Hannah Uhm introduced me to Team Farm Tuesday. On 28 July, I joined the group in harvesting, sorting and packing vegetables, and sharing food. A visit to the Museum of Silhak on the same day became another occasion to listen and learn.

Team Farm Tuesday gathered beside fields and greenhouses — With Team Farm Tuesday, Yangpyeong, 28 July 2026.

A conversation at the Museum of Silhak — Listening at the Museum of Silhak, 28 July 2026.

Trials in dough and jam

I repeatedly tested a soft sourdough pain de mie using Korean-grown wheat, rye and whole-wheat flour. Thinking about the elders who would eat it shaped decisions about texture, thin slices and the jam served alongside it. Blueberry jam was chosen after further trials.

A trial loaf overflowing its baking tin — A baking trial: the loaf grew beyond its tin.

Hands stretch dough into a thin translucent membrane — The windowpane test: stretching the dough to examine its structure.

Purple traces of blueberry jam left in the pot — Making jam left marks of stirring and scraping inside the pot.

What carries on

Near the end of the residency, a visit to Oihari through a friend of my wife brought my son into a cucumber greenhouse and onto a tractor. Back at home, the bread returned to the daily table. The photographs follow these small continuations rather than treating the residency as a finished result.