by Lisa Finnimore
Libby Moon is an experienced sourdough baker and teacher from New Zealand, living in the beautiful Waikato countryside of the North Island. A baker for her whole life, Libby found The Sourdough School in 2021 and graduated with a Certificate of Baking as Lifestyle Medicine in 2022.
Libby has been teaching workshops on sourdough since 2016, and she is at her happiest when she is collaborating with other local food artisans in this work. Her business, This Table, has taken her all around New Zealand, curating events with like-minded food experts and enthusiasts, baking her beautiful breads in 45 different ovens and teaching bread baking workshops to hundreds of people.
When did you become interested in food? What are your early memories of baking?
As a girl I was fascinated by my mother’s English cookbooks [Libby’s parents were English], and I was particularly captivated by the idea of English people having High Tea. There were only three of us at home then, but I would spend all day baking; sponge cakes, scones, little tarts, far too much for us to eat but I wanted to make and eat all of the things I saw in that cookbook. It was there that I found my first bread recipe. It was a simple dough, made with commercial yeast, and we thought it tasted amazing – like all first home-made loaves, just delicious! That’s the origin story of This Table, the beginning.
I continued baking and setting up our kitchen table in my own style throughout my teenage years. We lived in a fairly small house then and we ate around a small square Formica table. However, through all these years of setting my table I started to develop my own style, and that no longer included the Formica table of my childhood. I wanted a wooden table. At 17 I biked to an auction room across town and bid on an oval oak table. I didn’t really know what I was doing but I won it. My family didn’t have a car but I was so determined to have this table and thankfully some neighbours helped transport it to the house. I also bought some heavy wooden chairs, and I had to carry those home myself, having to stop often to rest, but I was so determined. It was from this table that I had worked so hard to get that I really started to develop my love of cooking, hosting my friends, creating an atmosphere conducive to good things. My friends still talk about that year, of the times we spent in my kitchen, the happy times starting out.
Can you tell me about the concept of This Table?
I have for as long as I can remember seen the table as a very special thing. The ritual involved in gathering around the table with others was always significant to me, not only as a place to find nourishment through eating but as an object with its own story. I see the table as a profound place. It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, you could be around a grandly dressed dining table, a simple family kitchen table or a ramshackle table set up in the midst of chaos, the table takes a central part in our lives. The table is a place to share the pleasures of food, to be nourished and meet with others, to laugh, to grow up around, a place of celebration and commiseration – a place to experience connection, a place full of feeling. The table was central in my home with my husband. It was where we would commune at the end of the day and enjoy lovely food and wine by candlelight. The table is a place to make memories.
This Table grew out of the aftermath of the end of that marriage in 2014. I had been betrayed, I was broken, my husband had taken away our metaphorical table and smashed it. I searched for something like a meditation, and I was drawn back to food, my happy space, and ultimately to begin my sourdough journey. I decided to teach myself to bake exceptional sourdough, practising all the time, reading widely and continually baking, believing that having something special to teach would bring people to my table whilst also giving me healing from the devastation I was experiencing.
My vision for This Table was to bring people to me to have an experience they wouldn’t have in a restaurant or cafe. They would step into a curated space – my dream old cottage, a room painted in white with an old table and chairs, rustic, stripped back but with candles and dried flowers – and the table would have artisan products from the region and lots of different breads that I would bake. People could come and have a workshop and stay all day and eat, or just come for lunch to have the bread and other food that I matched with it, or even have a one-to-one teaching session. There was a small problem though. I had no cottage. In fact at that time I didn’t have a permanent home. So in 2018, I decided I would have to travel the country with my vision, and I made connections with other foodies – wine makers, beer brewers, cheese makers – and we put on huge events. I baked hundreds of loaves: a different bread to match every topping, which was matched to every beer. It was a huge undertaking, and ultimately I couldn’t keep going on that scale. I am still leading bespoke workshops, creating This Table, still teaching bread making, but I want to do this with another focus now, which is to promote New Zealand grain in my baking. I am currently teaching Vanessa Kimbell’s 10 Minute Porridge Loaf to beginners in small communities. It’s delicious and doable, everyone loves it as they can learn to bake something nutritious and simple for family and friends. It is a recipe they too can teach afterwards, it really is that simple, and a great way to connect to more wholesome ingredients.
You have mentioned your joy at working with other food artisans for your workshops. What have these people brought to your own development of your craft?
I’m part of a group called The Soil Sisters. We’re a group of women of the land. There are flower growers, organic gardeners, a dairy farmer, beef farmers, cheese makers, a honey producer, and I bake and head up the grain side of things. We’re all from the same area and we meet every two months, getting together to bring our food and stories, having amazing feasts from the beautiful produce we grow and craft. One day we might go to someone’s house and help plant out seedlings, another time we might go to make some cheese or to learn about composting. We all support each other. Fran, who started the group two years ago, is heavily involved in the regenerative farming movement and is petitioning the government as we speak about soil health. I love my Soil Sisters, they are just the coolest women.
Do you remember the first book you bought that was specifically for bread baking?
I bought the Tassajara Book on Bread around this time, a book written by a Zen priest, and I baked nearly every recipe out of the book. Interestingly, I didn’t bake any of the sourdough recipes in the book: I was intimidated by making the starter I think. After my marriage broke down, I returned to that book and made the sourdough recipes that I didn’t do when I was young. They worked, and I was captive to sourdough.
Did you encounter any hurdles in your sourdough baking journey?
Understanding the starter properly was the most important hurdle I had to overcome. I think it is probably a common hurdle. Vanessa’s workshops were absolutely crucial to my understanding the starter and the fermentation of the flour, so that I could finally work with the microbes. Through Vanessa’s teaching, the lights went on about how the starter works, and I started to learn the layers, how to rearrange the elements and combinations of flours. I needed to understand the starter in full to be able to move to the next level in my baking. My hurdles now are the ones I put in the way of myself, by changing and developing recipes all the time. I like to push my boundaries. I feel as if I am only just starting after seven years. In fact, think I might need to add even more hurdles! I believe it’s the way to become excellent.
What are your favourite bakes?
My graduation loaf for the Baking as Lifestyle Medicine Certificate is a dark chocolate roasted hazelnut sourdough boule, which I love to make and to eat, and I never stop developing it, simplifying the steps and adding in new ones. I serve it with a honey, vanilla and orange zest labneh, or I make a cultured chocolate coffee butter for it. My other favourite signature bake is a roasted walnut and figs soaked in red wine (or cherry juice for the non-drinkers) boule. I love to serve that with a maple syrup, honey and cardamom butter.
Which bakers have inspired you along the way?
I must first mention Vanessa Kimbell. Attending her sourdough course online was a truly life changing experience that propelled my bread making to the next level. Vanessa has been so kind as to share her teaching resources with me and to give me the go-ahead to teach her 10 Minute Porridge Loaf at my beginners workshops. There is a baker called Nataša Djuric who I have followed for baking inspiration over the years, and she bakes fabulous sourdough breads in all styles. Natasha is very generous with recipe ideas on her website. Lastly, I want to mention New Zealand baker Rhys Harvey who is head baker at Daily Bread Auckland, for his awesome bakes and general sourdough mastery.
What is your favourite flour to bake with, and is there a local producer you want to give a shout-out to?
My favourite flours come from two small millers here in New Zealand, Minchins Milliing and Milmoredowns. I also want to give a shout out to Hunt and Gather Honey and Raglan Chocolate , both amazing small producers here in New Zealand.
Libby has recently moved into a new home, and she has her own table again for the first time in ten years. She found it on the roadside. Libby describes it as small, square and a perfect fit for her compact modern apartment. She is sitting at it as we talk, on a lovely white leather chair, the only seat at her table for the moment.
“The table is small but the heart is big”, she says.
Libby’s heart is the powerhouse of This Table, and exactly why she has been able to make the nomadic life of so many different tables work this past decade.
“The starter has to be strong too!”, she adds wisely.
Never has a truer word been uttered about sourdough baking.
If you are interested in following Libby’s work or want to connect with her, you can find her on instagram. If you would like to bake her delectable graduation loaf please do follow here for the recipe. We would love to see any photos of this bake tagged to @thesourdoughclub instagram account
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