A grain gathering

The West Midlands Grain Network met for the first time this month. Farmers, millers and bakers with an interest in rethinking how grain is grown, processed and consumed in the region attended. Three of the Loaf team went along to be part of the discussion, and to see how we can help make a fairer and better system for everyone, at every stage of the process.

Similar networks have been emerging around the country in recent years – see the Britain & Ireland Community Grains Association Grain Map – but until now the West Midlands had no dedicated network of its own.

Mill Farm near Worcester, which we visited back in September 2021, hosted the event. It was great to catch up with Jonathan and Emma again, as well as a few other familiar faces from events such as UK Grain Lab and Matthews Cotswold Flour’s Soil, Stone and Sourdough.

It’s really encouraging to meet other bakers working in this area, to see how they’re working with locally grown and milled flour, and also to find people coming up against the same obstacles we are. Challenges such as how we transport, store and process the grains while still keeping our products accessible and affordable, for example.

Working with local and heritage grains is something Loaf wants to do more of. It helps us reduce the food miles of our products, supports local farmers, millers and the local grain economy, improves the traceability of our ingredients, and enables us to build direct connections between our bread and the land the grain was grown on.

Using a more diverse range of heritage grains and wheats, alongside farming methods that rely less on chemical inputs, is also of great benefit to the environment – and our diets.

All this comes at a cost, however. Current systems favour mass marketing of flour for lower costs, greater consistency of product and ready availability. As a relatively small bakery in a Birmingham suburb, we’re heavily reliant on some of these things. But, hopefully, working with the WM Grain Network will help us see a way forward that’s better for people at every stage of the process, from farmer to consumer.

Big thanks to Heloise, Emma and Savannah for organising the meeting, and to Jonathan for hosting. This was a great first step towards making good things happen, and we’re looking forward to the next time we can all get together.

Photo by Heloise Trott

Our interest in how and where our grain is farmed informs the whole of Loaf’s business, but surfaces particularly in our Heritage Grains and Wholegrain Baking classes. And when you’re in the bakery, look out for any specials marked “Heritage”.

Return of the handmade pasta

One of our first-ever evening classes involved making fresh pasta, and then eating the results. Phil took over running it from Tom but when Phil left us in 2021 we were a little too preoccupied with pandemic recovery to do a proper handover. So when the cookery school returned after lockdown we prioritised the classes we knew we could run, but it was always our intention to bring handmade fresh pasta back.

Martha ladling a large clump of pasta over a pot in the Loaf cookery school.

The main driver has been Martha and Molly’s continued interest in Italian food. Molly has stayed in touch with ex-Loafer Valentina — who you’ll remember brought the authenticity to our Ragu Time pop-up in 2021 — and has visited her in Italy where much food was made and consumed. Suffice to say, it was not if but when this course would return.

Val was back in Birmingham over our winter break and the three of them, plus fellow Loafer Sarah, took over the cookery school to try out some recipes and ponder how best to teach them.

To begin with, Val taught her grandma’s way to make tortellini, filled with spinach and ricotta.

Some freshly made tortellini shells on a wooden kitchen surface, waiting to be cooked.

Val’s partner Tommaso lent his carbonara recipe made with guanciale from a recent meat curing class at Loaf.

Finally, there was puttanesca, a spicy tomato sauce with anchovies, capers and olives. This had been taught on our class from the beginning and Molly was keen to bring back her favourite dish. It’s an affordable sauce that goes a long way but still gives a lot of punchy flavours.

For the pasta itself they experimented with different mixes of flours and not just the usual Tipo 00. They were especially keen to work with some of the heritage flours Loaf has been using in the bakery.

Two different blends of pasta drying on a rack. One is made with white flour, the other a wholemeal mix.

Now, we just have to shape this into the perfect evening class, which won’t be hard, and it should be on sale in the next couple of months. If you’d like to be alerted as soon as classes go on sale, fill in this form.

All photos by Molly from the session in January 2023.

Meet Haseen Muthalali, the dosa teacher

Following on from our interview with Loaf founder Tom Baker last week, we thought we’d get a bit more personal with all our cookery school teachers. Next up is Haseen Muthalali of Pop-up Dosa. Haseen has been running Dosa and Thaali classes with us pretty much since we opened on the high street a decade ago, bringing the cuisine of his native state of Kerala in southern India to the tables of Birmingham.

Can you tell us a bit about growing up in Kerala and learning these recipes?

Growing up in Kerala I was always fascinated with food and our various complex cooking methods. As a child, I always liked to hang around the kitchen and was just fascinated to watch the food be prepared. The different smells and fragrances of all the spices and how they fused together always attracted my interest.

Kerala literally means ‘land of coconuts’ and is on the southwestern coastal tip of India. So seafood, coconut, but also all the spices that make our cuisine really unique can be found here. Also, we have Muslim, Hindu and Christian communities each with their own special dishes. It’s such a unique part of the world, and the diversity and availability of spices and ingredients are reflected in the food.

What is Pop-up Dosa? How did that start?

I started Pop-up Dosa in Kings Heath, Birmingham as a supper club about 10 years ago. I made home-style dosa — a thin pancake made of rice and dahl — masala potatoes and chutneys. It’s a classic Kerala dish we eat at almost any time of day. It was a great success and we soon were doing streetfood events and kitchen takeovers at local cafes.

How did you first get involved with Loaf?

Tom Baker came to one of the early supper clubs and we discussed the idea of a class at Loaf. I would not be surprised if I am the only Kerala-born and raised person in the UK to teach Kerala cuisine in a cookery school.

What’s the most rewarding thing for you about teaching?

I love sharing Kerala cuisine with people, both those who have never had it before and those who want to make the foods they ate on a trip there. Also, the food is naturally healthy, with lots of veg and lentils. It gives me extreme satisfaction and joy to see participants enjoying nourishing food with no compromise on taste and authenticity. I make sure participants learn in a very hands-on way, ensuring they remember how to make the recipes at home easily.

Can you tell us a bit more about a particular dish?

I have a hard time choosing just one dish! But I decided to teach how to make Dosa because it’s so popular and well-known. I teach how to make it with the spiced potato and vegetable stuffing (called masala), and also with sambaar, which is a soup-like vegetable curry that you dip the dosa into. Then we make the different chutneys to accompany it.

Dosa classes were selling out and seeing the enthusiasm and interest I decided to add a Thaali course involving multiple Kerala vegetable dishes. And we are soon starting a course making a coconut milk crepe called Appom with Kerala vegetables and seafood. But more about that later!

Thanks Haseen! We run each Kerala cookery class once a month throughout the year. You can book the current dates on our website or sign up to be alerted when new dates are released.

Photos by Jack Spicer Adams

Tom Baker returns to Loaf with Wholegrain Baking

As you may know, Loaf was founded in 2009 in Tom and Jane Baker’s kitchen, just up the road from our current home. A number of our customers (and at least two of our staff) were taught to bake there and the current Loaf teaching method — our pedagogy, if you like — can be traced to those early classes.

So it’s with great pleasure that we can announce Wholegrain Baking with Tom Baker, a new masterclass running approximately three times a year, and starting on Saturday 18th February.

We thought it would be nice to ask Tom what’s brought him back to Stirchley and to say a bit more about what the class will cover, besides making great bread.

What’s brought you back to Loaf?

Teaching was a big part of my role at Loaf, and the cookery school was the first thing I started. I never intended to start a bakery too, that just kind of happened! Anyway, since launching Rye and Roses Bakery, teaching hasn’t been part of my life, and over the last couple of years I have started to miss it.

I really enjoyed coming back to Stirchley for the Loaf 10-years-on-the-high-street anniversary in September. It was a great opportunity to formulate some plans to come back — to get back to teaching, to share some of my experiences of starting a bakery with a strong focus on wholemeal baking, and on a selfish level, to reconnect with my Stirchley family and visit some of the great places that have sprung up since we left.

Can you tell us more about bringing wheat growing back to the Dyfi valley?

Within a few weeks of moving to Machynlleth, we went to a Welsh-language folk gig in a local café (a very typical experience here!), and were introduced to a few other people who had an interest in doing some small-scale grain growing. We formed a loose collective and started a trial quarter-acre patch of wheat on one of the member’s land, doing everything by vintage tractor (ploughing), by horse (harrowing), or by hand (sowing).

Over the first couple of seasons we got a local vintage machinery club involved and invited some local farmers to the ploughing, harvesting, or threshing days. In 2020 one of them was inspired enough to go back to his farm and plough three acres for wheat. Over the last two seasons he’s provided almost all the wholemeal flour we use at Rye and Roses. The collective still runs some experiments at a small scale but wheat for the bakery is grown on two local farms.

Tom teaching one of the first bread classes at Loaf’s cookery school.

Your new class will touch on some of the broader economic and political issues around bread. What are some of these?

Why is local grain often much more expensive than commodity grain? When white flour is produced, what happens to all the discarded other parts of the grain? With white flour being so cheap, who can possibly benefit? What is the impact on the environment of producing cheap commodity grain?

Food politics is something that has always fascinated me and something that we all subconsciously choose to either address or ignore at least three times a day. Bread is symbolic for much of the politics that surrounds food and by taking a closer look at a relatively short supply chain of seed — to farm, to mill, to baker — we can get to the heart of some of the bigger political issues that effect the food industry.

How does this fit into the ‘Tom Baker story’?

Before I started Loaf I was a nutritionist for the NHS, promoting healthy eating and good nutrition throughout Birmingham. Starting Loaf was in many ways a continuation of this mission for me, and this new course is yet another chapter in that story. I’m excited to be coming back to Stirchley a few times a year, and sharing some of my passions and experiences again.

Thanks Tom!

Harvest in Machynlleth.

The 12 Days of Loafmass

The Twelve Days of Christmas (Loaf Edition)
by Dave Martin

On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me
A mince pie to have with my tea

On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Two butter cobs
And a mince pie to have with my tea

On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Three Frangipanes
Two butter cobs
And a mince pie to have with my tea

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Four focaccias
Three Frangipanes
Two butter cobs
And a mince pie to have with my tea

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Five Stirchley Loaves
Four focaccias
Three Frangipanes
Two butter cobs
And a mince pie to have with my tea

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Six Pip’s Hot Sauces
Five Stirchley Loaves
Four focaccias
Three Frangipanes
Two butter cobs
And a mince pie to have with my tea

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Seven chocolate brownies
Six Pip’s Hot Sauces
Five Stirchley Loaves
Four focaccias
Three Frangipanes
Two butter cobs
And a mince pie to have with my tea

On the eighth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Eight pots of curry
Seven chocolate brownies
Six Pip’s Hot Sauces
Five Stirchley Loaves
Four focaccias
Three Frangipanes
Two butter cobs
And a mince pie to have with my tea

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Nine large multigrains
Eight pots of curry
Seven chocolate brownies
Six Pip’s Hot Sauces
Five Stirchley Loaves
Four focaccias
Three Frangipanes
Two butter cobs
And a mince pie to have with my tea

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Ten tins for proving
Nine large multigrains
Eight pots of curry
Seven chocolate brownies
Six Pip’s Hot Sauces
Five Stirchley Loaves
Four focaccias
Three Frangipanes
Two butter cobs
And a mince pie to have with my tea

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Eleven pain aux raisins
Ten tins for proving
Nine large multigrains
Eight pots of curry
Seven chocolate brownies
Six Pip’s Hot Sauces
Five Stirchley Loaves
Four focaccias
Three Frangipanes
Two butter cobs
And a mince pie to have with my tea

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Twelve sourdough starters
Eleven pain aux raisins
Ten tins for proving
Nine large multigrains
Eight pots of curry
Seven chocolate brownies
Six Pip’s Hot Sauces
Five Stirchley Loaves
Four focaccias
Three Frangipanes
Two butter cobs
And a mince pie to have with my tea

Now, where’s the Gaviscon?!

Thank you for being lovely

This year has not been easy for anyone and as it comes to an end we are tired but not beaten, and that’s mostly thanks to you.

The best thing about working at Loaf is seeing that queue every day. Through heatwaves and storms you came for your bread and reminded us why we do what we do. Most of us worked in the service industry before coming here so we know how rare it is to have such friendly and positive customers.

You don’t just keep us in business by buying our stuff. You keep us in business by being lovely people. And we never forget it.

If we don’t see you this week, please have the best time you can over the winter break. See you in 2023!

Team Loaf: Nancy, Neil, Sarah, Dave, Dorit, Rach, Pete, Molly, Ian & Martha

Give the gift of Loaf this Christmas

If you’re struggling for gift ideas, be aware that we sell vouchers.

Our cookery school vouchers can be bought in any denomination and can be used for all our classes. They come as a PDF that you can print out and put in a card. You can buy them online or in-store.

Our bread vouchers come in a cute pack of two, six or 12 with postcards and a sticker. They can be exchanged for loaves of bread in our shop. Order them online and we’ll post them to you, or you can pick them up in the shop.

Speaking of bread vouchers, don’t forget Rachel is hiding one a day around Stirchley for the annual treasure hunt, which is currently running on our Instagram account.

More Loaf merch

Our first t-shirt went down very well indeed so we’ve had another run printed in different colours. Green, blue and grey t-shirts are £15 with black long-sleeve shirts at £20.

The new larger tote bag has also proven popular and the new run is a bright yellow print on a navy blue bag — £12.

And we have a new style of draw-string bag which we’re calling a bread bag because you can keep your bread fresh it in. But of course you can put whatever you like in there — £10.

We’re awaiting delivery of the new tea towels — watch this space.

You can check out all our merchandise on this page.

Our shop is now spacious

When the pandemic hit we moved our counter to the front door and it’s stayed there ever since. We couldn’t easily put things back because we’d ramped up bakery production (to compensate for the closed cookery school) and filled the old shop with fridges and cooling racks. So we’ve spent the last year trying to find a compromise — and this week the prototype is ready for testing.

The headline is, the counter has been moved back so we can fit more of you in the building and serve at least two people at once. This should speed up the queue no end, not to mention being able to hear your order when a lorry goes by. Hooray!

Our range of bread is displayed in the window. These loaves are for display only — you can get your bread at the counter as usual. As you’re queueing you’ll notice we have lots more space for local products and Loaf merch — do check them out!

As we said, this is a prototype. We’re going to be taking copious notes over the coming weeks to see what works and what doesn’t, so do let us know what you think. Then in the new year we’ll spend some time fitting it out properly.

Stirchley Market was a blast

Neil and Pete had a great time at Stirchley Community Market on Saturday. It was rammed full of new and familiar faces and can safely be described as a success. It was great to have a bit more time to chat with people about what we do and why, and Neil did some in-depth sessions with struggling bakers.

The volunteers who manage the market are hoping to make it a quarterly event so we guess we’ll be back in the spring with trays of hot cross buns. See you then!

(Market pic by Kerry Leslie)

Advent treasure hunt returns

If you’re an aficionado of Loaf’s Instagram Stories, you’ll know Rachel’s advent treasure hunt is back for a third year!

Every day between now and Christmas she’s hiding a bread voucher somewhere in Stirchley and posting a clue at different times of the day. It’s then a race to get there first, and competition is often fierce.

Each voucher can be exchanged for a loaf of bread, and the final ‘golden ticket’ is for a big bag of goodies.

(The whys and wherefores of Instagram are a mystery to us greybeards on the email newsletter team but we think you can see an archive of the clues at this link.)

£250 raised for the B30 Food Bank in November

We passed on £250 worth of cash donations from those of you that were able to last month, alongside the many tins and packets of food left with us. We’ve been asked to pass on our thanks, so thanks!

We will continue to support our food bank as long as it is necessary, but it’s important to remember that it shouldn’t be necessary. A society where people are going hungry is a broken society and we should be working to eliminate the causes of this, not picking up the pieces again and again. Thankfully the Trussell Trust agrees.

But it seems we are a long way off this goal and people are suffering. This report of five months at a food bank is eye-opening and quite disturbing. It’s terrible that food banks are necessary, but they are.

You can make a cash donation with your Loaf purchases at the counter or online, or give directly here. And we continue to be a drop-off point for needed products.

Now open Tuesdays again

We are delighted and relieved to finally be back to our pre-pandemic opening hours. From this week we are open Tuesday through Friday from 12 to 6pm, along with Saturday 8am to 1pm. These will be our hours going forward with no further changes planned or anticipated.

The Tuesday offer at Loaf is broadly the same as other days with a couple of differences.

No croissants, as they need to be prepared a day in advance and Monday is already too busy.
No wholemeal sourdough, for similar reasons.

We’re also shifting the Tarka daal curry back to Tuesday as it needs less prep than our other curries.

Loaf: once again serving you fresh bread on both of the days that start with a T!

Rejoice! It’s mince pie season!

You’ve been patient for 11 months and it’s time to be rewarded. Our legendary mince pies are on sale from this Thursday 1st December.

Packed with the finest ingredients, including local apples and stout from Attic Brew Co, they’re available as vegan or buttered.

Pre-orders for the rest of December will go live this weekend, including mince pies, so you won’t miss out.

Spread the word — mince pies are back!

Win a cookery school voucher with Pip’s charity raffle

Pip’s Hot Sauce is one of the indie food-makers who started at Stirchley Market and we’re honoured to call Pip a good friend of Loaf. So when she said she was looking for raffle prizes to raise money for a dear friend with brain cancer, we said yes, of course.

The range of prizes in this raffle is quite something, from meals to artworks to a one-off crystal skull hot sauce — a real testament to Pip’s importance in our community. We’ve put a £140 cookery school voucher in there too. She’s given so much over the years and it’s an honour to give something back.

Raffle tickets are £2.50 each, and you can of course buy more than one. Please help and spread the word.