Easter opening times!

It’s almost Easter and we’re in the throes of Hot Cross bun season, it comes round quicker and quicker each year!

As you may already know, we’re offering our Earl Grey flavoured HCB’s right up until Easter, available everyday in our shop.

We’re ramping up the numbers as we get closer to the long weekend, so make sure to take advantage as there’re only 7 baking days til they’re gone! #RIPHCB

We will be taking pre-orders for Good Friday and Saturday (14th & 15th April), just pop into the shop and place and pre-pay for your order.

Please note that we will be closed after Easter for some general maintenance, dates and times are as follows:

Good Friday 14th April – 12-6.30pm (pre-order collection)

Saturday 15th April – 8.15am-1pm (last day for pre-order collection)

Easter Sunday 16th April – CLOSED

Easter Monday 17th April – CLOSED

Tuesday 18th – Friday 21st April – CLOSED

Saturday 22nd April – 8.15am-1pm – open as normal

Don’t forget!

Hi guys!

Don’t forget our opening times for Xmas and New Year!

We’re open from 8.15am – 1pm Friday 23rd (tomorrow), and the same again Saturday 24th.

We’re no longer taking stollen, mince pie or macaron pre-orders as they are already made to order! We will have a selection available to buy on a first come first served basis in our shop both Friday and Saturday.

We sold out within a few hours today so expect a queue and come as early as you can to avoid missing out; we’re working through the night tonight and Friday to make as much as we can (we’ve even roped in Tom off his paternity leave to lend us a hand!) so we hope to disappoint as few people as we possibly can!

You can still purchase books and cookery school vouchers in the shop too!

We’ll be closed from Christmas day until Wednesday 4th January 2017, when we open from 12pm as normal.

Thank you for all your support this year, we can’t do this without you!

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to you all! 

Love, Team Loaf x

 

New dates for courses 2017!

Illustration: www.walternewton.

 The announcement of our Cookery School courses 2017, has been somewhat long awaited by the eager and organised amongst us, so here it is just in time for Xmas!

NEW dates for January-March 2017 are now available for:


– Bread: Back to Basics
– Bread: Simply Sourdough
– Sweet breads and Viennoiserie
– Flavour Geography: South Indian Dosa
– Handmade Pasta
– Macarons

Plus many more!

We’ve worked hard to fit in as many courses as we can, so we hope you’ll find something to suit your needs!

pig butchery Dosa Workshoppasta bread back to basics Seafoodone_new2 sweet breads

If not, why not buy a gift voucher?

You can purchase Cookery School gift vouchers from £1-£150!

Further dates will be staggered throughout 2017.

*Foraging & Earth Oven Building will be available from March.

Lamb & Poultry will be available from February.*

Happy Booking!

NEW STOCK!

If you’ve been into the shop this week, you may have noticed we’ve got some new stock gracing our shelves!

We’ve curated a spice rack, with spices we use ourselves in the bakery and the cookery school. Some/most of which we haven’t found at our local shops, so you’re welcome!

spice shelf

 

You’ll find: Za’tar, Ras El Hanout, Sumac, Saffron AND a selection of spices – ORGANIC where we could!

Much to popular demand we’ve also stocked 1kg Peanut Butter, Tahini and Coconut Oil.

You may also notice (or if you follow us on Twitter..) that we’ve got a brand new swanky fridge! Fully stocked with The Happy Gut Hut Kombucha, Milk, Cawston Press drinks cans PLUS NEW Fentimans classics, Chi Coconut water and pure churned butter!

We still stock Pip’s hot sauce, Cuffufle jams, chutneys, vinegars and cordials; Quarter Horse coffee, Union Coffee, Urban Harvest apple juice, eggs and our own Granola mix.

Don’t forget we still sell bread making equipment: locally made peels, scoring knives, scrapers, proving baskets; plus Italian 00, semolina, and rice flours; AND books on bread making, foraging and preserving!

Oh yeah, we sell awesome Loaf canvas tote bags too! (If you spot one out and about, tweet us a photo! @loafonline #loafspotted

New Loaf Bakery Shop Opens – Sat 26 April

Stirchley Just Got Tastier!

At Loaf  this week there has been a hive of activity.  We have done a complete refit of the shop and are introducing some new editions – including weekday takeaway lunches, and a small selection of cookery equipment, specialist cookery ingredients and local produce to buy. We’ll also be selling  our usual selection of speciality bread and cakes . Thanks to a fantastic team of staff and volunteers the new & improved Loaf Bakery Shop re-opens tomorrow – Saturday 26th April 2014. Particular thanks goes to Tom, Sarah, Nancy, Andy, Jordan, Mike, Alasdair, Russ, Walter and Jane for all your hard work. You’re amazing!

Below you’ll find out what’s new, discover our new opening hours and salivate at this week’s takeaway lunch menu – changing every week. We hope you like the look of the new shop too, with much of our furniture made from reclaimed palettes and recycled materials….

New Loaf Bakery Shop Refit  New Loaf Bakery Refit

New Loaf Bakery Refit Tom Making Tea for the Workers

 

New Loaf Bakery Shop Opens – Saturday 26 April 2014

So here’s what we’ve got on offer. Pop in to discover what’s new….

New Loaf Bakery Shop. Designer: Kerry Leslie

 

New Opening Hours

Tuesday – Friday: 12 – 6.30pm

Saturday: 8.15am – 1pm

Tuesdays – Fridays: Takeaway lunches, from 12noon

 

Weekday Takeaway Lunch Menu

Tuesday 29 April  to Friday 2 May 2014, from 12 noon

Tuesday – Daal with sourdough;  Baked ham & mature cheese croissant.

Wednesday – Herb & mushroom Frittata with green salad;  Baked ham & mature cheese croissant.

Thursday – Rosso Pomodoro Soup with sourdough;  Baked ham & mature cheese croissant.

Friday – Spinach, artichoke & chilli goats cheese pizza;  Spicy ‘Nduja sausage, mozzarella  & parmesan pizza.

We will also have brewed coffee and loose leaf teas to takeaway.

Brewed cofee and loose leaf tea to takeaway

 

Pick up a Loyalty Card

We like to reward our regular customers with the Loaf Loyalty Card, to enable you to collect ‘Loaf’ stamps and redeem a free loaf of bread!

You’ll get your last loaf in a baker’s dozen on us

when you buy 12 loaves, you’ll get the 13th free!*

Ask at the till. Subject to terms and conditions – details on the card*.

Loaf Loyalty Card

We look forward to seeing you soon!

The Loaf Team

New Loaf Bakery Shop Opens – Sat 26 April

Stirchley Just Got Tastier!

At Loaf  this week there has been a hive of activity.  We have done a complete refit of the shop and are introducing some new editions – including weekday takeaway lunches, and a small selection of cookery equipment, specialist cookery ingredients and local produce to buy. We’ll also be selling  our usual selection of speciality bread and cakes . Thanks to a fantastic team of staff and volunteers the new & improved Loaf Bakery Shop re-opens tomorrow – Saturday 26th April 2014. Particular thanks goes to Tom, Sarah, Nancy, Andy, Jordan, Mike, Alasdair, Russ, Walter and Jane for all your hard work. You’re amazing!

Below you’ll find out what’s new, discover our new opening hours and salivate at this week’s takeaway lunch menu – changing every week. We hope you like the look of the new shop too, with much of our furniture made from reclaimed palettes and recycled materials….

New Loaf Bakery Shop Refit  New Loaf Bakery Refit

New Loaf Bakery Refit Tom Making Tea for the Workers

 

New Loaf Bakery Shop Opens – Saturday 26 April 2014

So here’s what we’ve got on offer. Pop in to discover what’s new….

New Loaf Bakery Shop. Designer: Kerry Leslie

 

New Opening Hours

Tuesday – Friday: 12 – 6.30pm

Saturday: 8.15am – 1pm

Tuesdays – Fridays: Takeaway lunches, from 12noon

 

Weekday Takeaway Lunch Menu

Tuesday 29 April  to Friday 2 May 2014, from 12 noon

Tuesday – Daal with sourdough;  Baked ham & mature cheese croissant.

Wednesday – Herb & mushroom Frittata with green salad;  Baked ham & mature cheese croissant.

Thursday – Rosso Pomodoro Soup with sourdough;  Baked ham & mature cheese croissant.

Friday – Spinach, artichoke & chilli goats cheese pizza;  Spicy ‘Nduja sausage, mozzarella  & parmesan pizza.

We will also have brewed coffee and loose leaf teas to takeaway.

Brewed cofee and loose leaf tea to takeaway

 

Pick up a Loyalty Card

We like to reward our regular customers with the Loaf Loyalty Card, to enable you to collect “˜Loaf’ stamps and redeem a free loaf of bread!

You’ll get your last loaf in a baker’s dozen on us

when you buy 12 loaves, you’ll get the 13th free!*

Ask at the till. Subject to terms and conditions – details on the card*.

Loaf Loyalty Card

We look forward to seeing you soon!

The Loaf Team

The Guardian, Country Living Magazine & New Course Dates

At the beginning of March, we were pleased to be featured in the April edition of Country Living magazine, and again in the Guardian on Saturday 22nd March. Celebrating Loaf Cookery School in their Country in the City section, Country Living magazine featured our Earth Oven Building course – and we sold out on places for our end of May course straight away! The Guardian featured us in their ‘Do Something’ supplement, mentioning our bread subscriber scheme, and our no waste bread policy (see photos of articles below). So, we’ve seen an additional flurry of interest, which is fantastic – taking the word about Loaf further afield. With such amazing interest, we’ve had to add new course dates to keep up with the demand. Coming up we have:

NEW COURSE DATES 

The Earth- Oven Weekend is great for both garden, food and bushcraft enthusiasts, and definitely for those that don’t mind getting their hands dirty. No experience is needed, we’ll teach you everything – just a willingness to get stuck in. You can cook practically anything in a wood-fired oven, from bread and cakes to casseroles and pizza, all with that unique smoky taste. And there really is nothing quite like it.

To find out more and to book visit: Earth-Oven Building Weekend

Join Loaf and fish expert Lap-fai Lee for a hands-on evening learning the art and science of fish preparation and cookery. This three hour workshop aims to take the fear out of fish and give you the knowledge and skills to go home and start enjoying preparing fish in your own kitchen. It’s actually pretty quick, easy and fun when you know how! Related courses include our equally fantastic Seafood Two: Shellfish course, if you fancy taking your culinary skills that extra step.

To find out more and to book visit: Seafood One: Fish

Country Living March_April 2014

Country Living, April 2014. Photo courtesy Mike Satterthwaite

Guardian 22 March 2014

Guardian, 22 March 2014. Photo courtesy @Lauralarue

Loaf is Changing

Shop Changes

After a successful first year on Stirchley high street Loaf has outgrown the bakery and is expanding to keep up with increasing customer demand for delicious bread & cakes. Thank you to Stirchley Stores volunteers, our customers, bread bond holders, bread club members,  our landlords, Loaf directors and staff for making this success possible. At the end of April 2014 Loaf will be taking over the shop from Stirchley Stores in order to meet our growing customer demand. The new bakery shop will be run & managed 100% by Loaf staff.

20th-25th April 2014: Shop closes for refurbishment
End April 2014: New Loaf Bakery shop opens

——————————————————————————————————————————

The new Loaf Bakery shop will sell:

Our usual selection of delicious bread & cakes
Fresh takeaway lunches & hot drinks
Specialist cookery school equipment (e.g. preserving equipment)
A limited selection of specialist cookery ingredients (e.g. 00 pasta flour, yeast)

——————————————————————————————————————————

sourdough

A Special Thankyou

To Stirchley Stores volunteers for your hard work, passion & energy this year. You have brought the community together, &  proven that local people are really keen to see positive change on their high street & to see better access to healthy, affordable, & ethically sourced food. We wish you every success in moving forward with new options in the future and hope to see you continue as a co-operative in Stirchley.

Keep an eye on the Loaf website for future shop updates
www.loafonline.co.uk

Happy Christmas & Thank you!

What a year!

It’s been fantastic. Thank you to everyone that has made 2013 a real success. We’ve grown from strength to strength over the year, increasing our staff  team, taking on new directors, extending our selection of bread & cakes, developing new courses and pop-up events and meeting lots of new faces in the cookery school, bakery & on our local high street in Stirchley.

Thank you to all our customers, friends, colleagues & families. Special mention also goes to our:

  • Bread Bond Holders – without whom none of this would have been possible – thank you
  • Bread Club members – for returning to the bakery week after week to pick up baked goodies!
  • Loaf Directors – Matt, Michelle, Russ… and former directors Tim & Ria
  • Loaf Staff – Andy, Dom, Jane, Nancy, Sarah & Tom
  • Cookery School Guest Tutors – Haseen, Lap, Lizzy, Mohini, Rachel & Steve
  • Everards Brewery – our landlords who have helped us grow on Stirchley high street
  • Stirchey Stores Members – for sharing the Loaf love by selling our bread & cakes in the shop
  • Creative & green fingered friends – Clare, Fraser, Jack, Jacob, Kerry, Mike, Paul & Walter
  • Fellow Food Lovers – Brad, Carl, Chris, Krishan, Lap, Nico, Nick, Vic
  • Fordall Farm – a community owned business who are a real inspiration to us.

And many, many more… there are just too many to mention!

Loaf in Lights - Christmas 2013

Have a very Happy Christmas and promise of a wonderful new year.

We look forward to developing new & exciting projects in 2014 and hope you will join us for the ride!

From the Loaf Team

x x x

* Christmas Closure – The Loaf Community Bakery, Cookery School and Stirchley Stores will be closed from Wednesday 25th December, re-opening on Thursday 2nd January 2014. Bread Subscribers – we will be baking for you again on Friday 3rd January.

 

Christmas Goodies from the Bakery

The mincemeat that we made back in October is maturing nicely, and quite frankly we’ve held off long enough. Now December is upon us, we’ll be unleashing glorious mince pies on you every day in the bakery. We have a deliciously rich mincemeat, which will be stuffed into our own sweet shortcrust pastry and baked fresh daily.

PRE-ORDER STOLLEN – This year reserve your Christmas Stollen (for collection in the shop on 23 – 24 December only). We do not offer a postal service. Our usual selection of bread produced in the Loaf Community Bakery will also be available to buy as usual in the Stirchley Stores co-operative community shop.

Christmas Stollen

CHRISTMAS OPENING HOURSThe Loaf Community Bakery, Cookery School and Stirchley Stores will be closed from Wednesday 25th December, re-opening on Thursday 2nd January 2014.

STIRCHLEY BREWHOUSE – We’re taking a small break from Stirchley Brewhouse throughout December. It’s all hands on deck in the bakery instead in the run up to Christmas. The smell of seasonal dried fruit & spices is amazing. Brewhouse will be back again in early 2014.

CHRISTMAS OPENING HOURS @ Stirchley Stores:

Tuesday – Friday     2 – 7pm

Saturday                8.15am – 2pm

Monday 23rd December      2 – 7pm

Tuesday 24 December    8.15am – 2pm

Closed 25th December – 1st January.

Re-opening on Thursday 2nd January 2014, 2 – 7pm.

 

 

Birmingham Mail feature Syrian inspired bread for Oxfam appeal

Last Saturday 20 July, our bakers teamed up Oxfam Midlands to bake a one-off Syrian yoghurt flatbread to help raise awareness of Oxfam’s Syria Crisis Appeal. We’re pleased to say that the Syrian bread was a huge success and sold out within an hour. We were also featured with Oxfam Midlands in today’s Birmingham Mail (Thursday 25 July, page 16).

We’d like to thank all our customers for their enthusiasm on the day, and Dom for baking the bread in the Loaf Community Bakery. We would also encourage everyone to continue their support by visiting the Oxfam website or reading our previous Syria inspired bread blog.

Bakers use loaf to boost charity - Birmingham Mail (25 July 2013)
Bakers use loaf to boost charity – Birmingham Mail (25 July 2013)

Loaf, Building Community Through Food

As a social enterprise Loaf was set up with the purpose to promote good food and healthy living in communities and build community through food . This means putting our profits towards social projects, primarily in our local community.

This month we welcomed year 6 children and parents from our local Stirchley Community School on Pershore Road to Loaf Cookery School for their very own bread making workshop. The afternoon was a huge success and as teacher Karen Sweeney said “They had an amazing time! The children they were raving about it!”. With three year 6 workshops in total, and comments shared that it was one of the best workshops we’ve ever been to, we’ll take that as a thumbs up! In June we also hosted an enjoyable bread workshop with adults who are deaf and hard of hearing through the work of national charity deafPLUS.

For more Stirchley Community School workshop photos visit their school website – you may even spot a few familiar local faces.

Stirchley Community School Bread Workshop at Loaf
Year 6 pupils, parents & teachers from Stirchley Community School enjoy making bread at Loaf
Parents & children from Stirchley Community School at Loaf
Parents and children from Stirchley Community School at Loaf

We also offer occasional work placements to individuals with a passion to develop a professional career in baking, which this month included Megan Jones who is studying for a Diploma in Artisan Baking at the prestigious School of Artisan Food.

Megan Jones on student placement at Loaf from The School of Artisan Food
Megan Jones on student placement at Loaf from the prestigious School of Artisan Food

Loaf reaches new heights

This month Stirchley featured in the May edition of Brussels Airline’s bthere magazine.

Described as a ‘destination for creativity, comedy and exciting cuisine’, it included us at Loaf and celebrated other local community food and arts initiatives such as Stirchley Community Market. Stirchley seems to be making a name for itself – not only in the UK, but now internationally!

To read more visit the be the b there website or download the full magazine as a pdf. We’re on page 74.

Brussels Airlines bthere Magazine - May 2013
Brussels Airlines bthere Magazine – May 2013

Loaf newsletter

Just a quick post to say our Loaf newsletter is back.

After hibernating for a few months, our bumper March edition marked what we hope will be the start of a new quarterly newsletter to keep you updated with Loaf news, successes and new projects. As well as cookery school and bakery updates, this time it included the launch of our new Loaf Loyalty Card, our feature in The Telegraph as one of britain’s top 5 bakeries and a visit to Loaf by MP Chuka Umunna Business Secretary. We’re never short of news. Next issue June.

You can subscribe to the newsletter on our contacts page.

A snippet from our march newsletter…

March Newsletter

Launching – The Loaf Loyalty Card

Last week we sent whispers around that we would soon be launching a Loaf Loyalty Card. Well the card is now up and running and available in Stirchley Stores. Just pick one up or ask at the till.

The Loaf Loyalty Card is our way of saying thank you to all our regular bread customers and local supporters, without which we would not exist. So, thank you!

Loaf Loyalty Card