Farewell Ten Four

It’s with a heavy heart that we say goodbye (for now) to Ten Four Bakehouse, the other Real Bread bakery in Stirchley, who closed their doors on Saturday. It was very satisfying to discover that Stirchley could support two proper bakeries and to see one undone by rising costs beyond anyone’s control is particularly tough.

Some people assume there’s rivalry and drama between Ten Four and Loaf, but this has never been the case. The independent baking community is built on friendship and mutual support, and we’ve always lent other bakers flour or yeast in the knowledge that when we’re short they’ll be there to help us.

We wish Adam, his family and all the workers the best in these uncertain times. We hope for their speedy return and look forward to the next chapter of Ten Four.

Ten Acres Plum Festival

Our good friends at Sustainable Life are running their festival of the noble plum again this August, and are looking for volunteers, activities and stalls. Community events are free and businesses can get involved for a £20 fee.

This is a vibrant celebration festival of the Ten Acres Stirchley site and the River Rea, including a range of family friendly activities such as dance, drama and art/crafts. The festival will highlight the local area’s beauty and abundance with a focus on the two large plum groves on site, and will include walks, tours and conservation workshops/activities.

For more information email fota@tenacresconservation.co.uk

Left Feet Forward

Left Feet Forward is an exhibition at Artefact about cooperatives. It brings together archival printed material of the cooperative history of South Birmingham, particularly the Ten Acres and Stirchley Cooperative Society, and places it among Chris Neophytou’s photographs of recent grass-roots cooperatives that have developed in the area, Gugan Gill’s film exploring this history and legacy, and a play by Susan Finlay taking a wry look at cooperative organisation and politics.

There will also be a number of events discussing the role of cooperatives and a chance for local residents to explore their local history.

We had our group photo taken for this last week (in the rain!) and are very excited to see how it comes together. The launch is this Friday at 7:30pm — see you there!

Ten years on the high street

On September 8th 2012, Tom Baker realised his dream of opening a community bakery on Stirchley High Street. Three years after starting Loaf in his kitchen, and with investment from customers who received their interest in bread, the doors of 1421 Pershore Road were opened to the public.

We’re marking this with a few special things over the month, starting with…

Free birthday cake!

Molly is making a special birthday cake that will be given away to the first 30 customers through the door on Thursday 8th.

Treasure hunt!

Rachel’s been hiding bread vouchers around Stirchley and releasing clues on our Instagram Stories. The hunt ends on Sunday and vouchers can be redeemed for a delicious loaf.

New totes and tees!

Molly’s been hard at work on new designs and the first batch will be on sale very soon. Look out for them at the…

Party!

We’re taking over the rear of Attic Brew this Sunday afternoon for a big shindig. Founders Tom and Jane Baker will be there along with other Loaf alumni, and you’re all welcome!

The fun starts at 3pm with kids welcome until 6pm. We’ll then carry on until closing. Attic is on Mary Vale Road by the canal bridge on the Stirchley side.

We’re putting together a slideshow of photos from the last decade and would love to include any you might have of bread and buns you bought, a course you went on, a pop-up takeaway — anything that brings a smile!

The Hedge on the corner

Those of you that queue for your bread and lunches at opening time (and we are so grateful that you think us worthy of queueing!) will have noticed that the wood carving place on the corner has been replaced by a florist.

JoJo and Sean needed more space for their Pathcarvers workshops so they moved to the Old Printworks opposite the baths in Balsall Heath. Happily they still live in Stirchley and often pop in for a snack and a hello.

Their old workshop has been taken on by Hedge, which opened just before Christmas. Dorit is a big fan, often picking up spectacular arrangements on her break. She been chatting to Rachel who runs the place, along with designer and artist Rosie.

Hedge started in Harborne, moved to the Great Western Arcade and when that became a deadzone in lockdown, they found their new home in Stirchley.

Their approach to floristry is similar to our interest in heritage grains, seeking out local and sustainable farms who grow in their crops a biodiverse way. From their website:

We practise eco-friendly floristry and use blooms quite unlike those you find on the high street. When available we only use English garden flowers from small artisan micro farms in the Midlands, grown sustainably and gently.

Join us to help create change. Choose flowers that support biodiversity, that have been grown without chemicals, that have a low carbon footprint, are not wrapped in plastic, that are safe to compost and kinder to the world.

(You can hear more about regenerative flower farming in this Farmarama podcast episode, starting at 22:30.)

Dorit is a big fan of their flowers and cards. Over Christmas, she was unable to travel home to her family in Germany due to the Omicron outbreak and found herself stranded in Birmingham. Rachel’s flowers went a long way to cheering her up (and Stirchley’s German-speaking community rallied together on Christmas day).

As well as selling fresh flowers and bouquets, Hedge supplies events, runs workshops, and stocks soaps, textiles and an eclectic range of crafts from artists near and far.

Next time you’re in the queue, give them a smile and an wave, and if you’re into your flowers as much as your [ahem] flours, pop in and say hello!

Website | Instagram

Introducing Friends of Cotteridge Park

If you live in or near Stirchley, you’ll doubtless be aware of Cotteridge Park, one of the many green gems of suburban Birmingham. But unlike most of our neighbourhood parks, Cotteridge is run by volunteers since being saved by local people from closure in 1997.

Friends of Cotteridge Park is the charitable organisation that runs all the activities and co-ordinates volunteer work at the park, including an annual festival and the new Shed cafe hub.

We asked them to write a bit about what they do:

The volunteers at Cotteridge Park are passionate about our little park in the heart of our community. The Friends of Cotteridge Park work tirelessly to improve the park’s infrastructure, and to provide services and activities that meet the needs of local people.

In any given week you’ll find Tai Chi, arts courses, youth workers, gardening, conservation and walking groups, and much more. The Shed opened in 2020 and is the hub for our activities and a friendly place to grab a cup of coffee too.

Oh, and then there’s CoCoMAD – the best little festival in Birmingham, where we celebrate Music, art, dance and science from our community and beyond.

In order to provide all this, and more, we are constantly fundraising. We have a principle that all our activities are free at the point of delivery so no one is excluded because they can’t afford to attend. This means we need donations to keep us going. We’re truly grateful for anything you can give to support our work.

And if you can give your time – even if it’s just an hour – you would be welcomed with open arms.

Contact us at: info@cotteridgepark.org.uk / www.cotteridgepark.org.uk. And we’re on facebook, twitter and instagram

You can donate with your online orders or at the counter. And over the Spring we’ll be featuring a few of the things you might want to get involved with yourself.

Future Stirchley: A Street of Opportunity

Last month we were invited to take part in a film about how Stirchley high street has dealt with the pandemic lockdowns. Alongside clips of the people who live and work here, the film sees a Birmingham poet synthesise the hours of interviews into a spoken word piece. It’s a lovely piece of work produced in record time by Geoff of the Living Memory Project.

If something seems strangely familiar about the style, you’re not wrong. In 2012 Geoff made To Be Home, another film about Stirchley. Fascinating to see what’s changed, and what hasn’t.

Autumn Course Highlight

We’re getting ready for our Autumn season of courses!

Some of the courses we have during the upcoming months *only* run at this time of year. In particular: Pork Butchery and Charcuterie with our expert tutors Lap-fai Lee and Steve from Rossiter’s organic butchers in Bournville.

This day-long course will take you through options for creating amazing charcuterie, as well as fresh pork dishes, from almost every part of the pig. You’ll also be creating your own pork lunch for a feast in the middle of the day.

The next Pork Butchery and Charcuterie course is on Thursday 26th October in our dedicated cookery school on Stirchley High Street.

Take a look at our full courses calendar to discover what new skills you can learn in the upcoming cosy season:
https://loaf.coop/cookery-school/

Photo by Lap!

 

Back to School with Loaf

If you’ve not been on a Loaf course but have always fancied it, why not use the changing seasons and new school term time as an excuse to learn a new skill.

We have spaces on several of our courses over the Autumn months including Seafood Masterclass, Handmade Pasta, Pork Butchery and Charcuterie, Sweet Breads and Vennoiserie and Flavour Geography: Thailand, and Chinese Bao and Dumplings (pictured above).

The courses are really enjoyable, informative and hands-on. You’ll be taught by our friendly and experienced in-house experts and passionate guest-tutors. On our courses we also share and enjoy the fruits of our labour and you will never go home hungry! 

We also sell vouchers for courses if you’d like to gift a visit to Loaf Cookery School to a loved one – is it too early to think about Christmas?!

To check the dates and courses available please visit the courses calendar here.

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

Rye not?

We started out with our Revolutionary Rye, way back when Tom first started Loaf back in 2009 and it has graced our shelves ever since!

Our recipe was based on Andrew Whitley’s Russian Rye, ours is 100% rye sourdough, topped with toasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds.

Why is it revolutionary? (Everybody wants to know!) Mainly because back when Tom started, no one was making a rye sourdough up here in the Midlands at least! Not only that, but he figured given its Russian roots, he’d pay tribute to their revolutionary history…

If you didn’t already know, Rye is a type of grain, low in gluten, high in fibre, protein and most importantly flavour.

Over the years, we’ve played around with rye specials such as the Borodinsky and Volkornbrot, but this year we’ve decided to feature them more frequently, because rye is great, and ‘rye’ not right?

Our Borodinsky is made with a rye starter and flour, malt extract, molasses and caraway seeds for a surprisingly refreshing flavour despite its density! Find it in the shop on TUESDAYS

Our Volkornbrot, is made with a rye starter and flour, chock-full of sunflower seeds, and kibbled rye for lots of texture! Find it in the shop on THURSDAYS

Will you be trying it? Let us know! Tweet or Tag us – we’d love to see how you’re enjoying it!

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!

*Closing for maintenance!*

We’ll be closed for maintenance from Tuesday 23rd – Tuesday 30th August; opening as normal on Wednesday 31st August.

closecalendar

We’ll be making some improvements throughout our building: in the shop, bakery, cookery school and back of house; very exciting stuff!

We know a lot of you will be alarmed that you won’t be able to get your usual orders (or salt beef – goodness!!); so make sure you stock up in the weeks before. Our bread and sweet stuff freeze brilliantly you know! Just perk them up in the oven once you’ve defrosted them.

OR…

Jump onto one of our bread or sourdough courses and make your own! Fresh bread just can’t be beaten can it!

Also, we’ve got the last few places on Lap’s phenomenal Bao course on the 31st; now you can recreate #baohouse at your house!

 

 

 

August in the Cookery School

With it being holiday and vacation season (for you guys and us!) we don’t have as full a course schedule as we normally do; though we have ensured that we’ve got the best coverage of our bread courses to suit most needs, so if you’ve got some time off and have always meant to book on to one – take advantage now!

We’ve got places available on all dates for August:

Bread: Back to Basics – Saturday 6th 9.30am-4pm

Simply Sourdough – Friday 12th 7.30-9.30pm – Saturday 13th 9.30am-1pm

Bread: Back to Basics – Thursday 18th 9.30am-4pm (weekday)

bread selection circle

And we’ve even snuck in a Bao and Chinese Dumpling course with Lap on Wednesday 31st 6.30-9.30pm – we’re always thinking of you!