National Geographic Traveller Magazine

 

We’ve been highlighted in this fantastic National Geographic Travel piece about food in Birmingham by Audrey Gillan.

Lap-fai Lee took Audrey on a trip round Brum and onto his Thai class at Loaf – look at that gorgeous photo of all the food that we feast on during the Thai course!

Thanks Audrey & Lap. We are so proud to feature alongside Carters of Moseley, Simpsons RestaurantSmultronstalle & others.

Get down to WHSmiths for your copy 🙌

Next Flavour Geography: Thailand classes with spaces:

Weds 6th June / Weds 15th Aug:
https://loaf.coop/cooker…/flavour-geography-thailand/ 

 

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

Real Bread Campaign is under threat!

The Real Bread Campaign was set up to fight for better bread in Britain, but it’s future is under threat.

Co-founded in 2008 by Sustain and Andrew Whitley of Bread Matters, the Real Bread Campaign has recently lost it’s main provision of funding and is looking for support. Starting with a basic definition of Real Bread being made without the use of any artificial additives, “the Campaign seeks, finds and shares ways to make bread better for us, better for our communities and better for the planet”.

Real Bread Campaign website

Can you help save the Real Bread Campaign by becoming a member?

Loaf is a member of the Real Bread Campaign because, like so many of our customers, we believe the UK is loosing the traditional skills to bake tasty, wholesome, handmade bread leaving us with cheap, mass-produced additive-filled factory loaves. Not only are these loaves filled with chemicals and therefore unhealthy for us, but they are often transported long distances and therefore damaging to the environment. That’s why we started our community supported bakery to provide healthy, Real Bread to our local community, and through the loaf cookery School teach as many people as possible how to make Real Bread. As well as selling good food, we are also able to help other local people like us restore our local high street to the thriving community it once was.

Chris Young, the Real Bread Campaign co-ordinator says; “Until we secure new grant funding, the only money Sustain (the charity of which we are part) has to run the Campaign comes from membership fees and donations, so getting new members is more important than ever to ensure our survival”.

Bread Lovers

So Loaf is asking bread lovers like us to sign up as Real bread Campaign members and spread the word via Twitter (@RealBread) and Facebook (realbreadcampaign). As a member you’ll receive discounts on courses, a quarterly magazine, access to an online forum for tips and advice on bread making, and more. You can also make a one off donation here. Find our how more on the real bread Campaign website: www.sustainweb.org/realbread

Read Loaf’s Real Food Manifesto to find out why we do what we do.

Birmingham Post Review – Forage and Cook Course

If you missed it, last week we had another wonderful piece of press coverage in the Birmingham Post, thanks to feature writer Mary Griffin.

Mary, who rolled up her foraging sleeves and joined us, alongside other course participants including Halo Garrity, Rob Walker, Dave Smith, Chrissa Murrell and her husband Stu, discovered that you really can find bounteous edible wild foods on your urban doorstop. Even in Stirchley.

Birmingham Post, 25 Sept 2013

Birmingham Post, Life  (25 September 2013, page 11)

Mary’s list of wild foods found in Stirchley near Loaf included:

  • Hawthorn (whose berries can be used in a hedgerow jelly)
  • Sumac (the red conical flowers can be dried and sprinkled on a salad)
  • Wild cherries (Tom tells us where to look out for them around Birmingham)
  • Meadowsweet growing in the long grass (a little sprig can infuse tea or cream)
  • Horseradish (which we dig up a thumb-sized chunk of)
  • Nettles (Tom shows us which bits to pick and which to avoid) and vetch (with a peppery, rockety flavour)
  • Yarrow (a good substitute for lavender or rosemary)
  • Dead nettles (no sting and you can suck the nectar out of the flowers)
  • Himalayan balsam (a non-native invasive plant with tasty pink flowers)
  • Rowan (which makes a good jelly mixed with apples)
  • Wood avens (which can make dandelion and burdock if you infuse the root)
  • Rosehips (which make good syrup)

…as well as mint, sloes, elderberries, blackberries and hazelnuts.

Amazing really. And that’s just a small sample of hundreds of wild foods that can be found locally, and in cities across the UK.

Tom Baker leading the Forage and Cook course. Photo by Jane Baker

For more information and to book on any of our courses visit the Loaf Cookery School page

To read the review online visit the press section on our About Us page and click on the link to the Birmingham Post. Or if you have a printed copy, it’s on page 11 of the Life section.

 

Birmingham Post Review – Forage and Cook Course

If you missed it, last week we had another wonderful piece of press coverage in the Birmingham Post, thanks to feature writer Mary Griffin.

Mary, who rolled up her foraging sleeves and joined us, alongside other course participants including Halo Garrity, Rob Walker, Dave Smith, Chrissa Murrell and her husband Stu, discovered that you really can find bounteous edible wild foods on your urban doorstop. Even in Stirchley.

Birmingham Post, 25 Sept 2013

Birmingham Post, Life  (25 September 2013, page 11)

Mary’s list of wild foods found in Stirchley near Loaf included:

  • Hawthorn (whose berries can be used in a hedgerow jelly)
  • Sumac (the red conical flowers can be dried and sprinkled on a salad)
  • Wild cherries (Tom tells us where to look out for them around Birmingham)
  • Meadowsweet growing in the long grass (a little sprig can infuse tea or cream)
  • Horseradish (which we dig up a thumb-sized chunk of)
  • Nettles (Tom shows us which bits to pick and which to avoid) and vetch (with a peppery, rockety flavour)
  • Yarrow (a good substitute for lavender or rosemary)
  • Dead nettles (no sting and you can suck the nectar out of the flowers)
  • Himalayan balsam (a non-native invasive plant with tasty pink flowers)
  • Rowan (which makes a good jelly mixed with apples)
  • Wood avens (which can make dandelion and burdock if you infuse the root)
  • Rosehips (which make good syrup)

…as well as mint, sloes, elderberries, blackberries and hazelnuts.

Amazing really. And that’s just a small sample of hundreds of wild foods that can be found locally, and in cities across the UK.

Tom Baker leading the Forage and Cook course. Photo by Jane Baker

For more information and to book on any of our courses visit the Loaf Cookery School page

To read the review online visit the press section on our About Us page and click on the link to the Birmingham Post. Or if you have a printed copy, it’s on page 11 of the Life section.

 

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)

Syrian inspired speciality bread for Oxfam

This Saturday 20 July, our bakers are teaming up Oxfam Midlands to bake a one one-off Syrian yoghurt flatbread to help raise awareness of Oxfam’s Syria Crisis Appeal.  The bread will be sold in the Loaf Community Bakery, 1421 Pershore Road, Stirchley, Birmingham, B30 2JL from 8.15am to 2pm. Look out for it on our specials table in the shop window.

Every day at Loaf we bake a different speciality bread, often inspired by cultures and flavours from around the world. As a former Media Campaigner for Oxfam Midlands and having had friends who lived and worked in Syria, this is close to our hearts. Baking bread in solidarity with the Syrian people, is one way that we can do our bit to help. What is happening in Syria is a tragedy so we want to do whatever we can to make a difference. We would encourage our customers to join us and come and buy the bread and/or make a donation to Oxfam’s Syria Crisis appeal.

www.oxfam.org.uk/syria

See our article in the Birmingham Mail on Thursday 25 July, pg 17 – “Bakers use loaf to boost charity”.

Oxfam syria appeal

Oxfam is working with refugees from Syria in Lebanon and Jordan to provide access to housing water and sanitation but the charity needs to raise more funds as soon as possible to reach thousands more refugees who need emergency help.  The situation is getting more desperate as the UN’s latest figures show that the number of people killed in Syria has reached a staggering 100,000.  Eight million Syrians are in desperate need of aid and almost 1.8 million forced to flee to neighbouring countries.

As well as at Loaf, a series of events and fundraising activities in the West Midlands have been taking place to raise awareness and money for Oxfam’s Syria Crisis Appeal.  Oxfam in the Midlands are asking local people in Birmingham and the Black Country to get in touch to find out how they can get involved to raise awareness, campaign and/or fundraise.

Katy Cook, Community Campaigns Coordinator for Oxfam Midlands said: “Many people in Birmingham and Wolverhampton will have heard about the conflict in Syria in the news but not many people will know what it is like to live there.Through the baking of speciality Syrian bread at Loaf in Birmingham and sharing personal stories of refugees in Wolverhampton we want to bring the experiences of ordinary Syrian people closer to home to people in the West Midlands.  The refugees we are working with are ordinary people like us who are bystanders to the conflict but the fighting, bloodshed and violence has forced many families to leave behind everything they know.  There are many heartbreaking stories of people who have watched their children die or lost family members but even amidst the despair there are some amazing and inspirational stories.”

For more information please go to www.oxfam.org.uk/syria or call the Oxfam Midlands office on 0121 634 3611

Jane Baker

Soil Association Features Loaf

Five questions with…. Tom Baker

This month Tom is featured on the Soil Association website, after a great interview with Anna Louise Batchelor (aka @porridgelady on twitter) an environmental scientist and member of Reading’s True Food Co-op. Reading born and bread (sorry, a genuine typo – bred not bread!), Tom loves the food co-op and has recently advised the food co-op on setting up their own bakery.

The Soil Association are the UK’s leading membership charity campaigning for healthy, humane and sustainable food, farming and land use.

Here’s Tom’s interview with Anna:

Soil Association - Tom Baker interview

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

Britain’s Best Bakeries

Thanks everyone for your flurry of Twitter and Facebook messages on Sunday. To those of you who missed it, we were announced as one of Britain’s top five bakeries in The Sunday Telegraph Seven magazine, by The Fabulous Baker Brothers. So we’re a bit chuffed.

We’re honoured to have been mentioned, as there are now so many amazing bakeries popping up across the UK who deserve recognition too.

We’ve  been in touch with Tom and Henry Herbert to say thanks and we’re hoping they may even pop down to see us in Stirchley one day soon. We’ll keep you posted if this happens.

Britain's Best Bakeries
The Sunday Times, Seven Magazine (3 March 2013)

Britain’s Best Bakeries

Thanks everyone for your flurry of Twitter and Facebook messages on Sunday. To those of you who missed it, we were announced as one of Britain’s top five bakeries in The Sunday Telegraph Seven magazine, by The Fabulous Baker Brothers. So we’re a bit chuffed.

We’re honoured to have been mentioned, as there are now so many amazing bakeries popping up across the UK who deserve recognition too.

We’ve  been in touch with Tom and Henry Herbert to say thanks and we’re hoping they may even pop down to see us in Stirchley one day soon. We’ll keep you posted if this happens.

Britain's Best Bakeries
The Sunday Times, Seven Magazine (3 March 2013)