We’re really pleased to welcome Matt & Pete’s Photo School to Loaf HQ. See below for a flyer with some information about classes for beginners, starting in January. You can read more about Matt & Pete, including upcoming courses (such as tonight’s night time photography walk) on their website. They’re also doing gift vouchers; perfect for Christmas (hint hint!)
2013 should be a fab year for Loaf, and we’ve decided to kick it off with a great new series of short workshops called Kitchen Essentials. Taught by our talented baker and chef Dom Clarke, these workshops are aimed at improving your basic cooking skills and helping you to be confident and efficient around the kitchen. Priced at just £30 each (except for cooking meat which is £40) they’ll make a great Christmas gift for a loved one, we’ll even print you a voucher with a personal message on if you wish. You can find the full details of the workshops in the shop along with online booking, but see our brief outline of the courses below:
Kitchen Essentials One: Knife Skills – Tuesday 22nd January 7-9pm
Don’t know your julienne from your chiffonade or your paring knife from your boning knife? This is the course for you! From the basics of choosing the right knife for the right task, to keeping your knives in tip-top condition, and chopping our way to some delicious dishes along the way!
Kitchen Essentials Two: Stocks and Sauces – Tuesday 29th January, 7-9pm
There are as many sauces in the world as there are chefs, but this Stocks and Sauces workshop will give you an introduction to the building blocks of some of the classics. We’ll explore both Asian and Western sauces and share some delicious treats throughout the evening.
Kitchen Essentials Three: Eggs – Tuesday 12th February, 7-9pm
Eggs are one of natures most simple yet beautiful foods, incredibly versatile but surprisingly difficult to cook right. On this two-hour workshop we’ll whisk, scramble, omelette, poach two ways, turn into delicious sweet tarts and a classic egg-based sauce.
Kitchen Essentials Four: Cooking Vegetables – Tuesday 26th February, 7-9pm
Vegetables are the delicious encapsulation of sunshine. For too many years they have played second fiddle to meat, but no more!! On this fantastic Kitchen Essentials: Cooking Vegetables workshop you’ll learn how to bring out those fantastic flavours locked up inside veg, and put them out front on a pedestal, where they belong.
Kitchen Essentials Five: Flavour Geography – Tuesday 12th March, 7-9pm
Lamb and rosemary, tomato and basil, peas and ham, ginger and spring onion, duck and orange. There’s a reason why some flavour combinations have stood the test of time and are now considered classic. On this educational two hour workshop you’ll learn the origins of some favourite combinations, cook some fantastic dishes from around the world, and gain the confidence to improvise with flavours in your own kitchen.
Kitchen Essentials Six: Beans, Pulses & Grains – Tuesday 19th March, 7-9pm.
So versatile but so often overlooked, this Kitchen Essentials workshop will teach you how to make the best of beans, pulses and grains. Perfect for these austere times, beans and pulses are cheap, nutritious, and if you cook them well, absolutely delicious.
Kitchen Essentials Seven: Cooking Meat – Tuesday 26th March, 7-9pm
Meat is an increasingly precious foodstuff in todays world, it’s becoming even more important to eat less but better meat, and cook well with it, wasting as little as possible. But what to do with it? Roast, braise, griddle, fry, steam, barbecue, or grill? Low and slow or hot and fast? On the bone or off the bone? Our fantastic two-hour Kitchen Essentials: Cooking Meat workshop will answer all of these questions and more.
Yes the rumours are true, the team behind 2011’s storming Popstrami event in Bournville have reunited to bring you the magic of an authentic New York Deli, right here in Stirchley. Check out the details below – dinner on Wednesday, is sorted…
Just a quick blog to tell you about the last forage and cook course that we’re running in 2012. Next Thursday evening 6th September will be our last outing into the wilds of Stirchley to check out what wild plants are around at this time of year and what tasty treats we might be able to cook up using wild ingredients. Also for the first time we’ll be starting and finishing the course at our brand new cookery school on Stirchley High Street which is very nearly finished! You can check out the course details and reserve your place using our new online shop. There’s loads of other courses now advertised in the shop and I’ll tell you all about those in another post very soon.
Sorry it’s been a while since the last update and LOADS has happened. We’re very close to getting the shop keys now (this Thursday), and then it will be full speed ahead getting our equipment in and shelves and units up to start taking customers as soon as possible (give us a shout if you can help!!!). We’ve pencilled in an open day for the 8th september – stay peeled to the blog for updates. Also, we’re hoping they’ll be a sneak-preview pop-up a bit sooner than that too. Nod nod wink wink.
Well all the plastering’s finished, it’s been painted and most of the electrics and plumbing is complete. Flooring goes down this week and a bit of tidying up and touching up paintwork etc then it’s ours! I’ve taken loads of photos but here’s three views below. First up this is the rear corridor looking towards the cookery school dining room and cookery school at the front. This isn’t really a public area apart from if you’re looking for the loo, but it’s nice and bright and Jane has been busy potting up plants to green it up a bit!
Next this is the Stirchley Stores shop looking from the back wall towards the shop front. You can just see the bottom of some new light fittings. These will soon be adorned with gorgeous green enamel shades from our pal Harry Starling who also supplied the retro wires and ceiling roses etc.
Finally here’s the new shop front for Stirchley Stores and the bakery. Actually this was taken a few days ago and the glass is now complete and it’s been nicely varnished. Smart!
The cookery school has now been plastered, but we’re waiting for the acoustic solution on the ceiling to be sorted so there’s no ceiling yet – should be starting to go up next week. Here’s 4 pics from the four corners of the main cookery school room, it’s quite hard to photograph.
And here’s the original tiled floor from when this shop was a butchers (40+ years ago). I think it will scrub up nice:
They’ve also made the opening to the new accesible loo this week. Its the opening to the left of this pic, with the one straight on heading into the dining room and then the cookery school.
So it’s definitely still a building site, but I thought i’d share a couple more photos of the new shop. It’s really hard to photograph, I need a wide angle lens I think. Anyway, here’s a shot from the front of the Stirchley Stores shop with the hole through to the Loaf bakery at the back:
As you can see it’s going to be quite narrow at the front (the blue boarding on the left is due to the new stairs that service the upstairs flats), but opens up towards the back. Here’s a view from the bakery opening looking back towards the front:
The new shop front should be going on in about 3 weeks I think, towards the end of the build.
Here’s the bakery plastered (the hole being drilled is for the extraction above the oven):
And here’s the proof it’s all getting real:
At Loaf we love folk music and Stirchley almost as much as we love food. That’s why I’m pleased to promote our favourite Stirchley-based folk band, Friends of the Stars, who are about to release their brand new al…, brand new albu….errr… brand new fried chicken seasoning. Yep that’s right, they are releasing a packet of fried chicken seasoning. Should you choose to purchase their seasoning for only £5, you will get a FREE, yep FREE digital download of their latest album, Faith’s Meat Kiosk. It is a total bargain, great music and tasty food, what more could you want?? I played a teeny tiny role in helping this come about (I sent one email) so I feel it is my duty to tell you to get down the butchers and buy a chicken (free range of course), and get on their bandcamp and order the album. That is all, over and out.
SORRY WE ARE NOW SOLD OUT!!!
You’ve been waiting a long long time for this, but the rumours are true, Loaf will be holding another pop-up pizza takeaway! And it’s very soon. We’re getting super-organised this time doing an online booking system, we even have proper pizza boxes too, and we’ll have three ovens running to limit any delays! It’s happening:
SORRY WE ARE NOW SOLD OUT!!!
To reserve a pizza you have to do two things:
1) Choose the time slot(s) you want to collect your pizza’s, using the doodle link below. We’ll be pushing out a hot pizza every 2-3 minutes from 6.30pm til 9.57 pm! You MUST choose multiple consecutive time slots if you want multiple pizzas. If you only pick one time slot but want more than one pizza, we won’t be able to accomodate your order due to oven capacity, sorry.
Here’s the doodle: http://www.doodle.com/99k4bagzhw6p9znb
2) Email us immediately after you have your time slots at ohcrumbspopups@gmail.com and let us know which pizzas you’d like, and the time slot you have reserved on doodle. If you don’t email us your choices within a few hours, your order will be cancelled. And if you change your mind please email us so that someone else can take your spot. We’ll email you the exact address for collection on Sunday, but for now it’s Dell Rd in Cotteridge.
Pizzas cost £5 each, they’re about 9-10″, and you can choose from these tasty options:
Please note this event is raising funds for South Birmingham Food Co-op who are opening a shop in Stirchley soon, and the brilliant team are all working as volunteers. Look out for more Oh…Crumbs pop-up’s coming your way soon! Cheers to Jack Adams for the photo.
I just wanted to write a quick blog post before I finish for Christmas to let you know our plans for the New Year. If you follow us on Twitter you’ll know by now that we have signed a contract for a lease on a new premises on our local high street in Stirchley, south Birmingham. This is great news as we’ve been operating from Jane’s and my house for 2 years now, and we’re bursting at the seams!
The property (pictured right) has been recently purchased by Everards the brewer, with the purpose of Loaf being their tenant at the building. the new Loaf HQ will be the first premises established as part of Everards’s ‘Project Artisan’ – an innovative scheme to purchase and then lease out buildings suitable for artisan food and drink businesses that need to expand, initiated by Everards after the success of their project to convert pubs for micro-breweries (Project Willam). Everards investment in the property means that Loaf can take on a bigger and more suitable premises than we otherwise could have done and we are very grateful that they came along when they did. We’re currently waiting on planning permission for the conversion of the premises, and there will then be 2 months of building work to complete. This means we are hoping to be in the new place by late March or April.
What will the new place do?
Loaf has been running a community bakery and cookery school for two years now, and the new premises is primarily an expansion of those – there will be a 12-person cookery school on site (visible from the pavement!), as well as a bakery producing a range of real bread for Stirchley and the surrounding area. They’ll also be a retail space, which Loaf is giving to South Birmingham Food Co-operative to run as a joint space. They will be selling our bread in the shop, alongside store cupboard essentials, wholefoods, and eco cleaning products etc – all ethically sourced and fairly priced.
Bread Bonds
Everards are investing in the refurbishment of the property, which is an enormous help, and means we only need to buy the equipment we need and fit it into the property when we’re handed the keys. We need to raise around £25,000 to kit out the bakery and cookery school. In January we will be doing a ‘bread bond’ issue which we hope will raise the majority of that cash. We are looking for people interested in buying ‘loanstock’ – essentially a £1000 loan to Loaf for 3 years. During the 3 years, bread bond holders will get an interest rate on their loan, which instead of being paid in cash will be paid in the equivalent value in bread. At the end of three years, the bread bond holder get’s their £1000 back. If this is something that might interest you and you’d like to be included in the bond issue or would like more details please email me at tom@loafonline.co.uk – I won’t be answering emails until after the new year, but I’m guessing you’ll be pretty busy too, and i’ll be in touch asap after new year.
There’ll be plenty of updates next year as the project progresses, so keep your eyes peeled to the blog or twitter for all the latest. In the meantime, have a wonderful Christmas and New Year, Peace,
Tom.
I just wanted to write a quick blog post before I finish for Christmas to let you know our plans for the New Year. If you follow us on Twitter you’ll know by now that we have signed a contract for a lease on a new premises on our local high street in Stirchley, south Birmingham. This is great news as we’ve been operating from Jane’s and my house for 2 years now, and we’re bursting at the seams!
The property (pictured right) has been recently purchased by Everards the brewer, with the purpose of Loaf being their tenant at the building. the new Loaf HQ will be the first premises established as part of Everards’s ‘Project Artisan’ – an innovative scheme to purchase and then lease out buildings suitable for artisan food and drink businesses that need to expand, initiated by Everards after the success of their project to convert pubs for micro-breweries (Project Willam). Everards investment in the property means that Loaf can take on a bigger and more suitable premises than we otherwise could have done and we are very grateful that they came along when they did. We’re currently waiting on planning permission for the conversion of the premises, and there will then be 2 months of building work to complete. This means we are hoping to be in the new place by late March or April.
What will the new place do?
Loaf has been running a community bakery and cookery school for two years now, and the new premises is primarily an expansion of those – there will be a 12-person cookery school on site (visible from the pavement!), as well as a bakery producing a range of real bread for Stirchley and the surrounding area. They’ll also be a retail space, which Loaf is giving to South Birmingham Food Co-operative to run as a joint space. They will be selling our bread in the shop, alongside store cupboard essentials, wholefoods, and eco cleaning products etc – all ethically sourced and fairly priced.
Bread Bonds
Everards are investing in the refurbishment of the property, which is an enormous help, and means we only need to buy the equipment we need and fit it into the property when we’re handed the keys. We need to raise around £25,000 to kit out the bakery and cookery school. In January we will be doing a ‘bread bond’ issue which we hope will raise the majority of that cash. We are looking for people interested in buying ‘loanstock’ – essentially a £1000 loan to Loaf for 3 years. During the 3 years, bread bond holders will get an interest rate on their loan, which instead of being paid in cash will be paid in the equivalent value in bread. At the end of three years, the bread bond holder get’s their £1000 back. If this is something that might interest you and you’d like to be included in the bond issue or would like more details please email me at tom@loafonline.co.uk – I won’t be answering emails until after the new year, but I’m guessing you’ll be pretty busy too, and i’ll be in touch asap after new year.
There’ll be plenty of updates next year as the project progresses, so keep your eyes peeled to the blog or twitter for all the latest. In the meantime, have a wonderful Christmas and New Year, Peace,
Tom.
It’s the wonderful Stirchley Market tomorrow, and we’re going to be down there again selling fresh bread. There’s going to be a slight change to our stall from now on though as we’re doubling the size of it, and sharing it with South Birmingham Food Co-operative. As some of you may know we are moving Loaf into a new HQ later in the year (hopefully in December). In this large premises there will be room for a cookery school, bakery, and a nice little shop. We’re hoping that the shop will not only sell products from Loaf (i.e. bread), but also general grocery items and wholefoods from South Birmingham Food Co-op as well. Therefore it makes sense to start trading as one on the market stall aswell so shoppers can get used to the idea. So from tomorrow as well as coming down for fresh bread, we’ll be stocking lentils, rice, oats, sugar and other general provisions – come down and check it out and if you want to earn extra hippy-points, bring your own tupperware to fill up (although free paper bags are available too!). The bread on sale will be:
Cotteridge Sourdough
Borodinsky Rye sourdough (with caraway, malt, molasses)
Ciabtatta
Stirchley Potato bread
White split tin
Bournville Babka (chocolate swirl bread)
It’s Stirchley Market time again, love the new poster, see below:
Stirchley is really putting itself on the map now with lots of cool little things popping up. Here’s the latest:
Today see’s the fifth Stirchley Community Market since its inauguration in July. We’ve moved the market indoors for the winter, although there is still some hot food happening outdoors, and it’s at the same venue, the Stirchley United Working Mens Club on Hazelwell Street, from 4-7.30pm. We’re doing bread at this months market and will be taking down about 75 loaves of various kinds. You can find details of the loaves and prices below:
White Tin – small £0.80
Malthouse Granary – small £1.10
Cotteridge Sourdough – large (800g) £3, small (400g) £1.80
Revolution Rye (100% rye topped with Pumpkin and Sunflower seeds) – small £1.80
Borodinsky Rye (100% rye with molasses, malt extract and caraway) – small £2
Ciabatta – small £1.50
‘The Stirchley’ (Crusty part-wholemeal potato loaf) – small £1
We normally sell out before the end so head down early to grab some!