10 July 2023
This is the weekly newsletter from Loaf in Stirchley, keeping you abreast of our bakery and cookery school, and other news we think you might be interested in.
Last week we took Loaf on tour with two market stalls and a conference. This week we look forward to Artefact's Artefacts and KHARnival. Also, focaccia!
Scroll down for this week’s lunch menu, cookery school spaces and community news.
🍞 Pre-order your bread and pastries 🥐
We’ll have plenty on the shelves all week, with lunches served from noon on weekdays.
Our bakery opening hours are:
Tue - Fri: 12 - 6
Saturday: 8 - 1
We'll be closed Tuesday 25th July
We're having one of our major all-member meetings on Monday 24th, to plan out the rest of the year, and figure out how we're going to deal with the insane price of energy now that the government subsidies have been removed for businesses. Thanks government!
This pushes our bakery prep time back a day so we'll be back open on Wednesday 26th. Thank you for your understanding.
Saturday focaccia is back
One of our major frustrations in the bakery over the last year has been fitting focaccia into the bake shift for Saturday morning. It either had to go in too early, in which case it wasn't as fresh, or too late, in which case it was under done. But we think we've cracked it and for the last couple of Saturdays have had some lovely slabs of fugassa for sale. Fingers crossed we'll be able to keep it up!
The caveat is, it comes out of the oven around 9am along with the fruit loaves, so it's not for the early birds.
Loaf's tour diary
We took Loaf on the road last week, for the first time in quite a while.
Last Saturday we were at CoCoMad selling bread, pastries, cold drinks and, once the high street shop closed, anything left over in the bakery. It was great to get out and meet new people, and of course chat to some regulars in a more relaxed environment. We noticed a bit of an uptick in visitors to the shop during the week which might have come from CoCoMad, or it might just be Stirchley high street being unpredictable as usual. Who knows! But we had a good time, met lots of new people, sold more than enough to make it worth while and will definitely be back next year.
Then on Tuesday we had a bread stall at Six Weeks of Summer by the office blocks at 2 & 3 Snow Hill. That's right – into the city centre! Our motivation was to promote the cookery school to people outside of Stirchley and it was an intriguing toe in the water. We're keen to try this some more, particularly on Tuesdays and Wednesdays when we have capacity to bake extra, so if you have a lead on an office lobby with plenty of foot traffic that would benefit from a pile of sourdough bread for sale, do let us know.
Finally, Wednesday saw Pete representing Loaf at the Co-op National Youth Summit, appearing on a couple of panels. The world of co-operative businesses and organisations is wide and varied so it's good to bring a worker's co-op perspective to the proceedings. He obviously didn't make too many faux pas as we've been asked to talk about our new building at the main Co-op Congress which will be held in Birmingham next June. Exciting!
Artefact is closing (for now!)
As you'll know, Artefact is one of the worker's co-ops joining the Bike Foundry and Loaf in our new building, currently under construction on the corner of Hunts Road. Their lease is up on their current home and, for various reasons, they've decided to vacate.
This Friday is the big closing (for now!) party, starting with Artefact's Artefacts where you can purchase a piece of Stirchley history.
Then there's the final programme of events through to the 30th July when the doors will shut.
Artefact isn't going away though. Over the next year there'll be regular events popping up in venues across Stirchley while they get themselves ready for the new building. Sign up to their newsletter to stay informed.
The Breadcrumbs
🥖 KHARnival, the annual fundraising jamboree from Kings Heath Action for Refugees, is this coming Sunday in Highbury Park. As usual, we've donated a load of bread and buns to this fantastic and worthwhile event. Please give it your support (and money).
🥖 Bake Your Lawn is a new book from the Real Bread Campaign for parents, teachers, bakers, school cooks, community groups to lead children on a journey from seed to sandwich. They're crowdfunding to pay for printing, so if this your kinda thing (it's definitely ours), go pre-order a copy.
🥖 Skills for Growth is an offshoot of Birmingham & Solihull Women's Aid which is selling some lovely totes, t-shirts and tea towels designed by the wonderful Sarah Taylor Silverwood, raising money to support and empower women to create lives free from abuse.
If you’ve got news or an event in Loaf’s wheelhouse (some variation on bread / community / cooperatives), let us know at newsletter@loaf.coop
Lunches this week
Tuesday
- Curry: Tarka daal with sourdough (Ve)
Wednesday
- Sandwich: Tofu and mushroom bánh mì (Vietnamese Baguette) (Ve)
Thursday
- Salad Box: Panzanella (Tuscan-style tomato and bread salad) with focaccia (Ve)
Friday
- Curry: Sweet potato, chickpea and spinach curry with sourdough (Ve)
- Salt beef on challah
Tue – Fri
- Sourdough pizza: Courgette, caramelised red onion, mozzarella, basil and chilli oil (V)
Wed – Fri
- Ham and cheese croissant
- Pine nut pesto and cheese croissant (V)
Tue – Sat:
- Sausage rolls
- Vegetable rolls (V)
Lunches are made fresh weekdays for 12 noon.
Our menu for the week — with ingredients and allergens — is on the website.
Cookery school classes
We're into the last few days of classes before the summer break. The following have spaces as of this newsletter being posted.
Loaf’s all-day classes:
- Bread — Back to Basics: sold out
- Simply Sourdough: Sat 22 July
- Sweet Breads and Viennoiserie: sold out
- Baking with Heritage Grains: returns in the autumn
- Wholegrain Baking with Tom Baker: returns in the autumn
Loaf’s evening classes:
- Handmade Pasta: sold out
Haseen’s evening classes:
Lap’s all-day classes:
- Sausage & Charcuterie: returns in the autumn
- Seafood Masterclass: returns in the autumn
Lap’s evening classes:
- Thai Cooking: returns in the autumn
- Sushi: returns in the autumn
- Ramen: returns in the autumn
- Dumplings: sold out
- Macarons: returns in the autumn
- Knife Skills: returns in the autumn
The next tranche of dates will be released in August. You can sign up to alert lists for specific classes here.
Thanks for all your continued support. See you next week!
Team Loaf: Molly, Rach, Nancy, Sarah, Dave, Neil, Ian, Dorit, Martha & Pete
Website: loaf.coop
Socials: Instagram / Mastodon / Twitter / Facebook