27 March 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.
This week we look at the Heritage Grains class we ran for the first time on Saturday.
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 ran our first Heritage Grain class on Saturday
Loaf’s Heritage Grain class has been in development for what seems like forever. After a year of planning it was due to run just as the pandemic hit. Then, while the cookery school was closed, we got deeper and deeper into the subject and decided to re-do it from scratch. Research trips to farms and conferences, and conversations with millers and suppliers, saw us trying a wider variety of wheats in the bakery and developing a hands-on understanding of what works and why. Over the last six months the bakers finessed their experiments into a coherent, teachable class, and on Saturday Rachel and Neil finally delivered it for the first time. Phew!
Running a class for the first time is always nerve-racking but we’re happy to say everyone enjoyed themselves and got a lot out of it. Heritage Grain will be run quarterly with the next class due in June. Sign up here to be notified as soon as the date is announced.
The Breadcrumbs
🥖 Fancy a poetry tree walk in Cotteridge Park next Wednesday? Join their resident poet mr blue for a close look at the trees as they emerge into spring.
🥖 The Selly Oak Adult Social Care team is running advice and information sessions at Stirchley Baths on the first Wednesday of the month, 10am—2pm.
🥖 We’re getting close to starting work on our new building on the corner of Hunts Road. Here’s a bit of press. Exciting!
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
- Soup: Spiced roasted cauliflower with sourdough (Ve)
Thursday
- Sandwich: Butternut squash hummus, pickled red onion, toasted pumpkin seeds, spinach on sea salt focaccia (Ve) with optional goat’s cheese (V)
Friday
- Curry: Potato, kale and chickpea curry with sourdough (Ve)
- Salt beef on challah
Tue — Fri
- Sourdough pizza: Mushroom, olive, caper, rocket pesto, mozzarella (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
The following classes have spaces as of this newsletter being posted.
Loaf’s all-day classes:
- Bread — Back to Basics: Tue 30 May
- Simply Sourdough: Sat 29 Apr
- Sweet Breads and Viennoiserie: Sat 13 May
- Wholegrain Baking with Tom Baker: Sat 20 May
Haseen’s evening classes:
Lap’s evening classes:
- Thai Cooking: Wed 29 Mar
- Ramen: Thu 4 May
- Knife Skills: Thu 25 May
The next tranche of dates will be released soon. You can sign up to alert lists for specific classes here.
Thanks for all your continued support. See you next week!
Team Loaf: Pete, Nancy, Dorit, Neil, Ian, Sarah, Molly, Rach, Dave & Martha
Website: loaf.coop
Socials: Instagram / Mastodon / Twitter / Facebook