This is the weekly bulletin from Loaf in Stirchley, with our specials, lunches and cookery school classes.

🍞 🥐 Pre-order your Bread and Pastries

Pre-order the bread and pastries to ensure you get what you want.

For now we have stopped taking donations for B30 Foodbank. Those who need it can still claim a free loaf from the Pay it Forward donations pot and we still donate our leftover bread to Incredible Surpluss and the B30 Foodbank at the end of each day, but for now we need to focus on raising funds to move to Stirchley Co-operative Development early next year. If you still want to make a cash donation to B30 Foodbank you can do via their website here.

Our opening hours are:
Wed-Fri: 12-6
Saturday: 8-1

Visit us at 1421 Pershore Road, Stirchley, B30 2JL (map)

🎄 Christmas Opening Hours 🎄

We will be opening on Tuesdays throughout December so you can get your Mincepie fix during the festive period!

✨ Special Christmas Hours:

• Tuesdays (from 2nd December): 12pm – 6pm

• Christmas Eve: 8am – 1pm

These are in addition to our usual opening hours:

🕰️ Normal Opening Hours:

• Wednesday – Friday: 12pm – 6pm

• Saturday: 8am – 1pm

We will then be closed from the 25th December right through until we re-open on the 10th January 2026 for a well needed rest!

_{Sweets This Week}

• Blueberry & Peanut Butter Blondie

• Double Choc Chip Cookies (Ve)

• Everything Blondie

• Croissant Pudding

_{Saturday Sourdough Specials}

• Onion & Sage

• Fermented Oat & Honey

  No reservations - first-come, first-served.

This Week's Lunches

Wednesday

• Tarka Daal with Sourdough (Ve)

Thursday

• Soup: Curried Parsnip Soup (Ve)

Friday

• Curry: Massaman Curry with Carrot & Potato (Ve)

• Salt Beef with Pickles + Mustard on Challah

Wed - Fri

• Sourdough Pizza: Artichoke & Mushroom (V)

Wed - Fri

• Ham and Cheese Croissant

• Rocket Pesto & Cheese Croissant (V)

Wed – Sat:

• Sausage Roll

• Vegetable Roll (Ve)

Lunches are made fresh weekdays from 12 noon.

Our menu for the week — with ingredients and allergens — is on the website.

Cookery School Classes

Cookery School Update
We are down to our last few spaces on our remaining courses for 2025 and our January 2026 courses are selling fast!

If you’re already thinking about gifts, our Cookery School Gift Vouchers make perfect Christmas presents and can be redeemed anytime in 2026, once we’re settled in our new home.

All-Day Classes with Availability:

🍞 Bread: Back to Basics 🍞

• Saturday 6th December 2025 9:30 - 4pm

• Saturday 10th January 2026 9:30 - 4pm - NEW!

Bread: Back to Basics is a day-long bread experience. In a world where real bread is so hard to come by, this course will equip you to make consistently good, wholesome bread at home. This hands-on course takes bread back to its essential ingredients - flour, water, salt and yeast - and teaches you a great repertoire of beautiful breads based on these basic building blocks.

🥐 Sweet Breads & Viennoiserie 🥐

• Saturday 17th January 2026 9:30 - 4pm - NEW!

A hands-on course exploring sweet breads and viennoiserie. You’ll learn to laminate dough and bake treats like cinnamon buns, cardamom knots, hot cross buns, croissants, pain au chocolat, danishes, and more.

🥖 Simply Sourdough 🥖

• Saturday 24th January 2026 9:30 - 4pm - NEW!

Spend a day learning the art of sourdough where you’ll cover everything from caring for your starter to kneading, shaping, proving, and baking both wheat and rye sourdough loaves. You’ll take home your own dough to bake the next day, plus starters and full recipes to continue baking confidently at home.

Evening Classes with Availability:

🥘 Thaali 🥘

• Tuesday 18th November 2025 6:30–9:30pm - 1 space remaining!

Join Chef Haseen and learn the secrets of another Indian speciality - Thaali - popular in India, Nepal, Fiji, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and Singapore. A hands-on workshop where you can feast on all the dishes you make family-style, so arrive hungry!

🍝 Handmade Pasta 🍝

• Wednesday 21st January 2026 6:30-9:30pm - NEW!

This course will teach you the skills to make fresh pasta at home, with fillings and sauces to accompany it. We will be showing you both hand rolling and cutting techniques as well as using a pasta machine. Recipes include a making fresh egg pasta to pair with classic sauces. We will make a classic carbonara, puttanesca and tortillini filled with ricotta and spinach.

Booking Info:

• All equipment, recipes, aprons & refreshments provided.

• Please check the individual class restrictions for dietary requirements and allergies, and get in touch with any queries.

• Spaces are limited and booked on a first-come, first-served basis upon receipt of payment. We require 100% payment in advance for all of our courses.

Tell Us What You’d Like to See in Loaf’s New Cookery School

Thanks to those who have already filled out the form below. I’m going to leave the link in the newsletter for a couple weeks in case anyone missed it last time!

We’re creating a new fully accessible cookery school, designed so that everyone can take part in our classes and events. We want to hear from our community - what kinds of cookery school classes, activities, and features would make the new space most welcoming and useful to you?

Please take 2 minutes to share your thoughts using our short survey:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScUnjj2jpOR_62S7LlLFYV5DJIdCPa9OzmiiIhps5JVLJb1YQ/viewform?usp=header

Your feedback will help us design an inclusive, vibrant space that truly serves Stirchley.

New Punchcard Podcast Episode: “How to Radicalise an Accountant”

We’re excited to share a fresh episode from the Punchcard podcast (via Workers’ Co‑op) titled “How to Radicalise an Accountant with Abbas Shapuri”.

Abbas’s story is fascinating for anyone interested in how we can create alternative ways of working. He started his career in large-scale corporate firms (like KPMG and IHG) before discovering the world of worker co-operatives and making the transition to a values-based way of working, just like we do here at Loaf!

Some key takeaways that stood out when listening:

• The importance of peer influence and networks - Abbas credits a friend for introducing him to the co-op sector.

• That experience in a “traditional business” can bring valuable skills back into cooperative enterprises (Abbas used lessons from his corporate role to strengthen his later work).

• The challenge of scaling the co-op movement: how do we reach people who feel stuck in conventional jobs and show them that different working models are possible?

Give the podcast a listen here!

Support our Crowdfunder!

A Huge Thank You! 💛
We’ve been absolutely blown away by your support - in less than two weeks, we’ve already reached 42% of our £25,000 target! Your generosity and enthusiasm mean the world to us.

There’s still a way to go - 58% to reach our goal - so please keep spreading the word and sharing our campaign with anyone who might want to get involved.

Gift Vouchers

Give the Gift of Learning!

If you’re thinking of gifting one class but you are not sure which one would be preferred you could buy a gift voucher instead.

Our vouchers can be purchased in any value you like for redemption against future bookings. Vouchers purchased online will give you a downloadable pdf which can be emailed to the recipient directly, or to you for printing and giving to them by hand. Alternatively you can come to us and buy vouchers in the shop.

Thanks for all your Continued Support

See you soon!

Dave, Oli, Fliss, Rach, Neil, Molly, Mina, Pete, Kate, Dorit ,Michael,

Address: 1421 Pershore Road, Stirchley, B30 2JL - map

Website: loaf.coop

Updates on: Instagram

Review us on: Google | Tripadvisor