September Update
Since returning from our break at the end of August, we have been hard at work developing Stoneham Bakehouse. Last weekend was the Friends of Stoneham Park Picnic and Farmers’ Market, and I was incredibly proud to have a stall in our local park, selling community baked bread. The day was a fabulous community event (helped by a break in the distinctly autumnal weather we’ve been having) and it was great to enjoy a picnic with some of the Bakehouse supporters in the sun.
Our ever popular Everyday Bread workshops are returning for the autumn, and in an exciting development we’ll be teaming up with The Hive to stage these in the evening at their fabulous community cafe. As before we’ll cover the basics of fermentation, kneading, shaping and baking, with all participants leaving with a bag of bread and enjoying a light seasonal meal. If you’re interested in learning to bake, we’ve got places left on our Everyday Bread workshops for Mondays October 19th, November 16th and December 14th between 6-10pm. You can book via the workshops section of the website.
Volunteers are what make Stoneham Bakehouse different from other bakehouses. Getting together with other members of the community to make bread is a wonderful thing; not only is breadmaking therapeutic in itself, but working together helps us to develop community cohesion, and forms friendships. All this wouldn’t happen without them all, so thank you!
You may well have seen some ofΒ our fabulous volunteers sporting our new t-shirts and aprons. They have artwork by Rob Robinson, designer and Poets’ Corner resident, and are printed by Able & Willing (a local social enterprise who employ and support people with a variety of disabilities in full-time and part-time employment). If you’d like to get involved yourself, and perhaps wear one of our Stoneham Baker aprons; then do get in contact. Whether as a baker, helping out on the Farmers’ Market stall, or perhaps you’ve got a skill you want to offer the Bakehouse, we’d love to hear from you info@stonehambakehouse.org.uk
Thank you for your continued support of Stoneham Bakehouse and I hope you’ve enjoyed this update. A Communiy Supported Bakery needs a community that buy into the concept of local food, made by people from the area it exists in. We really want to be able to bring breadmaking back into the Poets’ Corner community, offering good bread to as many residents as we can.
Simon
Back to Life Back to Reality
I’ve been back baking for a few days now, and its been brilliant to get my hands floury again. Having a break, and time to spend with the family, was great. It enabled me to sit back and think about what is important in life, and what the next steps for the bakehouse should be.
Whilst not quite a busman’s holiday, I did keep my eyes open for bread wherever I went, finding some delicious breads, and fabulous bakeries, on my summer travels. As the year continues, it would be good to see us securing a location and giving Stoneham Bakehouse a permanent home.
I Support Stoneham Bakehouse Because…
I posted an image the other day on my Instagram and Facebook feeds. It was me, with a whiteboard on which I’d written the reasons for my support and enthusiasm for Stoneham Bakehouse. The Bakehouse has been instrumental in helping me improve my mental health; by baking, and becoming more involved in the community, it’s supported my recovery from depression. As for me, this is a key reason why I support Stoneham Bakehouse. I want others in the community to be able to benefit from the therapeutic nature of breadmaking.
I support Stoneham Bakehouse because … baking bread in the community helps my mental health. #wellbeing #community
Posted by Stoneham Bakehouse on Wednesday, 2 September 2015
This is one of the reasons why I support the Bakehouse, but what about you? What are your reasons? Some of you have already added your reasons to the Facebook post, but you can also add them as a comment to this post, or perhaps even share a photo of yourself with a message by uploading it below.
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Beach Burger Buns
I’ve been trying to enjoy the summer so far, and the beach, as always, is a great place to go to enjoy a sunny evening with the family. It’s not just me descending on the beach, so I thought we’d better make some burger buns for our last Friday Bun of August. They’re a brioche-style dough topped with sesame seeds, they’re brilliant for burgers on the beach, or indeed anywhere. We’ll be selling them this Friday at 50p each, or 6 for Β£2.50, along with our usual loaves.
If you want to order any buns, or any other of our breads, please email orders@stonehambakehouse.org.ukΒ or phone 07786927110
We’re Going On Our Summer Holidays
It’s the summer holidays and a time for many to have a break. We’re still baking for much of August, but will be grabbing a bit of holiday ourselves later in the month.
One of the reasons for my career change from teacher to something new, was a desire to reconnect with my family and the community. I suppose it was partly about the work-life balance that everyone talks about. In order to be effective and enthusiastic, everyone needs to have a balance of personal life and work life. I set up Stoneham Bakehouse with this premise as a core building block; aiming to create a community food project which gave people the chance to be involved on their own terms, allowing them to profit fully from the wellbeing benefits of working with dough and in the community.
It is because of this, that we’ve taken the decision to close the Bakehouse for a couple of weeks at the end of August. Our main whoesale customers, The Hive, will be closed from the 20th August until 2nd September; so we will be shutting ourselves over the same period. It means that I, and the volunteers, can have a break and recharge our batteries. The development of Stoneham Bakehouse has been brilliant so far, and there are significant potential developments ahead. I’m really proud about what has already happened, and very excited about the potential for the future.
Before the 20th August, we’ll be operating as normal; with bakes every Friday, and on Saturday 8th August. We’ll also be at the August Hove Farmers’ Market on Saturday 15th, where we will be selling a wide range of breads. If you want to order bread from us, then please visit www.stonehambakehouse.org.uk/buy-bread/ andΒ email orders@stonehambakehouse.org.uk. You can always buy some loaves and put anything you can’t eat in the freezer. Check out my top tips for freezing bread below.
Bread freezes really well. If wrapped up well in the freezer, it’ll last a good while, and be beautifully tasty when defrosted.
TOP TIPS:
- Wrap loaf in 2-3 layers of clingfilm before freezing.
- Remove from freezer and take clingfilm off the bread, replacing with 2 layers of foil.
- Set oven to 190Β°C/370Β°F and place the wrapped bread in the oven.
- When oven is at set temperature, remove the foil and bake for 5 minutes or so.
