Real Bread Week (Feb 20-28)
At Stoneham Bakehouse we’re committed to producing real bread; that is bread without the addition or use of processing aids or other artificial additives. We use organic flour from Shipton Mill in Gloucestershire and buy many of our ingredients from Infinity Foods to ensure they are ethically produced. We very much support the work of the Real Bread Campaign; part of the charity Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming. The Real Bread Campaign fights for better bread in Britain. It’s mantra is “We want everyone to have the chance to choose Real Bread“, and we at Stoneham Bakehouse share this aim. Starting today they are celebrating their annual Real Bread Week, and we’ll be doing our part to spread the Real Bread word too.Â
We’ll be working with the brilliant Sussex Bake Down team to provide their bakers with a basic breadmaking workshop via Zoom. Like Stoneham Bakehouse their bakes are all produced by volunteers, with Sussex Bake Down’s cakes, biscuits, loaves and other delicious things heading to the West Blatchington & Hangleton Food Bank, as well as local NHS staff. It’s a great project we’re looking to support into the future.Â
We’ll also be continuing to support the partipants on our Bread Shed project. Thanks to the funding we recently received from the Homity Trust, we can keep this vital project going. Though we’re not able to meet in person and bake together, the group has been meeting virtually. Via video we’ve shared recipes, chatted, and stayed connected. During this tough time, it has been a real help to people to have their weekly Zoom meetings and virtual bakes.Â
As a social enterprise we use the profits from the sale of our bread and workshops to support and fund these projects. So every loaf, bagel, bun, workshop, apron or tote bag you buy helps us to nourish the community. It helps us to be a community supported bakery. It helps us make a difference to the wellbeing of the community.
And if you’re a baker wanting to get started in the world of sourdough, do pop in and get yourself a bit of our sourdough starter. We love seeing other people baking and enjoying what Real Bread brings to people’s lives.
We’re Continuing to Bake
Festive Opening and Click & Collect
It’s quickly becoming festive around the neighbourhood, and our thinking has moved to Christmas and when we’ll be open over the festive period. With our Covid-safe procedures in place, we’re going to stay with our current opening days of Thursday and Saturday for now, and initially into the new year. We’ve been blown away with the support and enthusiasm of our customers. Thank you. We realise that at times the queue can be quite long, and so to help with this, we’ve introduced an online ordering service for our Christmas Eve shop. The Click & Collect service should enable us to take orders for the Christmas Eve bake outside the time we’re open, and thus speed up the queuing on other bake days. In addition it should also mean we can hopefully limit the time spent in the queue on Christmas Eve, and maximise the time you can spend with your families that day.
So visit our Buy Bread section of the website and put in your order for the Christmas Eve bake.
We’re Keeping Baking
With a second national lockdown starting today (Thursday 5th November) we pleased to say we will be continuing to be open, with bread baked by our fabulous volunteer team available on Thursday and Saturday mornings (10-1). Unless government regulations alter, we plan to keep to these opening times until Christmas.
Back to Baking with Small Steps
Thank you to those of you have been buying flour over the last month or so, and for those who came down to the Bakehouse on Friday to buy bread. After a successful trial bake on Friday morning, we’ve decided to return with a two bake week. It’s still not the case that we’re back to normal, but we will be able to have most of the breads we normally bake. In order to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our team, two of us will be baking on Thursday and Saturday mornings; with bread available from 10-1pm after everything is prepared for serving our customers.Â
We’ll still be selling flour though, so come down on Thursday or Saturday mornings to  restock your flour supplies. We’ve loved seeing so many of you baking whilst we’ve been closed, and want to encourage you to continue to do so.Â
Whilst our customers have been baking at home, so have members of our Bread Shed group. We can’t get together to bake at the moment, but we can bake together through the magic of video and Zoom. As older members of the community, many of the group are more at risk of isolation than before, so we’ve been delivering flour to their homes, and connecting via video and WhatsApp to bake together virtually. As one of our participants said:
“It’s making a real difference, it’s something really positive in my week.”
