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 of 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
