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/ and 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 190°C/370°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.
