Loaf is proud to bring real bread back to Stirchley. We make beautiful wholesome bread slowly, with passion and care, without artificial additives. We specialise in sourdough (rye and wheat) and other artisan breads such as brioche and ciabatta, but you’ll also find great white and wholemeal loaves in our bakery Tuesday-Saturday.
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OPENING HOURS @ Stirchley Stores:
Tuesday – Friday 2-7pm
Saturday 8.15am-2pm
Come and check us out in the Stirchley Stores co-operative community shop, for a great range of classic European breads, sweet and savoury treats and rotating specials. Everything from your daily white cob loaf to our signature two-day sourdough boule.
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The Loaf loyalty Card
A thank you to our Stirchley regulars - Since our shop opening on Pershore Road we’ve been overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and support of local people buying our bread. So we’d like to reward our regular customers with our new Loaf Loyalty Card, to enable you to collect ‘loaf’ stamps and redeem a free loaf of bread!
You’ll get your last loaf in a baker’s dozen on us
when you buy 12 loaves, you’ll get the 13th free!*
Pick one up at Stirchley Stores, or ask at the till. *Subject to terms and conditions – details on the card.
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Loaf Bakery Consultancy
Loaf Consultancy Loaf has been through a lot in the past few years growing from an idea, through a home-and-garden-based bakery and cookery school, into a fully-fledged high street commercial bakery, cookery school, and food events business. We don’t pretend to know it all, but we’ve certainly learned a lot. Recently we’ve been able to help another Midlands bakery set up by helping with bakery equipment procurement, bakery organisation, recipes, staff recruitment, and training. We’re also helping a co-operative bakery in Reading do the same. Over the years we’ve helped many home-bakers with advice and training shifts, and now we’re helping people who feel ready to make the next step up to baking on their high street. If you’d like to learn from our successes and failures(!), get in touch and we can discuss how we can help.
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About our Bread
Revolution Rye - A 100% rye sourdough bread. This loaf is baked with a 2-year old rye sourdough starter, and UK-grown organic light rye flour, topped with pumpkin and sunflower seeds. It has an amazing depth of flavour and surprising moisture. Like a good cheese or wine it gets better with age, and is at its best 2 or 3 days after baking. It will be in good condition for 5-7 days. 800g. Always baked in a tin.
White Sourdough – Flour, water, salt, wild yeasts. Nothing else. A loaf born and raised in Cotteridge using a 6-year old wheat sourdough starter, and UK-grown organic white flour. This is a great everyday bread that has a subtle sourness and light airy crumb. It keeps well for 5 days, and freezes well too. 800g. Baked as a round boule.
Granary Sourdough – Made with a mixture of UK grown wholemeal and white flour, with added wheat and spelt grains, oatmeal, and malted barley extract, and dusted genorously with dark rye flour. This loaf is long-fermented, and has a deep wholesome flavour with nutty, toasted overtones. 800g. Sometimes baked in a tin-shape.
Cotteridge Sourdough, Revolution Rye, Charlecote Granary Sourdough
Loaf originated as a community supported bakery run out of director, Tom Baker’s, home, baking weekly for subscribers. We have now expanded into a brand new bakery on Stirchley High Street and there is bread available for all!
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What is a Community Supported Bakery anyway?
The idea is simple, and it’s borrowed from the American community supported agriculture (CSA) model. Each month you ’subscribe’ to a farm (or in this case, a bakery), giving a set amount of money upfront. Because of your monthly investment and commitment to the farm (bakery), the farmer (baker) has a guaranteed income and so can invest in equipment, tools, supplies, labour etc, in order to repay your investment with an agreed amount of produce every week. The farmer (baker) gets some security and a leg-up in surviving against the industrial food system, and you get wholesome produce, produced responsibly and sustainably, at a fair price. In this case, there will also be less wastage, as the baker knows exactly how many loaves he needs to bake.
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Waste Not
We sell out of bread on most days, but on the occasions (rain and snow!) when we have leftovers we team up with The Big Issue, Food Not Bombs and Sifa Fireside in Birmingham who make sure it is distributed to local people, often who are homeless. And of course a few loaves go towards making our legendary Fill-Belly Pud too (aka bread pudding)!
