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Bodger

Bakers and Bakeries.

Bread is a commodity that many of us take for granted but there are people all over the world who make their living by being bakers and running bakeries but yesterday, I came across this website. It was something of an eye opener. I've begun to look at bread in a slightly different light.
The courses on offer and just about everything else appear hellishly expensive but having read what they have to say, it would seem that there's a call for this sort of thing and that people are prepared to stump up the money.

http://breadmatters.com/index.php?route=common/home

Its interesting stuff, that's both bread and the website and having perused it, I'm tempted to send for a copy of this book 'Bread Matters'

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet...esults?sts=t&tn=bread+matters
Woo

Back when I lived in England, after a rather lovely holiday here in France I set out to buy a loaf of fresh local bread...
This was on my way back from school drop off at 9am it was a 5 mile drive through 3 villages.
how many loaves of local freshly made bread could I buy?

Yes, you guessed it, I started making my own.
It was not possible to buy such a thing.
thank you Tesco etc Confused

My Mum and Dad live on the south coast and they know a lovely polish chap who is a baker. He set up a business that no body else seemed to want to do!
earthyvirgo

Menai Bridge Bodger, newish bakery called 'The Pumpkin Seed Bakery' - they make proper bread every day.

Good stuff too. The woman who runs it knows a thing or two about bread-making.

EV
robkb

The Bread Matters book is well worth the money Bodger, very good on the science of proper bread and the practice of actually making it.

eta: Bodger, if you're thinking of buying the book from Abebooks I've just been sent a 10% discount voucher you're welcome to have Smile
Shan

Back when I lived in England, after a rather lovely holiday here in France I set out to buy a loaf of fresh local bread...
This was on my way back from school drop off at 9am it was a 5 mile drive through 3 villages.
how many loaves of local freshly made bread could I buy?

Yes, you guessed it, I started making my own.
It was not possible to buy such a thing.
thank you Tesco etc Confused

My Mum and Dad live on the south coast and they know a lovely polish chap who is a baker. He set up a business that no body else seemed to want to do!


It's not Tesco's fault at all. We get the high streets we deserve. The simple fact is that we didn't support the butcher, bake, fish-monger and so forth and now it is increasingly difficult to find them.
Shan

Back when I lived in England, after a rather lovely holiday here in France I set out to buy a loaf of fresh local bread...
This was on my way back from school drop off at 9am it was a 5 mile drive through 3 villages.
how many loaves of local freshly made bread could I buy?

Yes, you guessed it, I started making my own.
It was not possible to buy such a thing.
thank you Tesco etc Confused

My Mum and Dad live on the south coast and they know a lovely polish chap who is a baker. He set up a business that no body else seemed to want to do!



It's not Tesco's fault at all. We get the high streets we deserve. The simple fact is that we didn't support the butcher, bake, fish-monger and so forth and now it is increasingly difficult to find them
wellington womble

The hours are horribly unsociable. My dad was a baker, so I take fresh bread for granted, but he worked all night, every night for years and years. I make my own now. Bodger

I get bread waste from a local bakery and the hours are indeed very unsociable.
Way back when I was a policeman, they were always a great place to cadge a cup of tea from and on occasion, a good place to hang a soaking great coat infront of the ovens. Smile

Rob, thanks for your kind offer. I've sent you a PM.
Woo

[/quote]
It's not Tesco's fault at all. We get the high streets we deserve. The simple fact is that we didn't support the butcher, bake, fish-monger and so forth and now it is increasingly difficult to find them[/quote]

I agree, i just thought it may be too controversial to say it was the fault of the shoppers who don't care anymore.

the hours are indeed very unsociable, the bakers here are open for business at 7am having mixed, proved and baked the loaves, which they do at least twice a day. our local baker, father of 4, still managed a family life Wink
dpack

in york there are a couple of micro bakeries and several larger ones(such as betties),they seem to do quite good trade.

in alnmouth the italian restaurant make bread in the wood fired oven and sell it from the bar but both they and the two local shops display it in reach of "prodders"with no "sneeze covers" ie in pretty baskets which puts me right off.

im not a bleach and tupperware type but i prefer my loaf to have had a minimum of a biological challenge.

we buy sarnie loaf,and as we eat a fair bit of bread and other baked goods make a fair bit and as we "sold the child to betties"we often have their bread in the freezer if they had staff discount quantities(proper bargain at ten p rather than three quid)

that brings me to the next issue an artisan loaf might be nice and a fair price but a fair price will be 2 to 3 times that of a similar size loaf of industrial bread .many folk cant or wont pay for quality and many prefer the well known prolefood loaves they are sold on the telly .

i recon that local bakeries have a future if they are well located,make good products and balance the "rustic" and the food hygiene aspects of presentation.price is always going to be greater than industrial but i recon that isnt a problem if location is addressed properly.there is no reason that a local bakery could not make a basic loaf at a basic price but it would require the fancier ones to subsidise the overheads .

i have done a bit of research re this subject as i have considered doing it.it probably needs a keen ,fit baker and quite a large initial outlay(oven etc)and might take a quite a few years to cover the start up costs.
tim_and_nicky

Our local town in Galicia (population about 3,000) has 3 bakeries that I know of, plus more in surrounding villages. You can get the result of the Chorleywood process if you really want it but real bread form wood-fired ovens appears to be the local standard.

Oxford used to have lots of little bakeries ca. 30 years ago but I would be surprised if they are still going.
Treacodactyl

Quote:

It's not Tesco's fault at all. We get the high streets we deserve. The simple fact is that we didn't support the butcher, bake, fish-monger and so forth and now it is increasingly difficult to find them


I agree, i just thought it may be too controversial to say it was the fault of the shoppers who don't care anymore.

Greggs: The baker that is stopping selling loaves
Woo

Quote:

It's not Tesco's fault at all. We get the high streets we deserve. The simple fact is that we didn't support the butcher, bake, fish-monger and so forth and now it is increasingly difficult to find them


I agree, i just thought it may be too controversial to say it was the fault of the shoppers who don't care anymore.

Greggs: The baker that is stopping selling loaves

Confused good grief Charlie brown!
why buy bread when you can buy a sandwich or a warm pie?
LynneA

Our lovely local bakers has become so popular that they've taken on more staff and now open seven days a week - Sunday mornings just selling croissants and pastries, plus any bread left over from Saturday.

The two new bakers they've employed are Portuguese, so they now also sell the best custard tarts.
cir3ngirl

Our town has a bakery that has two shops. jamanda

Our town has two bakers as well. And one of them has a French bloke working for them (as a result of a steamy night on a town twinning event apparently) so we get excellent croissants and baguettes as well as lardy bread and pasties. dpack

town twinning is not supposed to be an opportunity to capture bakers Laughing Laughing Laughing

maybe it is Wink
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