Returning home, our ‘pyromanticism’ resulted in the inspired e-bay purchase of a brick oven from Vigo in Spain.  Our ‘baby’ arrived weighing 650kilos and, being too heavy to push down the path, had to be installed in our tiny garden via a completely amazing crane (thanks, Jim and Andy!).   The pictures speak for themselves, but the bread really has to be tasted to be believed.    Anyone who fancies a slightly unusual baking experience is welcome to join a firebread workshop – just give us a ring.

This year we started baking sourdoughs and had a few challenging 4am starts, coming in to find the feisty little ’mamas’ taking over the kitchen.  But we soon got the better of them, finally taking the plunge and growing a wild yeast mother. It’s a process guaranteed to make you feel like a white witch, bent over a bubbling pot, stirring and muttering for days on end.  But the Wolvercote Wild One is a really tangy white sourdough and well worth all the (12 hours!) trouble.  Next year we’ll be adding it to our specials  (Rustic White Sourdough,  Fig and Caraway Rye Sourdough, Walnut Rye and Plain Rye), which we bake on Fridays and Saturdays, to cheer up everyone’s weekends.  Carl at The Postbox in Wolvercote remains our very unique outlet and is still doing a fantastic job of bringing real bread to local people. When the first Rustic Whites arrived on his shelf, the word got around so quickly that the Mayor of Oxford sent his wife in with the classic line “I hear there’s a new loaf in town!” She went happily home with one of the still-warm  first six under her arm.

LoveLoaves Workshops are going from strength to strength, and this is where we want to say the biggest thank  you of all, to all our amazing ‘students’. We have had hours of fun with people of all ages, from all different walks of life, baking together, comparing stories  and business strategies and  discussing the mysteries of the process.  As Dragan often says, “There are barely more than three or  four ingredients, and about a thousand ways to screw them up!”  It’s a joke, of course. There are  actually about a million ways to screw it up,  but the upside is that there are as many different versions of the ‘ideal loaf’ as there are people who eat bread.  Mastering the principles just gives you the tools to bake the bread you like best.  If you live in Wimbledon, look out for “Le Loaf”, hand-baking from Vanessa Young, graduate of our Blueprint Workshop, and if you’re in the Wolverhampton area, seek out another Blueprint entrepreneur, Albert Smith of ‘Ubuntu’ bread.

We never know who is going to show up at our door, but the truth is that people who like baking all seem to be good human beings; they arrive with a handshake and most often leave with a hug.  Long may it continue!

Wishing everyone who reads this a fragrant, home-baked Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

Love,

Penny & Dragan

Both of us are increasingly concerned about the way the freedom and autonomy of individuals, as well as nations, is being deliberately eroded. We feel that we are all being lulled into a state of moral lethargy, in which it is much ‘easier’ to leave things to the government(s) to handle. ‘Globalisation’ only intensifies the polarisation between the world’s richest and everybody else. This leaves far too many people either being fed rubbish, or not getting enough to eat at all. (For more  info, visit  campaignforrealfarming.blogspot.com)

The good news is, we believe that individuals can all make a positive difference to the status quo.   Baking real bread for our village, and helping others do the same, is our way of doing just that.