One of the most interesting aspects of the local food movement is that many of the people running co-operative and community owned food enterprises are at the forefront of new ideas. This is very much the case for those pioneering 'real bread' in the UK - bread made using high quality products, and left to ferment naturally.The Handmade Bakery is one of the UK's first community supported bakeries. Focusing on making and selling real bread, the business has a subscription model through which members of the community become members and subscribe on a monthly basis, meaning that the co-operative can be confident of a market.
In just a couple of years, the business has gone from virtually zero capital. It is now a sustainable bakery which engages and enlists the local community, giving them a say in where their bread comes from and a relationship with the bakers. Starting out by using the kitchens of a local Italian restaurant, the co-operative has its own premises in Slaithwaite, Yorkshire.
There's a growing interest in setting up these kinds of enterprise, so the Handmade Bakery is to start tunning courses to guide people in setting up their own community supported bakery.
Their one day course will explore the practical, technical and community aspects of community supported baking - as well as baking some bread. The introductory course will cover everything from designing the project through to finance, equipment, scaling up, metketing and logistics.
The growing interest in real bread is being picked up by Radio 4's Food Programme too, which also features The Handmade Bakery.
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