True Loaf magazine

Issue 58: April – June 2024
Features in this issue include: Having a field day: Julie Oxley believes it’s important for all children to understand where their food comes from and how to make healthy, nutritious food for themselves. Pann’s people: Lisa Asuncion celebrates folk of Pann Mill’s story as the last working flour mill on the River Wye. La vita di un fornaio: Giovanni Di Sarno shares his thoughts and memories as a baker born and bred. A bread like no other! Sourdough baker Lucie Hiver is founder of Nuro Elemental Cuisine microbakery in Mexico City. Dough down under: John Downes, a pioneer of the Australian sourdough revival, on the journeys that led to his new book. She rose, fell and rose again: Claire Carr chatted with Baking Boss entrepreneur Naomi Rose.

Issue 57: January – March 2024
Features in this issue include: Savouring the taste of home: Lemon Tree Trust’s Ali Hadley introduces one of the bread makers the organisation is helping to empower; Toast for good health: Lauren Rathbone introduces Best Food Forward, which aims to provide good food education for all; Heritage wheats: the Italian job: In the Abruzzo region of northern Italy, Nitsan Morag is leading a project helping rural communities continue or revive traditional wheat growing; An Odessa odyssey: Today Bread owner Alexandre Bettler reports back from a trip volunteering with Bake For Ukraine; Real Bread Hero: Troels Bendix: Lara Green says that watching the Danish baker at work is a lesson in artisan mastery; Rosa on the rise: Estera-Rosa Cundill is the teenage head baker of her family’s high street bakery in the Welsh town of Neath.

Issue 56: October – December 2023
Features in this issue include: Playing fields of wheat: School gardening club leader Liz Read tells the story of how children at Holy Trinity Primary Academy in Wiltshire grew wheat on their playing field. The brewker’s tale: How a life change led to Bill Russell setting up Equal Brewkery, a heady brew of beer, bread and social enterprise. Barley vous? Professor Wendy Russell is leading research at the University of Aberdeen’s Rowett Institute into the potential benefits of a barley renaissance. Confessions of a home baker: Gary Murray’s personal tale takes in mental wellbeing, cancer and ‘80s TV. Freeze!: Barrie Lewis in South Africa explains why a chest freezer is an essential bit of his homebaking kit.

Issue 55: July – September 2023
Features in this issue: Bakers' bush: Georgina Webber is the driving force behind a pioneering school microbakery at Greenside Primary in Shepherd’s Bush, west London; My bread story: How Spike Coates went from being unable to eat to developing a voracious appetite for Real Bread making; The Gypsy baker: As for many people, the pandemic provided the opportunity for Hannah Bironzo’s bread making to step up a gear; Seed to sandwich in Shaky Toon: Tyra Dempster reports on volunteering for a Scottish village bakery and primary school co-production project; From seed to sourdough: Tom Walker on growing, milling and baking a microplot of wheat with school children. Plus Sourdough September and our Bake Your Lawn crowdfunding campaign.

Issue 54: April – June 2023
Features in this issue: An introduction to The Sheffield Wheat Experiment by its co-founder and project director, artist Ruth Levene; Rebecca Bishop, owner of Two Magpies Bakery across eight sites around Suffolk, on sharing her baking passion and knowledge; Ellen Baker visits the land-to-loaf Field Bakery on Gothelney Farm, nestled at the foot of the Quantocks in Somerset; Avid home baker Robert Milne reminisces about a near lifelong obsession with Real Bread; Dietitian Sophie Turigel and Chris Young look at two potential benefits of sourdough fermentation; Elissa O’Donoghue considers her bread heritage.

Issue 53: January – March 2023
Features in this issue: Izabela Stuchlik tells of the challenges and opportunities she’s encountered so far in setting up and running her microbakery, Leavened; The School of Artisan Food’s Sienna Russell reports on a recent bakery business course; Hen Corner’s Sara Ward introduces Eamon, whose passion for baking is helping him to reclaim his place in the world; Community Chef CIC founder Robin Van Creveld reflects on two decades of this award-winning social enterprise; Dan and Duncan Edwards, owners of Four Hundred Rabbits, talk sourdough pizza.

Issue 52: October – December 2022
Features in this issue: From Mozambique to Kent to lockdown launch and beyond, Leo Maxlhaieie shares his story so far. Francoise Umutoniwase celebrates the 10th anniversary of a bakery social enterprise empowering women in East Africa. Past Campaign ambassador Danielle Ellis of Severn Bites asks what makes YQ wheat special. What happens when you try to share bread making skills with a group of people without a shared language? Jo Lancaster found out. With the support of his family of bakers, in 2021 Mark Long launched a Real Bread network in New Zealand. In summer 2021, microbaker Lawrence Leason cooked up a project with musician Harriette Ashcroft.

Issue 51: July – September 2022
Features in this issue include: Sourdough by all for all this September; Roti revolution! Gauhar Bano Qureshi of The Loaf microbakery in Lahore on spearheading the Real Bread Campaign Pakistan; How do we make Real Bread For All? What can bakeries, mills and others do to help people on lower incomes to afford Real Bread?; Bristol’s new batch: Charlie Haughton introduces a bakery that’s on a mission to make Real Bread accessible to more people in the city; Home grown loaf - home baker Oliver Rubinstein on becoming an amateur cereal grower; A gathering of grainiacs: School of Artisan Food student Catherine Paxton reflects on her experience of this year’s UK Grain Lab.

Issue 50: April – June 2022
Features include: Andy Cato on his Wildfarmed journey from musician to cereal farmer focussed on soil health; Campaign ambassador Marcia Harris reveals the roots of her focus on family and community; with his first book on the horizon, past Campaign ambassador Jack Sturgess explains his homebaking ethos and mission; Craig Sams looks back half a century to the launch of his groundbreaking bakery, Ceres; microbaker Ildiko Toth compares the two ovens she has used since launching her business; and we ask - how can Real Bread be made affordable for as many people as possible?

Issue 49: January – March 2022
Features include: Zakiya Andrews and Nzinga Foster-Brown, the sister duo behind Blackbirds’ Micro Bakery in Birmingham; a profile of Campaign ambassador Peter Doughty Cook; Crumbs Brewery owner Morgan Arnell on helping to highlight the issue of food surplus; farmer and ANUNA bakery owner Andrew Neagle reflecting on local grain trials in west Wales; The Bakery of Slow Ideas, Leo Kay' participatory social art practice and nomadic community bakery; and a Real Bread Buddies Day poster.

Issue 48: October - December 2021
Features include: The community crumbassador, Bread Houses Network founder Nadezhda Savova-Grigorova; around the world for a local loaf by Slow Rise author Robert Penn; BakerLou lines, Carolyn Batcheler profiles her local microbaker, Louse Williams; an introduction to the new Real Bread Campaign official ambassadors, plus profiles of Aba Edwards-Idun and Eddy Sleiman.

Issue 47: July - September 2021
Features include: ‘Sourdough Sophia’ Sutton-Jones on going from hobbyist to microbaker to high street bakery owner during lockdown; Lisa Asuncion explaining some basic bread science; Birch Bread owner Lucie Steel’s top tips on running a bakery from a shipping container; Eluned Watson sharing how Derwen College uses Makaton symbols to help bakery students with learning disabilities; and Jane Mason reflecting on more than a decade of her Bread Angles network. Plus a Sourdough September poster.

Issue 46: April - June 2021
Features include: A profile of Aries Bakehouse owner Jackie Mckinson by Kate Farr; Lorna Black’s Lo.So.Do. bakery in Greater Manchester; How Irena Ruseva took a lockdown as an opportunity to launch her microbakery Flour and Soul; A pandemic pause caused Allie Smith to re-assess her thriving Dallas-Fort Worth bakery business to re-connect with her passion for sourdough; Veg Patch Kitchen owner Kath Corfield looks at how she, Liz Wilson and Campaign ambassadors Danielle Ellis and Jack Sturgess have moved their Real Bread classes online. We also launch our search for our next batch of Campaign ambassadors, you can see a selection of #WeAreRealBread photos from Real Bread Week, and the back cover poster is back!

Issue 45: January - March 2021
Includes: Breadwinners' Zoe Allen with an update on this social enterprise; Vivan Futehally on how his Pure Brot is blazing a trail for certain types of Real Bread in India; Marzia Béthaz reports on an alpine cereal growing revival in the Valle d’Aosta; Romilla Arber shares the story of how her busines, Honesty Group, has grown; St. JOHN co-founder Trevor Gulliver waxes cereal about the importance of bread; plus this year's Real Bread Week plans.

Issue 44: October - December 2020
Includes: Our work on diversity, equality and inclusion; Mahala Le May on the people weaving local grain-flour-bread webs around Britain; how bread making helps One Mile Bakery Exeter microbaker Boudicca Leonard tackle anxiety and depression; Fran Bernhardt chatting to Little Bread Pedlar head baker Cindy Zurias on abolishing the night shift; how lockdown spurred Jeremy Miles to turn his baking hobby into a business; Dave Foster's e-bike-powered microbakery and catering delivery; and a small selection from this year's sourdough selfie album.

Issue 43: July - September 2020
Includes: Grow Your Own Playground's Cassie Liversidge on guiding kids on the journey from seed to sandwich at school; three ingredients = a world of Real Bread this Sourdough September; how Forge Bakehouse founder Martha Brown adapted to lockdown; Small Food Bakery founder Kim Bell on heritage grains, running a community busines and more; Campaign ambassador Wayne Caddy's bread stencilling masterclass; farmer Mike Pinard on growing heritage wheats.

Issue 42: January - March 2020
Includes features on: Celebrating amazing bakeries and Real Bread social/community projects and enterprises in Real Bread Week; Martha Brown of Forge Bakehouse in Sheffield and Richard Scroggs of The Old Post Office Bakery in Clapham each give a glimpse of their baker’s life; Muna Reyal scores top tips from some of Instagram’s star dough slashers; Malcolm Heaven writes about therapeutic baking in Leicestershire; and a small selection of Mark Cornwell’s photographs for our ongoing We Are Real Bread initiative.

Issue 41: October - December 2019
Includes features on: Teenager Kitty tait starting The Orange Bakery with her dad, Lisa Williams’ postcard from Trinidad and Tobago, Ameena Nur’s journey from art school graduate to microbaker, and Liz Wilson on sharing the Real Bread love with people from all backgrounds. PLUS your chance to WIN Super Sourdough by James Morton, gluten free Real Bread book Promise and Fulfilment by Chris Stafferton, and one of Wire Monkey’s Real Bread Loaf Mark UFO lames for dough scoring.

Issue 40: July - September 2019
Includes features on: Three is the magic number this Sourdough September: flour, water, salt; creating a stink with salt-rising bread; Adopt a School's class act teaching kids all about Real Bread; No pain, no Grains - the story so far of this Derbyshire bakehouse; sourdough shuttling between the UK and the antipodes. PLUS a free sourdough poster, and your chance to WIN a Celtic design griddle and a copy of Modern Sourdough: Sweet and Savoury Recipes from Margot Bakery.

Issue 39: April - June 2019
Includes features on: Coventry-based social enterprise Proof Bakery; the bakery at San Patrignano community, which helps people recover from substance abuse and dependency; Studio MICAT’s Brawn & Bread, a human-powered wood-fired bakery gym; the history, and current state, of Real Bread in Mexico; a growing interest in small-scale milling and baking with freshly-milled flour; the 21 new Real Bread Campaign ambassadors.

Issue 38: January - March 2019
Includes features on: Real Bread Week 2019, Cinnamon Square’s botanical baking, bready brews, the UK Grain Lab, microbaker Ian Waterland turning his hobby into something more…plus chance to WIN Crumb, the latest book by Richard Bertinet.

Issue 37: October - December 2018
Includes features on: A decade of Real Bread campaigning, peasant baker Nicolas Supiot, bread in Berlin, the charcoal bread trend, progress towards an Honest Crust Act, and the new Are Supermarket Bloomers (still) Pants? report …plus chance to WIN The Nordic Baking Book and BREAD & BUTTER.

Issue 36: July – September 2018
Includes features on: Back on the straight and narrow with The Barker Baker; shokupan, tangzhong and other Japanese bread matters; Modern Baker’s quest for better bred bread; off-grid baking; railing agaist packet mixes; and gearing up for Sourdough September…plus the chance to WIN a bundle of the latest baking books.

Issue 35: April – June 2018
Includes features on: Bread in Egypt, a look at baking with ancient and heritage wheat flours, urban traditional flour mills, bakeries on Northern Ireland’s Causeway Coast, details of the BATCH: South West event in July, plus the chance to WIN the books Flour by Christine McFadden and Loaves for All Seasons by Rosanne Cecil.

Issue 34: January – March 2018
Includes features on: Bread in Denmark by Trine Hahnemann, baking and dementia by Soulful Baker author Julie Jones, the glyphosate issue, Real Bread Week, hooray for challah, in search of Borodinsky, plus the chance to WIN the books Soulful Baker, Open Sandwiches and Sourdough.

Issue 33: October - December 2017
Includes features on: Bread in the Caucasus by Olia Hercules, Real Bread bakers and proper pizzaioli, the benefits of winning baking awards, an ex-army medic baking through challenges on civvy street, weird stuff in sourdough starters, plus the chance to WIN the five-volume Modernist Bread, RRP over £400!

Issue 32: July - September 2017
Includes features on: Festive bread, Sourdough September, San Diego scene, Dust to Crust from Gilchesters to Lovingly Artisan, bakeries in railway arches, learning from baking books, plus the chance to WIN a Dualit toaster or AGA baking kit.

Issue 31: April - June 2017
Includes features on: getting ready for Real Bread Week, our No Loaf Lost surplus reduction project, a fougasse recipe, Dust to Crust from Sharpham Park to Lievito bakery, Baking Bedlam, gfree Real Bread, and radical retail.

Issue 30: January - March 2017
Includes features on: Freshly-milled flour, the #ourfield cereal Community Supported Agriculture cooperative, dust to crust, eateries making Real Bread the king of the table, and baking in Shetland.

Issue 29: October - December 2016
Includes features on: What the Real Bread Campaign can learn from the Campaign for Real Ale; crumbs of bread law for independent bakers; reclaiming the name ‘artisan’ for genuine artisan bakers and their loaves; following a loaf of Syd Aston’s Real Bread from dust to crust; and Andrew Whitley’s Christmas bread recipe.

Issue 28: July - September 2016
Includes features on: Nordic heritage grains by Campaign co-founder Andrew Whitley; woodfired oven Real Bread bakeries; a trip to pass on sourdough skills in Korea; new social enterprise Breadwinners; for and against bakeries charging for sourdough starter; and a double chocolate sourdough recipe.

Issue 27: April - June 2016
Includes features on Real Bread Week, passion for pitta, Real Bread Ireland, the caterer running school community baking classes, flour waste reduction tips, a recipe for sourdough pizza and more.

Issue 26: January - March 2016
Includes features on shortening the grain chain, Real Bread bakers on Instagram, Community Supported Bakery Companio in Manchester, a look back at the Farm to Loaf symposium, a look ahead at the future of the Campaign, and a recipe for brown rice, roast pumpkin & stilton sourdough.

Issue 25: October – December 2015
Includes features on beigels, bread in Portugal, preferments, bakery crowdfunding, and glyphosate in wheat, and a recipe for pecan, oat and cranberry flowerpot sourdough.

Issue 24: July – September 2015
Features include: Rebecca Bishop and Susan Jeffrey’s stories of the support they each received from the Real Bread community; Steven Croft questions the need to knead; Kelli Di Capri discovers the delights of baking beyond wheat; Alison Swan Parente investigates sprouted grain flours; Real Bread: The Uprising; Sourdough September inspiration and poster. Plus the chance to WIN a basket of four new bread books and a teatowel!

Issue 23: April – June 2015
Features include Sophia Elek baking in the mountains of Papua New Guinea, Ben Mackinnon swapping E5 Bakehouse’s railway arch in east London for a social enterprise bakery on the edge of an extinct volcano crater in Kenya, Dan Brown honing his skills in Sweden, Henry Mackley chatting to bread hero Peter Cook, Chris Stafferton on gluten free Real Bread, and an overnight loaf receipt from Hilary Cacchio.

Issue 22: January – March 2015
WIN The Bread Exchange by Malin Elmlid, who also writes about baking in Afghanistan; Andy Forbes reports from a heritage grains conference in the Åland Islands; The Itinerant Baker & Chef’s sourdough naan recipe; Danielle Ellis’ experience at a baking school in France; Liz Wilson chats to bakers around the UK an beyond about how they chose their bakeries’ names; and new for this issue is Dear Sally Lunn, a light-hearted advice page.

Issue 21: October – December 2014
WIN: The Art of Mindful Baking by Julia Ponsonby. FEATURES: Martin Ransley looks at very different types of Real Bread school, Melvyn Waite sends us a postcard on bread in Spain, miller Mike Lovatt tells us about Stanway Mill, Joan Ransley waxes lyrical about toast, Glenn Bowen considers factors that have a bearing on people’s perception of a fair price for a loaf, and Chris Young looks at what some of the words used to market bread and industrial loaves really mean. RECIPE: The Itinerant Baker & Chef, Hilary Cacchio’s malted wheat and rye sourdough loaf.

Issue 20: July – September 2014
WIN: Bread, Cake, Doughnut, Pudding by Justin Gellatly, Baking Together by Emmanuel Hadjiandreou, The Pocket Bakery by Rose Prince and Do Sourdough by Andrew Whitley! FEATURES: Cometh the Sour by Campaign co-founder Andrew Whitley, Community Supported Baking by Steve Croft, The Dusty Knuckle by Max Tobias, Bread Hero: Liz Weisberg of The Lighthouse Bakery, The Connected Loaf by Alex Poulter and Recipe: Cherry and almond sweet fougasse by The Itinerant Baker & Chef. PLUS a free sourdough poster.

Issue 19: April- June 2014
WIN a 100% British proving basket from Bread Stead and a copy of Victoria Harley’s Oven Ready book; Real Bread Maker Week; Bake 5 discounts from Bakery Bits, Bread Matters, Doves Farm, Marriage’s and Shipton Mill; Penny Williams’ article on ancient and heritage wheats;  Claire Rolland and Alison McGrath’s tales of setting up microbakeries; The Itinerant Baker & Chef’s recipe for Jersey Royal bread; how to get your doughy mitts on Balcony Shirts’ limited edition Real Bread apron; and much more…

Issue 18: January - March 2014
Contents include: Mark Wilkinson’s story of how Real Bread has helped his recovery from stroke; Community Supported Bakery, Homebaked in Liverpool by Steven Croft; Matt Fountain’s social enterprise bakery for ex-offenders in Glasgow; Kim Swan on Real Bread in the City of Steel; Jarkko Laine takes us to get a glimpse of Real Bread in Finland; Tamás Németh reports from his bagel bakery and café in Budapest; Dan Harris gets doughing in Oxford; Sarah Bentley shares how her charity runs  healthy breadmaking lessons for local people in Hackney; a Moroccan flatbread recipe from The Itinerant Baker & Chef; plus another fab poster.

Issue 17: October - December 2013
​WIN £245 worth of Real Bread books, baking class and poster; on an Antarctic Roll with McMurdo Station baker Ariana Berry; Rising Up, our new mental health and therapeutic baking report; the importance of local markets to small bakeries; Kneading Conference report; pain perdu recipe; Bread Angels get together; free poster…

Issue 16: July - September 2013
​WIN an Eezi-Slice breadboard; Gaye Whitwam and Mary Parry share stories of baking in schools; Bex Clarke visits Bread Hero: The Better Health Bakery; Danielle Ellis looks at restaurants who understand the importance of Real Bread on their menus; Chris Young chats to River Cottage bread handbook author Daniel Stevens and marches over to The Veterans’ Artisan Bakery; ideas to help Britain celebrate Sourdough September; and more…

WIN a Real Bread class at The School of Artisan Food or Tracebridge Sourdough, a copy of All You Knead is Bread by Jane Mason, or Bread Revolution by Duncan Glendinning and Patrick Ryan.  Bread Hero Fergus Jackson of Brick House, Real Bread culture in the Ukraine, Jo Bottrill’s microbakery. Baking for the London 2012 Games with Wapping Sourdough’s Robin Weekes, Herman the friendship bread (née cake), another free Real Bread poster and more…

Issue 11 April - June 2012
WIN: A Real Bread class at Brook Bakery School or Cinnamon Square, and No Knead to Knead by Suzanne Dunaway.  The people’s loaf by Andrew Whitley, Bread Hero: Aidan Chapman, the science of flour, Real Bread Maker Week, a look at local loaves in Leicester, how to make Real Bread poster by Owen Postgate, and more...
 

Issue 9 October - December 2011
Win a bread class at The Phoenix Bakery School (worth £100!), a baking kit from The School of Artisan Food, Short & Sweet the new book by Dan Lepard, and a handmade bread board from Woods World Wide by Williams. Plus: Susan Nowak on a feast of bread and ale at the Great British Beer Festival; Rachel de Thample looks at the Real Bread in veg box schemes; Jane Mason on her host of Bread Angels; Marc Rothman reveals the science of the wood-fired brick oven; and John Downes shares a little more of his sourdough passion.

Issue 8 July - September 2011
Win How to Make Bread by Campaign ambassador Emmanuel Hadjiandreou; How many Real Bread bakers does it take to change a food system? by Andrew Whitley; Sourdough...the real thing by John Downes; Bread Hero: Kenny Rankin of Fifeteen London; Pappiness in your hands; Millers’ Tales; and more...

Issue 7 April - June 2011
Pappy 50th birthday to the modern industrial loaf competition to win a Real Bread baker’s starter kit from Hobbs House Bakery (worth £85), Bread Hero: Clive Mellum, Real Bread Maker Week,  taking sourdough to another level in Canada, a poor baker’s retarder-prover, community baking in Edinburgh, Real Bread from heritage grains in France, milling around Britain's water-powered flour makers, win a bread slicer from CookshopOnline.com and supply of flour from Marriage’s, and sourdough book Bethesdabasics, and much more...

Issue 6 January - March 2011
Prize draw to win a European baking class (worth £150) on 3rd April at The School of Artisan Food...Knead to Know, Bake Your Lawn, Denver Windmill, Bread Hero - Andy Forbes of the Brockwell Bake Association, (Carbon) footprints in the dough, e5 Bakehouse - underneath the arches...

Issue 5 October - December 2010
Our huge Christmas competition to win one of the prizes under our tree, which include a bread making course at River Cottage, an apprenticeship Saturday at The Phoenix Bakery with Aidan Chapman, and a Real Bread baker’s starter kit from Bakery Bits (worth £130); an interview with Bread Hero Tom Baker, Loaf; Dan McTiernan of the Handmade bakery on bringing home the bread; Silvija Davidson sees bread making therapy in action at Blackthorn Trust; bread in Malaysia and more...

Issue 4 July - September 2010
News and events roundup, The Gallery, on course at the Lighthouse Bakery, Andrew Auld at the loaf in Crich shares the many stories of bread, food writer and campaigner Silvija Davidson asks what is tradition?, Bread Hero, master baker Tom Herbert on Shepherding the future of Real Bread, Signe Johansen's love letter to Scandinavian crispbread, a recipe for real scones, a professional Real Bread recipe from the archives and a local loaf lover poster.

Issue 3 April - June 2010
Food writer and campaigner Silvija Davidson interviews Bread Hero Richard Bertinet; Tom Baker of Loaf social enterprise goes In search of a local loaf; the first-ever National Real Bread Maker Week, Are supermarket bloomers pants? Real Bread at the Real Food Festival; the Real Bread Campaign at Fifteen London; Real Bread: already a real choice? Andrew Whitley reports from BioFach in Germany; From the archives.

Issue 2 January - March 2010
Interview: Caroline Conran, Book Review: The Sunday Times Book of Real Bread, The quest for the perfect pizza, Bread Hero: Andrew Whitley, Spelt: the ‘new’ bread on the street? Biofuels, Real Bread is part of the Bigger Picture

Issue 1 October - December 2009
Lammas, In Praise of Crumbs, Time for bread, Real Bread represents Good Food for Our Money, Slices of life,Should flour be fortified with folic acid? Kids’ school lunches kneed Real Bread, Under the grill: The Federation of Bakers, Recipe: Simple sourdough starter, Bread Heroes: The Thoughtful Bread Company