A one mile loaf

Set in the Chiltern Hills, Oxmoor Farm is a farm-to-table restaurant and café. Co-owners Paddy Maynard and Harry Hope-Morley champion transparency in the supply chain and work to bridge the gap between our suppliers and customers. At the core of the business is connection: to our community of suppliers, the food on our plates and the people gathered around our tables.

We trace the journey of our ingredients, both to ensure that they are produced organically and / or regeneratively, and to build relationships with the people involved. We have forged strong relationships with local suppliers, based on mutual commitment to social and environmental responsibility, creating a vibrant community of small-scale growers, regenerative farmers and artisanal producers.

Rising to the challenge

Kate Vale, founder of the nanobakery Bramble Bakes, is a supplier of ours who has also become a wonderful friend. Since late 2024, Kate has provided us with fresh sourdough loaves every weekend. It was clear to us when we first met Kate that her passion and ethos aligned strongly with our own. She too champions good provenance of food and works hard to inspire others to value it.

Kate is thoughtful about the grain she uses, as well as from where and whom she sources it. She buys certified organic, heritage grains from Doves Farm, which she mills into flour herself using a Mockmill 200. Kate has also hosted popular home baking workshops with us, teaching Real Bread making skills to instill passion and confidence in everyone who attends. For our 2024 staff Christmas party, she even taught us the basics of sourdough bread making.

Relocalisation

Historically an arable farm, Oxmoor holds one of the best-preserved examples in the county of a traditional grain store, standing on rare, high-set staddle stones. This granary is a defining feature of the farm and is the first building you see on your approach to it. The farm is also home to a centuries-old wooden threshing barn.

Over many conversations about Real Bread, community and local history, Kate and we were inspired to explore the journey of our bread, from seed to slice. We wanted to make our grain chain even shorter, using the fields around us, so reducing the amount of time and energy needed to transport the wheat.

New shoots

In 2025, Kate milled grain grown here on the farm, harvested in mid-August following a long spell of dry weather, to produce The Oxmoor Loaf. She sold more than 75 of these loaves and donated the proceeds to the Medical Aid for Palestinians charity. From field to oven to point of sale, each loaf travelled less than a mile. Having been baked and milled using solar energy, they had a smaller carbon footprint than some.

While Kate and we are still using commercially produced grain and flour, from the likes of Shipton Mill and Wildfarmed, we hope to grow more wheat here in the years to come. Our aim is to involve the younger generation next time around, showing them how Real Bread makes it to the table and exciting their curiosity through watching the journey from seed to slice unfold.

@oxmoorfarm  @bramblebakesandsourdough

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Originally published in True Loaf magazine issue 65, January 2026.

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