Longstraw Bakery

Our Xmas mega-bake is fast approaching!

**PRE ORDERS CLOSING TOMORROW AT 4PM**

Pre-orders closing earlier than usual next week, go give us a bit of extra time to get everything ready for you on Friday!

This will be our last bake of 2023, before we take our winter break. We'll be re-opening as usual Friday 19th of January.

We can't wait! See you Friday!

Yuletide at Longstraw. Christmas pre-orders are OPEN for Friday 22nd December. We'll then be closed until Jan 19th for our winter break.

https://openfoodnetwork.org.uk/longstraw-bakery/shop

Time to get merry.

Alrighty then, here we go. It’s finally December (as bakers, we’ve been waiting for this moment since January, maybe even before) and we’ve got a fine crop of festive treats for you to tuck into for the whole month. Mince pies? Check. Stollen? You betcha! Yule buns? Heck yes! (If you weren’t a customer last year then we really must insist you give these a go. It’s a bun of our own invention that features candied peel, house-made marzipan, chocolate ganache and a smattering of flaky sea salt on top to make you think of snow). It’s decadent and delicious, which is what this otherwise miserable time of year is all about.

Our mince pies are loaded with quince, apple, Somerset Cider Brandy, raisins, currants, candied peel, our own blend of spices and New Dawn Traders panela sugar, all of which has been maturing for two months to get the flavours just right. Which is nice.

There are other things on the menu we could wax lyrical about here (chocolate tarts! panforte!) but we’ll exercise some restraint and allow you to browse and decide for yourselves.

Here you go:

•••
Westcountry

Extra Large Westcountry

Toasted Sesame Westcountry
Oat & Linseed Porridge Tin
Wholemeal Rye & Sunflower Seed

Extra Large Wholemeal Rye & Sunflower Seed

Wholemeal Sandwich Tin

Rye Malt Loaf

Baguettes

Panela Cinnamon Buns

Blackcurrant Financiers

Double Choc Chip Cookies
Dark Chocolate Rye Cookies

Chocolate Malt Tart (email if you’d like a whole one)

Stollen

Yule Buns

Fig and Walnut Panforte

Pizza flavours this week are:

Finocchiona
Roast fennel, Westcombe fennel sausage, tomato, mozarella, capers

Squash, Ricotta, Parmesan
Roast crown prince, Westcombe ricotta, red onion, rosemary, mozarella

As always, if you’d like to order a full pizza (12 large slices starting at £25) then drop us an email and we’ll see if we can accommodate it.

•••

Leave us a note if you want your order in the bread shed this week.

Good heavens we’re excited.

See you Friday!

Freddie and James

Pre-order now!

We've got a very fun new addition to the bakery!

Want to get the goods but aren't able to collect during the four precious hours we're open each Friday? Well, worry not! we're delighted to announce the installation of the Longstraw bread shed.

We've teamed up with our pals at to build a safe cubby to store the good stuff, should you need to collect after hours- just pop a note on your order or drop us an email.

A shout out to our lovely wholesale customers! You can also find our bakes on the shelves at

The Wivey Larder





Ruxtons Wellington

Longstraw celebrated it's 1st birthday on Friday!

Kept afloat in the midst of a cost-of living crisis, by an ever growing community of die-hard regulars- We're two very grateful bakers indeed Here's to another year of even more grain 🌾

Baguettes and buns ahoy!!

Hope you all had a smashing weekend.

Not a whole lot to report this week aside to say that we’re about to get stuck into preserving season to keep you in fruity treats for the winter ahead. Citrus fruits are on order, blueberries are about to be picked, apples are being gathered and we’re getting ready for a few days of serious jamming, potting and pickling. So expect to see lots of spiced, candied and preserved ingredients on the menu in the coming months.

If any of you on this mailing list live over in Bampton and have become accustomed to picking up our products at Six on Castle, just a reminder that Steve and Debbie are off on holiday for a few weeks, but you can still pre-order and pick up from us every Friday. (or if anyone in Bampton wants to turn their front room/hallway into a pick-up point for the first few weeks of October then let us know and we’ll keep delivering.)

•••

If you’re new to this list, here’s a reminder of how things work:

The shop is now open for pre-orders and you ave until 3pm on Wednesday to place your orders for Friday collection. We open the shutters at Sandy’s Moor at noon on Friday, and you have until 4pm to come and collect. If you don’t manage to pre-order in time we always bake a bit extra, so do come down and try your luck if the week runs away with you. We know how it goes.

Any questions drop us a line on [email protected].

•••

This Week’s Menu in Full:

Westcountry

Extra Large Westcountry

Sesame Westcountry
Oat & Linseed Porridge Tin
Wholemeal Rye & Sunflower Seed

Extra Large Wholemeal Rye & Sunflower Seed

Spelt Sandwich Tin

Baguettes!

Panela Cinnamon Buns

Blackberry, Custard & Frangipane Buns

Plum Financiers

Plum Bostocks

Double Choc Chip Cookies
Dark Chocolate Rye Cookies

Panela Custard Tart

Pizza flavours this week are:

Aubergine Parmiggiana
Tomato, aubergine, mozarella, basil, parmesan, garlic breadcrumbs

Margherita
Tomato, mozarella, basil

Ricotta, Roast Pepper, Capers
Peppers, ricotta, parmesan, capers

As always, if you’d like to order a full pizza (12 large slices starting at £25) then drop us an email and we’ll see if we can accommodate it.

•••

See you soon!

Freddie and James

Baguette announcement!!

Regulars to the bakery will know we’ve been tinkering with our baguettes for the last few months and tantalising you (perhaps to frustration) by only making them available for walk-ins on Friday. Now we’ve decided to reward your patience and allow you to pre-order a limited amount in advance because we’re pretty pleased with the recipe and have the crisp/chewy balance dialled in. So if you’d like to guarantee baguettes next week, now’s the time to take action.

“Better than the baguettes you get in France.” declared one customer this week, entirely without provocation.

In other news, we’ve completely reimagined our custard buns over the summer break, pinching what we think is a Polish recipe (though it might actually have come to us in a dream) that marries brioche, frangipane, creme pat, toasted almonds and fresh blackcurrants into a whole that is so much more than the sum of its parts and much better than when it was just fruit and custard. If you haven’t tried one yet, give it a go this week. We promise you won’t be disappointed.

And finally, all of our buns are now made with 100% heritage flour from the South West, without the addition of any modern varieties of wheat (until recently we were still using a bit of Mulika for strength), so any buns you buy are directly supporting farmers and millers in our neck of the woods and completely bypassing any global commodity wheat markets (not to mention supporting agriculture that’s more resilient to the effects of the climate crisis) which we think is pretty cool!

If you’re new to this list, here’s a reminder of how things work:

The shop is now open for pre-orders and you ave until 3pm on Wednesday to place your orders for Friday collection. We open the shutters at Sandy’s Moor at noon on Friday, and you have until 4pm to come and collect. If you don’t manage to pre-order in time we always bake a bit extra, so do come down and try your luck if the week runs away with you. We know how it goes.

Any questions drop us a line on [email protected].

•••

This Week’s Menu in Full:

Westcountry

Extra Large Westcountry

Sesame Westcountry
Oat & Linseed Porridge Tin
Wholemeal Rye & Sunflower Seed

Extra Large Wholemeal Rye & Sunflower Seed

Spelt Sandwich Tin

Baguettes!

Cinnamon Buns

Blackberry Custard & Frangipane Buns

Plum Financiers

Milk Chocolate & Toasted Walnut Cookies
Dark Chocolate Rye Cookies

Panela Custard Tart

Pizza flavours this week are:

Aubergine Parmiggiana
Tomato, aubergine, mozarella, basil, parmesan, garlic breadcrumbs

Margherita
Tomato, mozarella, basil

Ricotta, Roast Tomato, Capers
Tomato, ricotta, parmesan, capers

See you Friday, folks!!

Your bostocks have been topped, your bread is fermenting slowly overnight, tart cases have been baked, tomatoes slowly roasted, ricotta whipped. Fridges are full to the brim with all manner of tasty treats. We have a shiny new counter, and an even shinier new floor. We are back! 12-4 tomorrow- you know the drill xx

We're back and baking THIS FRIDAY ✨

Oh how we’ve missed you!

We’re not going to lie, these last few weeks have been extremely relaxing for the both of us (and frankly, the idea of standing next to an oven in the heat of the past week makes us feel a little nauseous) but we’ve very much missed seeing all your faces and knocking up delicious things for your weekend enjoyment. And we hope you might have missed getting your Friday fix from us too.

But miss us no more, because we’re back in action this week, mixing leavens on Wednesday evening, prepping bread and buns on Thursday and baking everything hot and fresh for you to come and collect on Friday.

If you’re new to this list, here’s a reminder of how things work:

The shop is now open for pre-orders and you ave until 3pm on Wednesday to place your orders for Friday collection. We open the shutters at Sandy’s Moor at noon on Friday, and you have until 4pm to come and collect. If you don’t manage to pre-order in time we always bake a bit extra, so do come down and try your luck if the week runs away with you. We know how it goes.

Order your baked goods online at- www.longstrawbakery.co.uk

Any questions drop us a line on [email protected].

•••

This Week’s Menu in Full:

Westcountry

Extra Large Westcountry

Sesame Westcountry
Oat and Linseed Porridge Tin
Wholemeal Rye and Sunflower Seed

Extra Large Wholemeal Rye and Sunflower Seed

Spelt Sandwich Tin

Cinnamon Buns

Blackcurrant Custard and Frangipane Buns

Blackcurrant Financiers

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolate Rye Cookies

Plum Bostock

Panela Custard Tart

Pizza flavours this week are:

Aubergine Parmiggiana
Tomato, aubergine, mozarella, basil, parmesan, garlic breadcrumbs

Margherita
Tomato, mozarella, basil

Ricotta, Roast Tomato, Capers
Tomato, ricotta, parmesan, capers



As always, if you’d like to order a full pizza (12 large slices starting at £25) then drop us an email and we’ll see if we can accommodate it.

•••

That’s all for now,

Freddie and James

An excerpt from our weekly newsletter…

We had half a tonne of new flour this week from our lovely miller Andrew down at in Ashburton. Andrew works harder than most to make sure that everything he sources is of the highest quality, that the farmers he works with are well paid and that there’s no waste at all in the milling process — the bran that he sifts out to provide us with the white flour we use is used to make sourdough crackers, pasta and incredible digestive biscuits. Currently we’re taking Maris Wigeon (traditionally a thatching wheat here in the UK, but very functional for bread) and wholemeal Rye from him. If you had bread on Friday, nearly half of it came from Andrew. Thanks Andrew!

The week before we took delivery of 100kg of Panela sugar from who bring amazing organic produce from all over the world to the UK by sail boat (which is both extremely punk and and an amazing way to ditch diesel shipping), again ensuring that all of their farmers are paid well above the market rate for their products. Panela is an incredibly flavourful unrefined sugar from Colombia made from organic sugar cane juice. It has a rich, caramel flavour that brings depth to anything you add it to. We use it liberally in our cinnamon buns and sparingly across our other sweet items. Expect to taste it a lot more across the menu from now on.

Alex, who founded New Dawn, was recently interviewed on an episode of the podcast. Well worth a listen if you want to find out more about the company and their philosophy on food and farming. It’s a huge privilege to be able to work with them.

All of which is to say: as we build the bakery we’re committed to working only with the best ingredients sourced from people who care not only about the quality of the food itself, but also the people that grow it and the markets and systems of distribution that they support. At the end of the day we’re only producing buns and bread, but we think it can be done in a way that’s good for everyone, right the way down the supply chain.

Thanks, as always, for your support.

Good afternoon!

Pre-orders are still live and kicking for this week’s bake- just 2 hours left to order for Friday!

(P.s. there may be baguette again this week if you're quick enough!... 👀👀)

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been increasing the amount of heritage flour in our Westcountry, Oat and Linseed Porridge and Sesame Westcountry mix to about 40% (up from 20% a few weeks back). This might not sound like a big deal, but it kind of is. The more heritage grain we’re able to use in our bread, the more we’re supporting millers and farmers in the south west and the better our bread is for the ecosystem in which it grows. How? (thanks so much for asking). Well, we’ll tell you.

Heritage wheats (we’re currently using a mixture of Orange Devon Blue Rough Chaff, Olands and April Bearded, as well as some YQ population wheat) form deep root networks in the soil which are all connected together by a web of mycorrhizal fungi. This fungal web trades water and nutrients with the wheat in exchange for the food that the plant produces through photosynthesis in a beautiful symbiosis that’s the product of millions of years of co-evolution. Soil held together by these networks is full of rich microbial and insect life (it’s ALIVE!).

By contrast, most modern varieties of wheat (even the organic ones) have shallow root systems that need higher human inputs to grow well, meaning there is limited fungal connection and microbial life is depleted. In addition, the run-off from these chemical inputs chokes rivers, plays havoc with aquatic life and generally causes damage to the natural world around it.

In the near future we’d like all of the flour we use to support a complex web of life and rich and healthy soils, but for now 40% feels like pretty good going. We hope you can taste the difference!

•••

This Week’s Menu:

Westcountry

Sesame Westcountry
Oat and Linseed Porridge Tin
Wholemeal Rye and Sunflower Seed

Cinnamon Buns

Tea Cakes

Eccles Cakes

Quince, Apple and Almond Turnovers

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
Salted Chocolate Rye Cookies

Pizza flavours this week are:

Margherita-ish
Tomato, fresh organic buffalo mozzarella, olive oil and rocket

Salami
Tomato, mozzarella, Westcombe salami, roast onion

Bianca
Whipped ricotta, potato, onion, fresh rosemary

If you’d like to order a full pizza (12 large slices starting at £25) then drop us an email and we’ll see if we can accommodate it.

•••

See you soon!

Freddie and James

We're baaaaaack, and the shop's now open!

After a rejuvenating week away, we're ready to hit the ground running again for our spring/summer season. Expect some exciting new additions to the menu over the coming weeks!

See you Friday🌾

www.longstrawbakery.co.uk

Hi folks!

A gentle reminder that we'll be taking a break from baking next week for some R&R 🌞

Our bread freezes very well- so we'd love to encourage you to fill your boots with enough to stock your freezers while we're away ✨

We're buzzing with some really exciting ideas, and can't wait to put them into practice after our break, and see what the spring/summer season has in store for us!

We hope to see you on Friday!

www.longstrawbakery.co.uk

📢EASTER PREORDERS ARE NOW OPEN! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!📢

We can't wait to get baking for Good Friday- and will be stocked up to our eyeballs with all things good and delicious. Eccles, sandwich buiscits, sourdough, and of course the final week of the Longstraw Hot X Bun.

A HUGE and heartfelt thanks to everyone who turns up to support us week in and week out- we're ever grateful.

We look forward to seeing you on Friday,

Happy weekend!

Freddie and James

www.longstrawbakery.co.uk

X

THE PENULTIMATE WEEK FOR HOT X BUNS!

all good things…must end at Easter, as the old saying goes? Which means there are just two weeks left to have your fill of our Hot Cross Buns in 2023.

We’re standing by with a mountain of raisins, candied peel and spices to ensure that these last two weeks are the best buns yet, so don’t hold back.

We’ll be launching a separate Easter pre-order this week to give you some extra time to plan your Good Friday orders in advance of bank holiday feasting!

Of course it’s not only the festive specials you should be concerned with. We also have the usual line-up of fresh-baked sourdough breads (which now all contain 40% south-west grain), cookies (100% south-west grain), apple turnovers (made with apples grown in our own gardens and frangipane made with 100% Westcountry butter), and three pizzas (one with locally foraged wild garlic, and another with pigs reared and cured on a farm just a stone’s thrown from here). All supporting local farmers who are paid a fair price for their produce (not the apples or garlic though, we didn’t pay ourselves for those).

•••

Pizzas this week come in three fabulous flavours:

Margherita
Tomato base finished with fresh organic buffalo mozzarella, olive oil and herbs

Salami
Tomato base, mozzarella, Westcombe fennel salami, roast fennel and fennel seed

Bianca
Whipped ricotta, potato, onion and fresh foraged wild garlic

If you’d like to order a full pizza (12 large slices from £25) then drop us an email and we’ll see if we can accommodate it.

One of last week’s whole pizza orders declared it “amazing… the base is the best.” (actual quote).

•••

Have you tried the Apple and Almond Turnover featuring whole almond frangipane and a spiced apple filling baked inside some deliciously flaky rough-puff pastry? You should.

•••

A reminder that you can now buy all our buns and cookies by the half dozen, so do please fill your boots for bargain prices.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Freddie and James

www.longstrawbakery.co.uk

The arrival of spring marks our sixth month of baking! To celebrate, we're going to go out onto the hills and pick a bunch of early wild garlic for next week's pizza bianca, which will sit happily atop a base of some whipped ricotta.

We're both feeling very lucky to be able to bake for our lovely local lot. Longstraw is feeling very much like a hot cross bun factory at the mo- and we're here for it. Thanks for a fab first 6 months- here's to many more!

Shop is open ✨ www.longstrawbakery.co.uk✨

Thanks to all of you for ordering so many buns last week. We were blown away by the response and had an absolutely lovely time making them. Rolling out hundreds of little doughy balls is extremely therapeutic.

For anyone who didn’t manage to try them, here’s a little reminder: they feature juicy tea-infused organic raisins, zesty organic candied orange and lemon peel, and a warming blend of organic spices. We’ll be selling these individually or by the dozen and half-dozen until easter weekend.

•••

Another relative newcomer is our Rhubarb and Orange Bostock — exactly the same as our previous Bostocks, but topped with a pink shock of seasonal organic forced rhubarb poached in orange syrup.

•••

And this coming week we’ll be offering a trio of pizzas again. Let us know what you think of the toppings!

Margherita
Tomato base finished with fresh organic buffalo mozzarella, olive oil and herbs

Salami
Tomato base, mozzarella, Westcombe salami, toasted fennel seeds and roasted fennel

Bianca
Whipped ricotta and roasted garlic base (no tomato), potato, onion and crispy sage

If you’d like to order a full pizza (12 large slices for £25) then drop us an email and we’ll see if we can accommodate it.

•••

See you Friday!

Freddie and James

Organic cinnamon bunzzzzz. 💅

Tea Cakes: this week featuring organic milk, Red Lammas, stoneground Mulika from , butter, organic raisins from and our house candied peel - then glazed with citrus syrup. Also available wholesale if you’re a local shop, cafe or restaurant.

Happy Valentine's day all!

Shop's open folks- we've got an absolutely cracking new cookie on the menu this week- we can't wait for you all to try it! Orders closing 3pm tomorrow ✨

www.longstrawbakery.co.uk

Hi folks!! 🤸
A reminder that if you'd like to secure your baked goods this Friday- our online shop is OPEN!

Menu this week features a local squash, cream and sage pizza, and some of last year's poached pears, baked with brioche and frangipane. All made by us, with love, using the best ingredients we can get our mits on.

We hope to see you Friday!

www.longstrawbakery.co.uk

Fresh sourdough bread is back, made with organic flour just over the border in Wiveliscombe, a town where not only our restaurant careers started together but also our romance, in fact we bonded over some tasty buns delivered by the original sourdough woodland bakery !

Good bread is hard to find and we’re happy to have on board making this beautiful bread for us, which is served at the restaurant but also available to buy. You can pre order online or just pop in and pick up!

This week's orders are now OPEN!

You know the drill folks ✨

www.longstrawbakery.co.uk

happy new year folks!!
We're back and baking- pre-orders now officially open for our first week of sourdough in 2023.

See you Friday!

www.longstrawbakery.co.uk

WHOLESALE: Did you know we do wholesale bread? Delivered freshly-baked every Friday morning. Currently we offer giant service loaves, smaller country loaves and tinned wholemeal rye, but the range is growing. Drop us a line on [email protected] if you’d like to discuss our range and get a price list. We currently deliver to , , , and among others.

Just over 24hrs to get your Xmas preorders in!

It's going to be a mega week for us. Thanks so much to all of our wonderful customers who've already ordered- we're down to our last few stollen!

We can't wait to see you all on Friday 🎄

www longstrawbakery.co.uk

Good afternoon folks!!

We'll be attending the Wiveliscombe market tomorrow- our last market of 2022.

We'll be baking next Friday 23rd down at the bakery as usual for all of your pre-christmas needs- but we're also bringing plenty of festive goodies along with us tomorrow! Mince pies, plum and almond twice baked brioche, orange and nutmeg palmiers!

Also worth mentioning that our bread freezes very well- so if you're heading out of town before next Friday but would like to bag a loaf before then- tomorrow's your chance.

We hope to see you there tomorrow!

Some exciting news...

CHRISTMAS PRE-ORDERS ARE OPEN!

Yes, hold your horses just a minute, because although you may be excited about getting your xmas orders in, there’s some useful information you ought to read before you do. We’ll keep it brief.

1. The xmas bake is the last one we’ll be doing in 2022, and we wont be back again until Friday 20th January. We’ll be staying open late on December 23rd to accommodate people who want to pick up after work and don’t usually order for Friday pickups. If you have a freezer, we’d recommend ordering a bit extra to keep you going while we’re gone. Detailed instructions on freezing bread can be found at the bottom of this email.

2. To get to the xmas menu on our shop page, you’ll need to click on the drop-down menu at the top right-hand of the page which says “Ready for” and then the date. Select 23/12 and you’ll be taken to the relevant menu. You’ll know you’re in the right place because it’ll have stollen, caramels and giant loaves for sale. On which note…

3. The Stollen are limited in number and really, really great. A number of people who bought them from us last year declared them the best they’d ever eaten. We say this because they ain’t cheap, but we haven’t skimped on ingredients (they’re the best we could lay our hands on), they take a long time to make, and they keep for ages, so you’ll be able to eat them for over a week after you pick them up.

4. The caramels are also fabulous and make a wonderful end to a meal, with coffee, or just on their own at any time of day between xmas eve and new year. We’ll endeavour to make as many of these as humanly possible, so if the shop says they’re sold out, drop us a line and we’ll add more stock if we can.

5. The giant country loaves are twice the size of a regular loaf and make a cracking centrepiece for a festive meal. These are very limited in number as we don’t have many giant banetons to rest them in. So once they’re gone, they’re gone. Don’t miss out!

That’s it for now. Let us know if you have any issues ordering or any questions about the products.

www.longstrawbakery.co.uk

good evening folks-

We've got some exciting new additions to this week's order list! All butter mince pies, organic sesame country sourdoughs and the return of the much loved rye loaf- it's all starting to feel quite festive in the bakery!! ✨

Pre-orders for this coming Friday are now OPEN at www.longstrawbakery.co.uk

We can't wait to bake for you this Friday!

Our Christmas pre-order list will be going live on Monday ✨