 We have been researching and experimenting with bread and bakery for about 10 years. Alan can still remember the pride of his first loaf but Sarah finds it easier to recall some of the less successful efforts! Alan's years as a home baker were transformed by moving on from teaching to study at the National Bakery School, where he made a good deal of bread and read nearly everything in their library. The latter led to some really serious experimenting and the idea of CobsBakery began to develop. Alan worked in a couple of Cambridge bakeries and continued to experiment at home - and found time to study sourdoughs with Paul Merry, one of the leading lights in English bakery.CobsBakery is the Cambridge Organic Bakery, and we're committed to producing the best in bread by reviving an almost obsolete process employing long, slow fermentation. This gives the yeast time to bring out the best in our selected quality flours. We are registered organic producers with the Bio-dynamic Agricultural Association, one of the certifying bodies recognised in the UK. The BDAA help us to guarantee that all our organic raw materials are produced to the highest standards - and that we handle them as responsibly as we say that we do.  A CobsBakery boast is that our bread contains no additives, no improvers and no preservatives. What is more, in the middle of this great grain-growing area of East Anglia we are developing links with local farmers and millers to keep food local.
Currently the majority of our flour comes from Marriages in Chelmsford. They are an old established family firm of farmers and millers. Marriages' flour mill is a unique mix of the high tech and traditonal, like the hundred-year-old horizontal French Burr stones used to produce stoneground wholemeal flour. We buy our spelt from Foster's Mill in Swaffham Prior where Jonathan Cook is renovating and bringing the century-old mill into regular wind-powered production. Jonathan tries to buy his grain locally and the current batch of spelt was grown in Hertfordshire. He continues to work on sourcing local grain and we look forward to developing this with him in the future. Our whole rye flour is from the Maud Foster Mill in Boston where James Waterfield has brought England's only five-sailed mill back into production. Alan is particularly keen to support the Maud Foster Mill since he grew up near it and saw it daily in the years when it was mothballed until 1987. It is great to see this beautiful mill turning in a good breeze! So, great local bread using locally produced flour! Click the "Available From" tab to find a stockist near you. | 
