Side Oven Bakery is taking orders for hand-made wheat sheaf loaves to help the charity
Showing off examples of the Side Oven Bakery harvest breads(Image: Side Oven Bakery)
A family-owned organic bakery in East Yorkshire is turning out some special bakes for a cause close to its heart. Side Oven Bakery, based at Carr House Farm, Foston on the Wolds, near Driffield, has announced a Harvest Breads for Charity initiative.
The Sellers announced their breadmaking fundraising campaign in aid of the Daisy Appeal charity, based at Castle Hill Hospital, explaining they will be hand-making harvest breads, moulded into wheat sheaves (with optional mice!) to be sold to those who are celebrating harvest. These could be ideal for church harvest festivals, harvest suppers or community harvest celebrations.
Wheat sheaves made of bread have traditionally been incorporated into harvest displays – and Caroline Sellers creates the centrepiece bread for the local church of St Andrew’s at Foston – which is where the idea has sprung from, as well as family experience of the facilities the Daisy Appeal provides. A Harvest Bread costs £25, with all proceeds going to the Daisy Appeal.
A number of orders have already been placed with Side Oven Bakery for the breads. The bakery will welcome more “until demand dries up”.
Caroline is joined in the bakery enterprise by her husband, Tim, and daughters Hester and Jessica. Previously they have run a Bake for Ukraine breadmaking marathon in which all proceeds from a day of bread sales went to help displaced families in the war-torn country.
Jessica said: “There’s a personal reason behind why we want to do this, and we want to help other people who might be going through treatments too. This is a very, very important local appeal.
“Mum has always made these harvest breads for the local church and we thought this is something that would be nice to do. We’ve not put an end date on it, we’ll just make these breads as long as people want them.
“The pictures we have put out on social media are a good representation of what we generally do with the breads and there are a couple of different things Mum can do. If customers want a mouse or don’t want a mouse, they can say.
“We will also ask people if it’s intended the bread is to be eaten, as we do bake them differently. A bread that is made for a display is baked harder so it can be stood – the breads are quite long and thin and would break otherwise – but as people order, we will check.”
The Daisy Appeal has launched Scan For Life, a major fundraising drive to raise £3m for a state-of-the-art digital PET-CT scanner at Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham. This new scanner will deliver more scans, faster, with precise diagnostics for cancer, heart disease, and dementia.
Harvest Breads will be made to order and can be collected or local delivery can be arranged. To order, please email bakery@sideoven.com
The Sellers have lived and worked for five generations at Foston on the Yorkshire Wolds, growing cereal crops, harvesting apples, elderflowers and blackcurrants and using their own spring water to create a range of award-winning organic products. As well as making a range of artisan breads, mueslis and granolas, and fruit juices and cordials, for sale to the public, Side Oven Bakery usually runs courses in breadmaking, using the farm’s stoneground spelt wheat and wood-burning oven, which is fuelled with timber from the farm’s woodland management.
The courses have been paused for a while but there are plans for them to return. The next public event at Side Oven Bakery is its Apple Open Day, on Sunday, September 20, from 10am to 3pm.
There will be a great selection of pick-your-own heritage variety apples in the organic fruit orchard, as well as ready-picked apples to buy; apple pressing to have a go at making your own juice (tickets need to be booked beforehand); a display by The Makara Morris Dancers and the bakery will be open, serving freshly-baked breads, croissants, cakes and more.