Two ovens, four people, one long ferment
Hearth & Crumb started in 2016 with a second-hand oven, a borrowed mixer and a sourdough starter that's still going. We bake everything here, in the morning you buy it — no deliveries from anywhere else.
The shop
The building was a greengrocer's for forty years, which is why there's still a big window on the corner and a cold room we never have to worry about. We put the oven where the potato sacks used to be and a bench outside with the tiles from the old doorstep.
It's small. On a Saturday morning there'll be a queue out the door, and it moves quickly because most people know what they want. If you're not sure, ask — we'll cut you a slice of anything.
The hives behind the shop give us the honey that goes into the morning buns and the tin loaves. Everything else comes from as close as we can: stoneground flour from a mill up the valley, cultured butter and cream from a dairy in Somerset, coffee from a roaster two streets over.
The short version
Our whole philosophy, on a card.
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Two days ahead
Bread is mixed, then left to ferment slowly in the cold. -
Before sunrise
Pastries are laminated, proved and baked by 7. -
Four of us
Bakers on the bench, one on the coffee, and whoever's washing up. -
Nothing wasted
What doesn't sell by closing goes half price, then to the food hub on Mill Lane.
How a loaf gets here
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Step one
Mix and rest
Flour, water and salt, folded by hand. It sits for an hour before anything else happens.
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Step two
A cold night
Shaped, then into the fridge overnight — that's where the flavour and the blistered crust come from.
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Step three
Hot stone
The oven's been on since 4. Loaves go in on the stone, with steam, and come out dark.
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Step four
On the shelf
Cooled on the rack for an hour, then on the shelf with the price on a card. Ask us to slice it.
Come and say hello
We'd rather talk about bread than write about it.
12 Mill Lane, Ashfield, Bristol BS5 6QT
Mon – Thu 7:00 – 15:00, and Saturdays from 7:30.