Our Bakery is one of the most beloved places in the community. Up to 12 bakers do meaningful work throughout the day to make a selection of breads – including different kinds of sourdough and regular loaves –, rolls, cookies, granola and the famous pizza to attend the keen taste buds of our residents.
"I am a baker."
All of our bread is handmade from tried and tested recipes but that does not stop us from trying new things. Our aim is a social therapeutic approach, with having no deadlines for production and keeping stress to a minimum. By doing this, we hope to enable people to develop new and meaningful skills that they can take on into their everyday lives. By empowering our residents, we hear things like:
“I’m a baker.”
“I work in the Bakery.”
“We make white bread on Wednesdays.”
“I love the Bakery!"
Baking can be therapeutic in different ways. It can makes us all feel happy and helps lift spirits. The feel of the flour, the sound of the blender, and of course the smell of the delectable final product – all these experiences can stimulate the senses, which in turn increases our feel-good endorphins.
Festivals like Michaelmas, Christmas and Easter give us the inspiration to make specialities and to try something different. We are famous for our Harvest loaf and Advent biscuits!
The Learners' Café
---- THE CAFÉ WILL REMAIN TEMPRARILY CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE ---- keep your fingers crossed, we're hoping to open again after the summer!
The Learners’ Café is an impulse started by Steven Patterson in 2018, and has since been thriving. This came about with the Occupational Studies (an accredited qualification) for some of our residents in baking and hospitality skills. We later saw that we needed a base for which they could use their new skills, hence ‘The Learners’ Café’.
The pop-up Café usually happens once a month at the Clanabogan Bakery. Our residents bake the homemade goodies, serve the customers and - of course the not so nice work - do the washing up! The Learners' Café project adopts a 'learning by doing' approach to help our residents to gain experience in the baking and hospitality industry.
Our menu is a typical tea room Café theme... organic teas and coffee, scones, tray bakes, cake, bruschetta etc.
We pride ourselves on our friendly welcome and cosy atmosphere.
Keep an eye on our Facebook page for the next monthly café date.