Does anybody know of a website that connects bakers with locally-sorced grain farmers?

I've been an artisinal baker for a few years now and I feel that it's time to step my game!

I intended to start a blog and leave a post every week with updates of a new loaf or new idea as a way to help me keep on experimenting and learning. So far, alas I have fallen at the first hurdle, after an impromptu trip to Paris I failed to update my blog the first week and haven't done so since.

It's not all bad though as Paris has been a real eye opener. I got into making bread seriously because of a lack of good local bakeries. When I moved to a new flat in a new area last year I discovered my high street had 2 greengrocers, a really good butchers and a plethora of small local independent stores, but alas no bakery! Even a trip to the nearby city centre left me empty handed but for a handful of instore supermarket bakeries and the omnipresent Greggs (a UK bakery chain that provides cheap, cheerful but ultimately soul destroying baked products). A short ferry/train trip across the channel however and it's a completely different story. Around every corner of every street in every arrondissemont the fresh smell of bread could be smelled wafting from a small boulangerie. The whole country must be teeming with bakers to be able to fill all those stores with such a variety of doughy delights. Don't get me wrong it's not as if the UK has worse bread, when you find it some of the stuff is delicious. It's just that good bread is comparitively so hard to find. And it's not as if we don't desire good bread, I recentely read Britons make far more bread at home than our french counterparts (and it's not hard to imagine why). Maybe the lack of good bakeries is a blessing, how else would I have discovered the joys of seeing the first bubbles arrive in a mixture of rye, water and nothing else (still amazes me), would I have ever even come across the words miche, banneton, lame etc. if I had not had to turn to home baking. Somehow however I still think I would prefer it if I had a friendly local bakery to buy at least the occasional loaf from.

As this blog has such a geographically diverse readership I wonder what others have to say about the provision of good bakeries in their area, and why some countries seemed to be able to have enough demand to keep a bakery in business on every street whereas others can have a whole town centre with nothing.

Hey! 

We've recently launched a free marketplace called Book of Cooks (currently on Beta) to help consumers find and hire local culinary professionals and foodies for cooking gigs, full-time and part-time jobs. 

I'd like to extend an invitation to all bakers and food artisans on The Fresh Loaf to get listed on the book and help us grow it. To explain what it is in a few words....at BookofCooks you can set up an online bakery or "storefront" to sell your cakes, bread, pastries with and link to your photos and recipes here at The Fresh Loaf :=) , your webpage or blog.  

Consumers on the other hand can search BookOfCooks by city for whatever meal or baked goods they're craving, or they can browse the site's online Google maps and archives for links to local cooks/bakers, including ratings and reviews. When they find one that sounds good, they can place an order with the cook for pickup, delivery or even in-home preparation. 

The site is advertising and sponsor supported - we don't charge commissions. Here are some recent press articles and mentions  further explaining how it works.

Please note that the website is in beta--we will greatly appreciate any feedback that helps us improve and make it more useful. Tell us what you like, what you hate, it'll all be super valuable to us as we prepare for our next site release in the fall. 

Finally feel free to visit our blog, our Facebook page, watch our video tour or email me directly: info [at] bookofcooks.com. 

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Julian