Meet the husband and wife bakers who get up at 2am to prepare bread and cakes for their shop

A shared passion for baking led the husband and wife team to open Orchard Hills Bakery in Aldridge just over four years ago.

Since then, they have attracted a loyal band of customers, who have become more like friends, and have enjoyed championing natural, authentic bread.

Dave and Michelle don't mind the early starts, a necessary part of being a baker, because they are doing something they love.

"Baking is two per cent theory and 98 per cent passion," says former builder and roofer Dave, who is in charge of their sourdoughs and breads.

"The more you do it, the more skills you build up and the more passionate you become."

"When you're getting up so early that the moon is still up and there is a fox outside, you have to be passionate about it, otherwise you wouldn't do it," adds Michelle, who looks after cakes and pastries.

Their baking venture began around eight years ago when the couple got snowed in at home.

Dave decided to try out a bread recipe from one of Paul Hollywood's books and Michelle, who had caught the baking bug at an early age. made a lemon drizzle cake and a batch of lemon curd.

"I started helping my nan to make pastry when I young and I loved it," she tells Weekend.

"I went to Walsall College but it was very male-orientated and I was painfully shy so I didn't end up going into baking.

"But I never lost that love and absolute passion for it," she tells Weekend.

It wasn't long before the couple were selling their breads and cakes at farmers markets and fairs where their tasty creations proved a hit with customers.

"People started following us around the different the fairs and markets - they were like bread groupies.

"Most of the people were from Aldridge and they wanted to see us in a shop. We thought about what it was going to take to make it work and we took the plunge," explains Michelle.

They opened their bakery in a former greengrocers shop in Rookery Lane in November 2018 and on the first day a queue of people lined up to choose from the selection of bread, pastries and cakes on display.

"It was really lovely," says Michelle. "The community came out to support us and there were people who had been buying our bread from the beginning."

When the first Covid national lockdown came into force in March 2020, the bakery was allowed to remain open as an essential food business.

"We stayed open to feed people but after a few weeks we started to feel a bit vulnerable," says Michelle.

The couple made the difficult decision to close the bakery to protect both their customers and themselves and switch to offering a delivery service.

"We decided to deliver twice a week but we couldn't do it by ourselves because we couldn't bake and delivery. We had some volunteers who came to our rescue and said they could help us by delivering - I call them our Delivery Angels," explains Michelle.

The delivery service proved very popular and in September 2020, the couple felt it was the right time to re-open the doors.

"It was lovely to see people again because we had felt quite isolated. We were baking away but not seeing anybody.

"We had built up relationships with our customers and we missing talking to them and hearing all of their news," says Michelle.

Since then the couple has extended the business by opening a cafe area so people could sit down to enjoy a hot drink, such as Hundred House Coffee, which hails from Shropshire, with a cake or pastry.

Every week Dave, who attended a training workshop run by organic baker Andrew Whitley, who co-founded the Real Bread Campaign, bakes a wide variety of sourdoughs and breads.

They include an Aldridge Sourdough, a wholemeal and rye sourdough, a traditional crusty white bread and a farmhouse granary as well as crusty baps and baguettes.

He also creates sourdough specials such as chilli, cheese and jepano pepper; leek and turmeric; and walnut and blue cheese.

"We listen to what our customers want and adapt what we do which I think is the same as most businesses," says Dave.

Michelle's creations include pastries such as butter, almond and chocolate croissants, sweet treats including chocolate brownies, tiramisu cake and apple and raspberry crumble slices and savoury bakes such as quiche.

The couple, who only use organic flours, are passionate about using local and seasonal ingredients as much as possible. Every week, any leftover food is donated to the food bank at The Thomas Project, a Christain charity that helps people s

Today, marks the start of Real Bread Week, an annual, international celebration of bread made without chemical raising agents or other additives, and the people who make it.

"Our sourdoughs and breads are made in the traditional way. It's very wholesome food. There is a lot of research that shows sourdough is good for gut health," says Dave.

During Real Bread Week, they will be increasing the number of samples they have available for customers to try and are hoping to raise awareness of the qualities of bread made with natural ingredients.

"Being a member of the Real Bread Campaign and being part of Real Bread Week shows people that there is an alternative to mass-produced supermarket and that bakeries like ours are here," says Dave.

* For more information about the Real Bread Campaign, bakeries and recipes, see www.realbreadcampaign.org. To find out more about Orchard Hills Bakery, see orchardhillsbakery.co.uk or follow @orchardhillsbakery on Instagram or Orchard Hills Bakery on Facebook.