Nominee for Best Emerging Business

Lush Loaves

Sponsored By

What started as a lockdown hobby quickly developed into a busy business. Michael Drumm started his micro bakery, Lush Loaves, at the height of the pandemic from his kitchen in Newmarket. During one of the Covid 19 lockdowns he started supplying a local cafe - Café Bia, Kanturk - only on Saturday mornings because he was working in a factory during the week.

Michael commented on how quickly the business took off from that point: “I started making bread when my grandmother passed away and I loved her soda bread so much I started making it myself. But that quickly turned into making long fermented artisian bread. I absolutely found my passion without looking for it, it just happened. So from there it was just home baking these all types of French Italian and traditional types of bread. Café Bia saw my bread and asked me to supply them so from there my business grew and grew, until I had to decide if I was going to continue working in factories or take a chance so I and my wife talked about it and it was now or never moment.”

In 2021 Michael handed in his notice to his full time job and took the plunge to go out on his own. His risk has paid off and he is now solely dedicated to making handcrafted bread and has grown his customer base to supply five shops, two cafés, and a local creche. A lot of hours go into making fermented bread - from mixing the dough to baking, it’s a 16-hour process. Food critics would say that the traditional methods that Michael implements with longer fermentation time allows for greater flavour development. He also stone bakes a majority of the loaves, making it a unique artisan product. Artisan bread is renowned as being easier to digest, because the enzymes have had time to begin breaking down the gluten in the flour while fermenting. His bread truly is a labour of love and everything is made and shaped by hand. He prides himself on not having machines or mixers in the micro bakery; “I hand mix everything in bulk, box, then I cut and shape everything every day, and slow cold ferment in the fridge until bake time in the morning.”

Michael has big ambitions for the company. He would love to operate on a larger scale whilst keeping true to his core values of hand crafted with no machines. Visit www.lushloaves.com to find out a bit more about where you can purchase Michael’s artisan baking.