Category Archives: Our customer’s news

We love our Bakers’ Couches…

….but what are they, and what do you use them for?

They are an essential but simple tool to help you produce stunning baguettes.

A couche (pronounced koosh) or baker’s cloth, is simply a “bed” or “resting place,”. It is a piece of thick canvas or linen that provides support for boules or baguettes during the proofing phase. Couche cloths are sometimes placed into baskets to support round boules, or they can be folded around baguettes.

Cloth is pleated to help shape the dough



When dusted and folded between lengths of dough it helps support and shape the dough. It also absorbs a little of the dough’s outer moisture to help develop a skin, hold the final shape and develop a crisp crust.

Did you know that Bakers’ Couches are best left unwashed. This way the yeasty, floury surface on the cloth is kept and helps to give the bread that unique crust that baguettes are known for.

We make our Baker’s Couches from 100% unbleached organic cotton, they are hand made to order by our skilled team in our farm-based factory.

Couche cloths can be branded


If you would like more information, contact our design team on 01908 290482 or email sales@cottonroots.co.uk

Amazing Grains

We recently embroidered some of our Fairtrade Organic aprons for a local bakery in Olney called Amazing-Grains.  Knowing that Olney was the home of the hymn Amazing Grace we were interested to know more about the bakery and its name.

Gareth the owner was made redundant after a 30 year career in IT, he realised that his heart no longer belonged in the corporate world.

Over the years, extensive travel had opened his eyes to the fact that most other countries held bread in high esteem unlike the industrialised products passed on as bread for the lowest possible price in the UK. So after dabbling in food distribution, Gareth decided to address this issue by learning to bake “real bread”, using good quality ingredients, and an honest approach. Sales began with friends, then from the local pub, to deliveries 5 days a week, all produced from a 30 Sq ft kitchen in a tiny 2 bed cottage in Emberton, just outside Olney in North Buckinghamshire.

Now baking 4 days a week from a converted workshop in East St in Olney, Amazing-Grains produces around 300 loaves a week, using only natural ingredients, time and no processing aids, to produce breads with a flavour, second to none.

The name of the bakery was based on the hymn Amazing Grace written by the curate of Olney, John Newton and published in 1779. It is one of the most recognisable songs in the English-speaking world.

We love supplying aprons to local businesses and particularly to one that has such an interesting story. You can find about more about Amazing Grains HERE

Organic and Fairtrade Aprons – Our Customers Top Twenty Competition

I had a brain wave last night.  One of my favourite things to do (which I don’t do often enough) it to go into our production area and look at some of the embroidery as it is produced off the machines.  We all enjoy watching the machines embroider away and then – voilà- a beautiful embroidery.

The thing is  – so many of our customers, especially the artisans, or those running organisations with passion have such original names, beautiful designs, quirky ideas.

We supply many prestigious organisations and large corporate companies.  Their designs are more functional and homogeneous.  Of course we love to work with them too.  But……these smaller businesses, with their passion and plans really do give us pleasure here at Impact Trading and Cotton Roots.

So I thought I would start with writing a little feature about those companies who have Organic and Fairtrade aprons from us.  Show you their design and tell you a little about what they do and the impact they have in the world.

What better to place to start than a TINY order we did today.  Our usual minimum order is twelve garments embroidered with the customers logo (it can be a mixture of garments).  But today we supplied a Tiny order for The Tiny Bakery which has a Tiny oven.  So for a starter this person behind this company, Veneatta Leyland, had the charisma to get around our small order rule!

The Tiny Bakery, aka Venetta, produces bread in her tiny oven.  What is unusual is that it is beautifully made, she will only supply within a one mile radius of her small home town of Wolverton, and for every loaf she bakes she supplies one free of charge to local organisations in need.  Take a look at her website here The Tiny Bakery.

So Venetta is the first in my newly started top twenty list.

Here is a picture of the part finished aprons.  I hope to post a picture of Venetta wearing  one on Monday.

Soon to added to the top twenty list is My Fair Cup Cake,  Fallen Angel, Balgove Larder, The Yard, Dri Dri Gelato …………the list goes on.  At the end we will have a competition and the winner will get 12 beautiful, natural, Fairtrade, organic aprons embroidered with their own logo.

See our aprons at here on our website www.cottonroots.co.uk  – by the way the models are my sister and her son – they look fabulous too.

Guiseley Methodist Junior Church – Dye Fairtrade T Shirts

Recently we had an enquiry from a group wanting some of our white, Fairtrade certified t shirts.  Of course we were delighted to supply.  The organiser Sarah Osgerby was very committed to the idea of Fairtrade and nothing else would do!

Fairtrade t shirts dyed using fabric sprays.

I was really pleased when I was sent some photographs showing the finished results. I was also impressed.  I think they are outstanding.  They used fabric spray to create tie dye effects on the t-shirts.

The t shirts are going to be used for next the harvest service display.

Fairtrade t-shirts dyed for Harvest Festival

Organic polo shirts chosen by Sauce Consultancy

Sauce Consultancy are environmental communications experts.  They help their clients get their environmental message across.  Whenever we supply garments to them they always give us great designs to work with which reflects their expertise.

They chose organic polo shirts for their staff which we supplied printed with their design.  Each bottle in the design matches one on their website, and each relates to an area of expertise.

Organic Polo Shirt Printed with Sauce Design

City Eco Hotel – Shortlisted for Award

The City Eco Hotel  “The Green House” in Bournemouth has been up and running for a year now.  A trail blazing hotel – The “Green House”   has been shortlisted for the Edie’s Awards for Environmental Excellence which celebrates the year’s most successful green innovators and environmental breakthroughs.

Restaurant-and-Bar City Eco Hotel

The 4 star hotel has used our organic polo shirts and organic aprons for their restaurant and bar staff.  Their commitment to ethical sourcing and offering a top class hotel means the hotel is successfully going from strength to strengths.  Congratulations to the director Sarah Burrows!

University of Portsmouth Fairtrade Status and Cafe Direct

The university of Portsmouth are a Fairtrade University and we were pleased to supply them with aprons and polo shirts made with Fairtrade certified cotton all embroidered with their logo.

The university is supported by Cafe Direct so we also needed to add their logo which in bright orange was very effective.

Our range expands and interest grows exciting times at Cotton Roots!

Christian Aid

Christian Aid

Another new customer to be proud of.  We have been working with Christian Aid and supplied them with Fairtrade cotton hoodies and Fairtrade and organic T shirts.

  All in bright red.

If you click on their logo above and look at their web site you will see all the wonderful work that they do.

The great thing about the organisations we work with, they may have different faiths, or live with slightly different approaches, but they all strive to care for others and our planet.  I have also found another reason to love building this business……..the customers are a pleasure to deal with.  They are interested, patient and warm.  Oh happy days.

Wearing our Fairtrade & organic polo shirt

Here we have a Christian Aid worker wearing one of the polo shirts which we have embroidered with their logo.

Salvation Army New Customer

Salvation Army Fairtrade T shirts

More great news. It just seems to keep coming at the moment!  Lisa has been working away with the Salvation Army on a project they have and they placed their order yesterday.  We are supplying them with Fairtrade cotton t shirts and I am really pleased, of course,  that they decided to use Cotton Roots.

Offering Fairtrade garments is a niche business but one I find really fascinating and fulfilling.  The Salvation Army are a growing band of new customers from the charity sector that are keen to use ethically sourced clothing.  On a personal note my grandmother Maud Smith who ran the public houses “The Lion” and “The Royal Oak” in Abertillery from around 1925 – 1965 would have been pleased.  The Salvation Army often came to the pubs and she made them very welcome.  It was tough times for the miners and their families in the valleys of South Wales and the Salvation Army did lots of supportive work.  So my Grandmother, although  a publican, really respected them and especially asked for them at her own funeral, a fitting tribute of mutual respect.  She was a business woman, family woman, strong woman and I think she would have been proud of us supplying the Salvation Army – so it gives me an added thrill.  Fairtrade T shirts, my Gran, and the Sally Army, a good combination.

Our Customer – English National Opera – Idomeneo

Idomeneo the Opera

English National Opera – Idomeneo by Mozart

We have a new customer and that excites me.  Their clothing could not be Fairtrade due to their very specific requirements which is a shame – but it’s just not possible yet.

The English National Opera are performing “Idomeneo” at London Coliseum and we are supplying the costumes. A new one for us – costumes.  It is a very contemporary opera so the performers will be wearing suits, shirts, and blouses which we have supplied.  I have had very little involvement in this order Jenny has worked hard sending samples, and exchanging goods until the opera company was happy with everything.

I am excited about this. I have never been to the opera and I feel a trip to the Coliseum coming on for all of us at Cotton Roots.  I am hoping to get some photographs from the trip and will post them on our blog!  We are of course still using manufacturers who ethically make our garments.

So if you go along to “Idomeneo” in the summer look out for our uniforms. We will be there!