We meet in Burford, a honey-stone village in the Cotswolds boasting a lively main street dotted with pubs, cheese shops and churches. Just two hours from London, the Cotswolds enjoy a very different pace of life, one centered around agriculture, small towns, contemporary innovations and great food. Get settled in your room and then meet the group for our welcome dinner right in the pub below. We’ll walk through the week’s itinerary, answer your questions, and enjoy a hearty meal of local ingredients presented imaginatively. Expect a proper British Roast, fish and hand-cut chips, salads of fresh vegetables and baskets of sourdough bread.

Enjoy a leisurely breakfast before we learn about the genesis of all great sourdough bread: soil. During a full-day immersive experience at the nonprofit FarmEd, we’ll learn about wheat growing practices and their effects on your morning loaf. We’ll tour the farm, get our hands dirty in the fields, meet some lovely and important worms and compare wheat grown via different farming practices – all fueled by ample tea, coffee and a seasonal lunch of produce, meats, cheeses and baked goods from FarmED and the local area. You’ll have some free time to explore Burford before we head to dinner at The Angel in Burford, a classic local pub.

Today is all about the stone. We’ll spend the day at a renovated Cotswolds water mill, where we’ll visit the property, see how the mill works and learn about the project from its founders. Over tea, we’ll hear how this historic site is being restored and reimagined, and how milling connects the region’s agricultural past to its present.

Our learning complete, we’ll continue with a hands-on pizza class, putting flour, fermentation and heat to work in one of baking’s most satisfying forms. The day offers a deeper look at the path from grain to flour to finished bake, with the Cotswolds as our classroom.

We’re city bound. After breakfast, we say goodbye to the Cotswolds and travel to London via private transfer. We’ll check into our London hotel and have a few hours this afternoon to visit a museum, take a walk in a park or explore the city. For the willing, we’ve designed a bakery scavenger hunt that will take you to some of the best bakeries in town.

Then we’ll gather at Honey & Co Daily for a private baking lesson with legendary chefs Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich, longtime friends of Milk Street. After we bake, Sarit and Itamar will treat us to a generous family-style mezze meal.

Our hands-on baking education begins today. We’ll meet Sophie and guest bakers at the National Bakery School, the UK’s oldest baking institute. From morning to evening we’ll move between sourdough and quick baking, taking advantage of the long resting and rising times sourdough demands to make quicker cookies and yeasted breads.

Throughout the day, we’ll continue exploring the techniques, ingredients and rhythms that turn flour, water, salt and time into memorable bakes. Lunch provided by NBS, and the sweets you make will fuel our work throughout the day. After a long day on our feet, the evening is yours to enjoy as you like. Book tickets to a play, take an evening stroll or enjoy a glass of wine, cocktail or a pint at one of London’s many bars.

Over morning tea, we’ll review the day’s plan, which includes learning several methods for shaping and baking the sourdough loaves we started yesterday and baking with chemical leaveners in addition to wild fermentation. While our sourdough breads bake and cool, we’ll head out to a special lunch. Back at the NBS, we’ll taste our sourdough loaves and package up any bakes you want to take home.

After a full day of baking, we’ll return to the hotel for a short break to freshen up before heading out for our farewell dinner at a modern Indian restaurant.