LAMMAS LOAF PROMOTION STIRS APPETITE FOR REAL BREAD (AUGUST 2009)

Independent bakeries in Tyneside and Northumberland banded together this summer with an organic flour miller to bake the ancient Lammas Loaf as part of the Real Bread Campaign.

Taking its name from the Old English for loaf mass, baking the Lammas was the highlight of the ancient harvest festival of eating bread using flour from the Autumn’s first cereal crops.

The revival of the Lammas local loaf was an initiative of the Real Bread Campaign, set up by Andrew Whitley, author of “Bread Matters” and founder of The Village Bakery in Melmerby, Cumbria.

The North East promotion was led by Gilchesters Organics, of Hawkwell Farm, near Stamfordham, Northumberland, which supplied the grain to the bakeries. Its cereals, grown on the farm, are stone ground in the only registered organic mill in the North of England. It was built from scratch in 2006, which makes it the first stone mill to have been built in the North East for at least 150 years. Its naturally strong flour is made from 100 per cent English-grown organic cereals free from herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and GM.

Sybille Wilkinson, who runs the business with her husband Andrew, said Andrew Whitley created a special recipe for their Lammas Loaf. It combines two or more cereals in a light loaf with a rustic crust and chewy crumb. “This is a real bread, made with a two-stage ‘sponge-and-dough’ process for a great flavour and additive-free keeping quality. It tastes delicious,” she said.

Andrew Whitley says he helped to start the Real Bread Campaign to increase the enjoyment, production and consumption of bread made with natural ingredients, appropriate fermentation and no adulterants, so that good bread may play a larger part in the physical, mental and social wellbeing of the nation. www.realbreadcampaign.ord

His book, Bread Matters – the state of modern bread and a definitive guide to making your own, is published by Fourth Estate and is available for £16.99, post free, from www.breadmatters.com

Sybille Wilkinson says that Gilchesters Organics has gone from strength to strength in the last 12 months, notwithstanding last year’s atrocious wet harvest. Two new customers are wholesalers with national distribution and export potential, and discussions are ongoing with some large organic bakeries.

“After last year’s demoralising experiences we felt it was important to celebrate the coming harvest, a critical point in our calendar and one much overlooked by modern Britain. We would like to bring this celebration back onto the High Street and remind families and bakeries locally just what it means to get the harvest in,” she added.

The following bakeries took part in the Lammas Loaf promotion:

Allendale Bakery, Allen Mill, Allendale.

Café Royal, Nelson Street, Newcastle.

Davidson’s of Darras Hall, Ponteland.

Fenwick Limited, Northumberland Street, Newcastle.

Thomsons Bakery, Stamfordham Road, Newcastle

Ogle Castle Bakery

Food for Thought, Seaton Delaval.

Garden Station, Langley on Tyne.