Bread – Yellowbelly Food

Mount Pleasant Windmill and True Loaf Bakery

March 15, 2011 Emma Chapman Leave a comment

Mount Pleasant Windmill. Photo: Emma Chapman

Built in 1875, the traditional four sailed brick tower mill is now owned by Mervin and Marie-Christine Austin, who bought the mill in 2000.

The Austins reside in the house next door to Mount Pleasant Windmill, which was purchased as one big complex with the land around it as well.

“I’ve always wanted to buy a windmill,” says Mervin. Prior to the windmill Mervin was a baker in London so when it comes to the technicalities of milling he says: “I know what flour looks like, or what it should look like, and I’m not totally stupid as far as engineering is concerned so I worked out roughly how to get it and worked out what to do. I taught myself when we came up here. The guy gave me four hours instruction and then went. Never saw him again”.

The mill now offers 10 different pure stone-ground organic flours using organic wheat from Britain. The flours are unbleached, untreated and nothing is added or removed.

The mill is operated daily throughout the year and therefore freshness is guaranteed in all of their products as well as the flour. Their bread is sold at farmers’ markets and from the tea shop located next to the mill. The flour is sold wholesale at the co-op, a few bakeries and from mail order.

An 18 tonne wood fired oven was built next to the mill, and bakes the 20 types of organic breads as well as cakes that are sold in their tea rooms and from their website.

Mervin uses organic oats to make his bread. Photo: Samantha Viner

This iconic windmill has attracted media companies to feature the business on programmes such as The Hairy Bikers, Secret Supper Club and Radio 4, Mervin says: “The media attention is good for business, but it doesn’t keep people interested for long unfortunately”.

When it comes to income Mervin says the business isn’t a big money maker, he has to rely a several sources of income. People visiting the mill, the café, flour sales and baking classes that Mervin has recently started teaching.

This is the first year that the tea room has been closed over the winter period. Mervin says: “I think it might have been a bad move because the result is like this now [empty]”. However, Mervin did say that the previous weekend, when they opened again, was successful. He says: “We need a build up of people getting to know we’re open again”.

The organic factor is very important to Mervin, he explains why: “You should think about what you eat. I don’t want to eat pesticides basically, especially in wheat. Any grain is sprayed, and it can be sprayed up to 13 times a growing season, and it’s not washed. So it goes straight into the combine, straight into the mill and it’s in your food. With organic, because of the traceability factor, you can be pretty certain it hasn’t been sprayed at all”.

Organic flour is hard to come by in Lincolnshire according to Mervin: “Occasionally I’ll buy off dealers; sometimes I’ll buy off the farmers. But I can only buy organic so there is very little in Lincolnshire. There is a lot of imported stuff about at the minute from Kazakhstan, it’s a big organic growing wheat area but it’s not very good wheat, it’s very hard, doesn’t mill very well”.

So what’s next for Mervin? He says: “I quite like the idea of a watermill”.

Welbourne’s Bakery, the home of Plum Bread

November 14, 2010 Emma Chapman Leave a comment

Welbourne's Bakery in Navenby. Photo: Emma Chapman

Welbourne’s Bakery was established in 1896 in the village of Navenby. The family-run business sells plenty of local produce including sausages, cakes, wines, juice drinks and pies.

Welbourne’s use local produce where they can and the meat in their homemade pies is caught locally.

Ashley, a shop assistant at the bakery, wrongly believes that the wheat from the UK is not good enough for baking. He said: “The wheat we use for the flour comes from Russia and or Canada. The wheat produced in England is not suitable for comsumption as it is predominatly grown for animal food.”

The bakery is famous for it’s plum bread- made from the traditional recipe that dates back to the 1890s. There has only been one adjustment to the recipe, which was the change from lard to vegetable fat, which made the bread suitable for vegetarians. According to Ashley, 60,000 loaves of plum bread are made every year, averaging 1,500 loaves a week.

So, where did the name ‘plum bread’ come from when the recipe contains no plums? Ashley explained: “Plum is an old term for dried fruit.” Hence the handfuls of dried fruit found in each slice.

Plum bread has recently been submitted to gain PGI status. PGI stands for ‘Products of Geographical Indication’ and is a part of European Legislation concerning regional speciality foods.

This means a foodstuff has to be either produced, processed or prepared in a certain geographical area and have the reputation, features or certain qualities attributable to that area. Ashley said: “we were going to try for it, but it’s a lot of work and would need all the producers of plum bread to get together and standardise their bread.”