Little Salkeld Watermill

....now taking orders for 1lb loaves to collect:

• Wholemeal - £2
• 85% - £2.10
• 4 Grain - £2.20

Order by 4pm on previous day on 01768 881523.

Bread has been at the centre of the British table for centuries…. but good bread? That’s harder to come by. Mechanisation, globalisation and standardisation have all done their best to reduce the noble “staff of life” to a shadow of its former self. Happily things are changing... and for the better. Good bread is making a comeback, thanks to all sorts of different factors. These include the resurgence of traditional milling, organic farming and diversification, more opportunities to learn how to make bread, more books about bread, the bread-machine, the rise of artisan bakeries, foreign travel, initiatives like Slow Bread and the Real Bread Campaign and now the credit crunch. Here at The Watermill we’ve been involved in, influenced, supported and pioneered some of these changes. We’ve been baking bread for our tearoom here for over thirty years, and have established a great reputation for the quality, variety and value of our breads. Some people will go well out of their way for Watermill bread, but we haven’t been able to supply it beyond the doors of the Tearoom… until now.

The good news is that we are now offering a range of Watermill Breads to local shops, pubs and restaurants. This is the story… In the Spring of 2008 Dutchman Henk Glimmerveen volunteered to help show visitors round the mill on Sunday afternoons, to take his mind off the ups and downs of his professional career in the aviation industry, which, in case you were wondering, has had a bit of a bumpy ride recently! One thing led to another, as it does, and it wasn’t long before Henk’s natural curiosity got the better of him and he wanted to have a go at milling and, then, to find out how to get the best out of the flour. Being a Dutchman, he has milling (OK they are mostly windmills) and baking in his genes, and has taken to flour and bread like a duck to water.

Now we are delighted to announce that Henk is developing the bakery here, in a very small way to start with.

We’d like to invite you to try our breads, and to see if your customers like them.

The best bread needs time, skill, and good, simple ingredients - flour, and water, yeast (not even yeast if you are leavening the bread using a sourdough), and a little salt. We use organic or biodynamic quality grains (wheat, rye, barley, oats and spelt), grown in the UK whenever possible. We also use organic yeast . Our wet climate and cloudier skies produce grains that have less gluten and protein than the “stronger” flours milled from wheats from hotter, drier countries. Lower gluten produces denser, closer textured bread, but homegrown flours are extremely tasty and keep well for several days. Unlike modern rollermilling stonegrinding retains more nutrients, and requires less water for breadmaking. Stonegrinding retains the highly nutritious wheatgerm oil in the flour and gives it its characteristic nutty flavour. Slow baking improves the flavour and texture of the bread and makes it more digestible. We make a simple sponge and allow the yeast to work overnight; then the dough is hand-kneaded and baked. Long term we plan to build our own wood-fired oven.

Information, contacts

The Watermill Bakery, Little Salkeld, Penrith, Cumbria CA10 1NN.

Tel/Fax: 01768 881523

Email us

Ana and Nick Jones, Henk Glimmerveen.
Little Salkeld Watermill & Bakery.