Like most people, a trip to the shops is a necessity. Yes, my servants at Cumbria Crack Towers have dabbled with grocery delivery and while this is supposed to save money as they only order what they need, it doesn’t seem to work like that.
The weekly or monthly delivery from Fortnum and Masons of their preferred foie gras, black label jamon Iberico caviar and white truffle, has to be supplemented by the day-to-day fresh produce and regular trips to the supermarket or the high street shops.
Rarely do the servants come back from one of these shopping trip without a loaf of bread – that staple of the human diet that provides the toast for breakfast, the sandwich for lunch or the croutons for the winter soup.
But what is fascinating is there is surely a bread for each and every occasion.
Take the simple breakfast toast. It rather depends on what you mean by breakfast toast or, more specifically, what you plan to do with it.
Let’s start with the toast you are going to spread with butter and marmalade. Surely, then, the bread is simply the vehicle for the butter and the marmalade. Marrying a Seville, thick cut, preserve with ciabatta is wrong on so many levels. What you need is a basic thick bread preferably with the word ‘Toastie’ on the wrapper alongside the word ‘Warburtons’ (or Kingsmill, or Hovis, or any one of the supermarkets ‘own brands’).
But what if you are using the bread as a toasted mattress for your coddled or boiled eggs? Maybe a multigrain bread or a seeded loaf.
Then, at lunch, there is the sandwich. But what kind of a sandwich?
There’s the regular sandwich with two slices of bread with a filling. The cat likes a prawn or tuna sandwich (without the bread of course – cats don’t eat bread), Cumbria Crack editor prefers a refined cucumber with a cheesy spread while ‘he who must do as he is told’ goes for the doorstop cheese and pickle.
Again, the type of bread should be appropriate to the style and the filling.
So, it is clear, bread isn’t just bread, it’s BREAD! And, what is just as important is where you get your bread from.
Yes, 70 per cent of the bread we buy is standard white and 50 per cent of that is from the readymade sandwiches you can get from any supermarket, corner shop or garage. The other 30 per cent is made up of brown, wholemeal, seeded, farmhouse, giraffe, tiger, organic or granary torpedoes (with a nod to Victoria Wood and Dinnerladies).
Well not all of the 30 per cent………
Whilst they are near Kendal, top quality breads can also be had across our county. You could try the Broughton Village Bakery which is fast approaching its 100th anniversary.
For those living or visiting West Cumbria, there is Coffee Kitchen Bakery in Cockermouth’s Market Place, where keep it simple wins with their farmhouse white and wholemeal which sits alongside their more complex offerings such as Beacon Brown, an old Whitehaven recipe with treacle and a shot of espresso.
Alongside these standalone bakery stars are Bells of Lazonby and Brysons of Keswick, with a range of breads including the cob and the bloomer (oo er, missus!) that can be found in many outlets across the county.
Yes, the basic bread from the supermarket or corner shop will always be at the top of the sales charts but it is worth checking out the local bakers and trying their fantastic products. The ones mentioned here are just the tip of a floury iceberg.
By the way: Cumbria Crack editor thinks Fortnum and Masons is a garden centre in the Eden Valley and yes, I had to look up coddled eggs. We aren’t that posh.
About Cumbria Cat
Born in Cumberland and, from 2023, will be back living in Cumberland, having spent most of the past 50 years in some place called Cumbria, this cat has used up all nine lives as well as a few others.
Always happy to curl up on a friendly lap, the preference is for a local lap and not a lap that wants to descend on the county to change it into something it isn’t. After all, you might think Cumbria/Cumberland/Westmorland is a land forged by nature – the glaciers, the rivers, breaking down the volcanic rocks or the sedimentary layers – but, in reality, the Cumbria we know today was forged by generations of local people, farmers, miners, quarriers, and foresters.
This cat is a local moggy, not a Burmese, Ocicat or Persian, and although I have been around the block a few times, whenever I jump, I end up on my feet back in my home county. I am passionate about the area, its people, past, present and future, and those who come to admire what we hold dear, be it lakes and mountains, wild sea shores, vibrant communities or the history as rich and diverse as anywhere in the world.
