A new artisan bakery has sprung up in a Norfolk village as demand for freshly baked bread made from locally sourced ingredients is on the rise.
In a world where we are all questioning more about what goes into our food, a demand for home-cooked bread using local ingredients, has risen to the fore. New artisan bakeries are springing up all over and the latest, Siding Yard, in Melton Constable is the brainchild of 27-year-old Polly Quick. Miss Quick hails from Norfolk but went off to university and then worked as a cook in France before deciding to return to her home turf and set up her own bakery. She's opened up in part of the old railway station that used to serve five different lines at Melton Constable - aptly calling the business Siding Yard.
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Her aim is to bake bread using 100% stoneground British grown flour and adding simply water and salt. Some of the flour she uses comes from nearby Letheringsett mill and she's also baking croissants and pastries too using butter made in Suffolk. And for Christmas, she's extending her range to include mince pies too.
Products are available to buy along with coffee at Siding Yard and the great thing is you can see the items being baked too.
Miss Quick said: "People now very much want to know what's going into their food and are asking the question: 'What am I actually eating?' We've lost touch with where our food comes from and I think we are now starting to take back control.
"Shopping habits have made us used to endless choice and availability to a point where we expect so much."
Miss Quick used to sell home-made sausage rolls out of her Dad's garage but has set up the new business from a large open plan space that was big enough for her industrial kitchen as well as a cafe and shop counter. "I wanted to be in a village with a heart, not somewhere that was just for tourists, so Melton Constable is a perfect location and it's gone down really well with lcoal people and those living nearby."
Miss Quick bakes only using flour which has been made from grain grown in the UK and currently is promoting wheat so doesn't offer a gluten-free bread, but is working on it. She is currently supplying two restaurants at the Anchor, Morston and Hero at Burnham Overy but would like to work more with local firms as she grows the business.
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