‘A hands-on experience is more memorable and people love the nostalgia of baking bread the traditional way’ It’s aprons on and we make soda and wheaten on the griddle... we don’t measure anything out
Tracey Jeffery is the baking maestro behind Tracey’s Farmhouse Kitchen, a traditional Irish bread-making experience set in her own family cottage on the shores of Strangford Lough.
A former language teacher, Tracey’s love of baking began when she spent a gap year after university in southern France, where she honed her pastry skills working in a patisserie.
Bringing her baking to local farmers’ markets over the years led to a new business idea and the launch of Northern Ireland Food Tours two years ago.
Her own bread making was one element of the tours which proved so popular that a year ago, Tracey set up another new business specialising in bread baking at her thatched 18th century cottage.
Now her weekly sessions are booked out months in advance and gift vouchers are being snapped up for special Christmas gifts.
Tracey is married to Joe, a landscape gardener, and lives in Killinchy with their two boys, Joseph (15) and Matthew (12), in their picture book cottage, which has been lovingly restored by Joe.
Tracey explains that the micro climate in the Strangford area is a bonus for food producers and restaurants.
“This gave me the idea for the food tour and also because I love meeting people,” she says.
“An hour of the tour involves stopping at my house to make some traditional bread and have coffee.
“The bread baking really took off and I realised that is where my passion is — I set up Tracey’s Farmhouse Kitchen a year ago and it has grown really quickly. In fact it has exceeded expectations.
“For me, it is about making sure people have a brilliant experience.
“They love the immersive,
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hands-on chance to bake in a real family home.
“They come in and the table is laden with my homemade food — and before we start baking, they will have some fruit bannock straight out of the oven.
“Then it is aprons on and we bake soda bread, treacle soda, wheaten bread and potato bread on the griddle. Just like the traditional way which people remember their mums and grannies using, we don’t measure anything out.
“We then sit down at my big farmhouse table and eat some of the bread with homemade jams and a selection of traybakes or crumble that I have baked. They then get to take a bag of what they have baked home with them.”
Local people and tourists come together in Tracey’s kitchen to learn from her and she says her baking sessions are popular with all ages — and with men as well as women.
“I think for most people, a hands-on experience is more memorable as a gift and there is great nostalgia for local people being able to make the bread the traditional way,” she says.
“My gift vouchers are really popular with men who want to buy them for their mums or sisters. The beauty of them is that husbands and wives can also do it together, so it is a great gift for couples.”