BAKER AIDEN MONKS TELLS ME HOW OLDER GRAINS HAVE BEEN SHOWN TO CONTAIN 60% MORE VITAMINS AND MINERALS THAN MODERN WHEAT VARIETIES
GROWING WELL GIVES PEOPLE A SHARED PURPOSE, A SOCIAL LIFE AND NEW QUALIFICATIONS
milk cheese, which he makes from his own sheep and with his own starter culture – a rarity in Britain’s commercial cheese-making circles. On the menu at L’Enclume and Forest Side, and in the farmshop at Low Sizergh Barn, the cheese is so packed with goodness that researchers at University College London are studying its potential for delivering probiotics to immune-suppressed children. “The milk comes straight out of the parlour and into the vat so it’s never stored, which means the vitamins and minerals stay intact,” Martin tells me. He explains how the cheese’s taste alters according to the weather and season, turning from fresh and yogurty in spring, to herby in summer, to “muttony and bacon fatty” in autumn. He slices off a piece to prove this is a good thing. It certainly is.
The most scenic spot to try Red Bank Coffee is sitting by the river at Ambleside’s Rattle Ghyll Café, or at The Yan, Forest Side or the Drunken Duck Inn, but I meet owner, Tom Prestwich, at the heart of operations, an industrial unit on the banks of Coniston Water (redbankcoffee.com). A roaster with a conscience, Tom explains that traceability is crucial to the company ethos, so he often travels to Central America to visit the farms himself. “I want to pinpoint exactly where the coffee comes from. Not just the region but the actual farm.” Some of Red Bank’s beans come from an all-female cooperative in Guatemala, and he donates £1 from every kilo sold of his Mountain Rescue coffee to the Lake District Search and Mountain Rescue Association. His coffee isn’t just Fairtrade, it’s eco-friendly too, made in a fuel-efficient roaster that recycles heat and uses renewable energy. Coffee bags are collected from customers and reused.
Boosted by virtuousness as well as caffeine, I head on to Growing Well, an organic farm that helps people who are suffering from mental health problems (growingwell.co.uk). Referred by their GPs, people work alongside occupational therapists and gardeners to produce fruit and vegetable boxes that are delivered to the local community, and sold commercially at neighbouring Low Sizergh Barn and Tebay Services (tebayservices.com). Manager Mary Houston tells me that the improvements she sees in patients are dramatic. “It gives people a shared purpose, a social life, new qualifications and is a gentle introduction back into work. Being here stops people being reliant on antidepressants or being sectioned in hospital.”
There’s one more stop to make – and a 20-minute queue to get in, despite a heavy downpour. “It’s like this every day,” says Yasmine Hunter as she leads me through the crowd at Grasmere Gingerbread’s tiny shop and into the back office (grasmereginger bread.co.uk). The gingerbread recipe is a long-kept secret: staff sign a confidentially agreement and the kitchen door is padlocked shut. The recipe, she says, is much as it was in 1854 when it was invented by Victorian cook Sarah Nelson. Behind the counter, staff dressed in Victorian costumes wrap up little slabs of gingerbread in pretty blue paper. Yasmine hands me a pack. It’s chewy, sweet, with fiery spices and every mouthful leaves a dusting of brown sugar on my lip. Never mind those Lake District fells: a few mouthfuls of this biscuity rocket fuel and I reckon I could scramble my way up Everest.
HOW TO DO IT
Doubles at Tweedies, in Grasmere, from £140, b&b (tweediesgrasmere.com); at The Yan from £100, room only; at The Samling from £230, b&b; and at The Queen’s Head from £130, b&b. More info: golakes.co.uk.