Half a dozen prizes for Knapdale bakery
A small bakery in Tayvallich has come home from the Scottish Bread Championships in Fife with an impressive haul of six awards.
Knapdale Artisan Bread is handmade and delivered by husband and wife team Josephine and Laurie Mill on an electric e-cargo bike.
They make real bread – without additives – in a variety of types: sourdough; classic; white; wholegrain; cranberry and pecan; pumpkin and sunflower seed; ancient grain with fresh local rosemary – to name but a few.
There were more than 160 entries from a variety of bakeries all over Scotland on Saturday.
And Knapdale was proud to take two gold medals, a silver and three bronze. The Mills were particularly pleased with a gold for their tomato, green olive and fresh rosemary focaccia.
Josephine said: “People locally buy it a lot, so we were really pleased to see it recognised.”
Their winning categories were: Bread Reflecting Scottish Food Culture; Nutritional Quality; Enriched Sourdough; Bread from Grain Grown and Milled in Scotland (silver for its Scottish Organic Dark Rye Loaf and bronze for its Organic East Coast Classic Sourdough) and Classic Sourdough.
Knapdale Artisan Bread is passionate about the health benefits of sourdough and real bread compared with the usual supermarket bread. They strive to promote the traditional methods of making bread.
Josephine added: “The bread you buy in shops is not really healthy because it has got a lot of additives. If you make bread from organic flour, it is so much more nutritious and healthier.
“All these sourdoughs are really good for health because they are fermented.”
Knapdale Artisan Bread uses flour from various sources, including East Lothian flour grown at Mungos Wells.
It is available locally in Tayvallich, Crinan, Kilberrry, Inveraray and Lochgilphead.
They even have customers as far away as Edinburgh.
The couple also bake gluten-free brownies, a selection of cakes and cinnamon buns, and run a pop-up pizza night in Tayvallich – offering genuine sourdough pizzas which have been incredibly popular with the local community.