Kendal bakery Lovingly Artisan supplies this week’s column

Bread has been part of our diets for millennia, not only is it a staple, it has real health benefits too. Artisan breads are bursting with goodness, full of fibre, vitamins and minerals that look after you.

Artisan bakers have known for generations that it’s important to use the right ingredients to make proper nourishing breads, and fibre is part and parcel of that process. After all fibre is an essential part of a healthy diet and helps to keep your digestive system in good working order.

The humble sourdough loaf combined with ancient grains has a role to play in actively contributing to your health. This simple food really is the best kind of medicine, and because of the increasing awareness and understanding of the role sourdough as a fermented food plays in digestive health the more bakers feel empowered to share their knowledge.

Thankfully a tranche of forward-thinking bakers have adopted these ancient practices and are now utilising these ancient methods with a little modern interpretation to innovate and transform the way we think about bread.

Which is why Lovingly Artisan have been experimenting with whey in breads, blending ancient grains with whey left over from the production of St James Cheese made by Martin Gott. Perhaps they are both a little ahead of their time, but in reality, they are simply inspired by old ideas, adopting and adapting them to sit in a modern context.

Whey is nothing new, Hippocrates, the father of western medicine, prescribed whey in 446 BC to boost his patients’ immune systems and subsequently modern research has fully supported the health benefits of whey…

So, as you can see our food heritage has much to teach us to avoid waste, to eat healthily, to use what is seasonally available to us and to reinvent and improve on ancient practices… We are on a journey of rediscover, learning more and more from the past. Make artisan sourdough breads part of your daily diet…