Looking for inspiration in bread

Last month I took a trip to London to see my Sister Abby aka @minibeastgirl and her soon to be husband Andy @andyskipper and of course their son my nepthew Toby aka @minibeastbaby, it was wonderful spending time with them. 

Being in London also gives me a chance to experience restaurants and food that are only available in such a huge city almost a counrtry of its own. 

I had one main place on my list and that was Borough Market believe it or not a market I had never been to before. This visit I left to my last day the other food experiences I will deal with in another post. 

So I left the hotel near Bayswater on my last morning in London walked across Hyde park and down exhibition road to Kennsington south station. I like to walk in the parks in London a calm from the busy world only a short distance away. 

So I got off the tube at Monument and walked across the bridge and into the wonderful world of Borough Market. 

I took time to walk around soaking in the atmosphere tasting loose leaf tea buying some, buying a great doughnut from the Bread Ahead stall before finding their new bakery and baking school at the market. 

The bread classes are run by Aidan Chapman aka @DoughAnarchist, Aidan also runs the bread course at River Cottage. I was very kindly given a tour of the bakery and spoke to one of the students who insisted I try the pizza she had just made, it was very good and wonderful to see someone getting so much pleasure from dough. I think Adian must have one of the best jobs in bread passing on his skills and passion for bread in two great locations. May thanks to Bread Ahead and Aidan for the tour and thank you to the student for feeding me great pizza. 

Below are a few photos of the stall and Bread Ahead school even and action shot of @DoughAnarchist teaching.

There are so many food experiences to be had at this market below are a few photos, I was particularly impressed with the chefs demo area. I think something like that would be great in St George's market in Belfast.

Times they are a growing

The weather is beginning to warm the days getting longer and the seedlings are starting to appear through the soil. 

Every Monday morning bar bank hols I go to an Organic fruit and veg growing course in my home town Holywood, I have learnt a lot especially about growing fruit and fruit trees.

I am now putting what I learnt into practice and hope to have a great balance of life been growing great food and baking wonderful bread. 

These are radish seedlings grown in soil blocks another thing I learnt this year, there is always so much to learn but the best way is to get hands on.

I took a walk thought Bangor's walled garden earlier if you are in Bangor it's a must see! I took a few photos of fruit tree forms and chard growing so much more to see. 

It feels a little bit like spring

With a the rain and no cold snap winter has felt never ending, this effects all oour moods and even the food we eat. Cold wet wind days call for stews and soup but now the weather has started to turn salads and pizza are the order of the day.

To help me through the long winter I booked a trip to River Cottage, a few days away in Devon where just what I needed to inspire me for the year ahead. 

River Cottage is a great location set at the bottom of a valley must be a wonderful place to work, this showed by the passion of the staff. Working with produce from your own garden really does a lot, the meats are bread nearby and the coast is only a few miles away. 

In Northern Ireland we should have a place like this after all the best produce comes from here. 

The course I attended was on Bread, an imformitive and fun day with lots of food I think the photos below will tell the story better than me.