Stephen and I bought the Martinborough Bakery in December 2021, and haven’t looked back since. Baking is something I’ve always done, but never full-time, so at the beginning I was a little apprehensive, and we started slowly, especially since Emily, who sold it to us, had had trouble – mostly because she was more popular than she’d been prepared for [there are worse problems to be had, we thought]. So, Emily showed me how she made the sourdough, and off I went, and boy did I go. Since then, we’ve employed staff, redone the kitchen in shiny stainless steel, and bought a huge lovely bread oven. We still haven’t kept up with the demand, especially on weekends or special holidays, but everyone enjoys the challenge and there are (mostly) smiles all round. 

I’ve learnt a lot, as you would expect, and continue to work on new recipes, follow trends or not, and think about flavours, flours, and how to use more butter.