Day 13 Advent Challenge - I love Cumbria

I make no apologies for loving my adopted county or thinking it the best county in the whole of England..... Ever since I was at infant school whenever we were asked to paint a country scene I always painted mountains, and more mountains and I never tired of it. And do you know what my second choice of country scene was? Yes, you guessed, it I painted lakes, and more lakes.....So what could be more fitting than living in my childhood dream, a county surrounded by mountains and lakes and the most breathtaking scenery. But it is also the food heritage which pleases me most about Cumbria too because it has so much really good food production here. It has always been famous for certain items, after all when we went up Everest we took Kendal Mint Cake, yes I know Kendal used to be in Westmorland until the counties were re organised but it is now Cumbria. Then there is the equally famous Grasmere Gingerbread which is the most mouth watering stuff I can think of that is apart from the Hand Made Fudge at The Toffee Shop in Penrith which is exquisite, moorish and totally out of this world......But there are lesser known gems to be found in Cumbria, take for instance the humble wheat grain...mmm what can she mean? Well Carrs of Carlisle turn this into the best flour money can buy. I have been baking my own bread (without a breadmaker) using only my hands or my faithful Kenwood Chef mixer for over 35 years and this flour has been my staple. The photo shows my last freshly baked loaf of wholemeal bread just taken out of my Remoska.  Of course Carrs are also well known for producing their Table Water Biscuit which was originally developed as a ships biscuit, I never, ever forget to have some in my store cupboard because they are wonderful.

Well I hope this inspires you to stock up with some of these Cumbrian goodies for the festive season, I am going to......