Lovingly Artisan

Aidan Monks began baking in Kendal in the late 1980s and later learned slow sourdough fermentation from a French flour supplier, a method he now runs with his wife Catherine Connor from a purpose-built bakery at Plumgarth's Lakeland Food Park, opened in 2010. Lovingly Artisan mills and blends heritage and organic British grains into long-fermented loaves, sold from the bakery, at Kendal's farmers' market and from a stall at Altrincham Market. Their children Ailish and Niall now work alongside a small baking team. Loaves are proved slowly overnight rather than forced, and the bakery keeps a short, changing list of sourdoughs rather than a fixed daily range.