The Real Bread Campaign held Sourdough September last month to raise public awareness of the taste and potential health benefits of traditional bread-making.

More than 650 bakeries across the country and even a few in exotic spots around the world such as San Diego engaged in events involving tastings and sourdough classes, with some bakers handing out ferments for home bakers to try making their own sourdough.

Chris Young, campaign coordinator for the Real Bread Campaign, said: “We created this to allow small local bakeries to show off their sourdough wares.”

Red Dog Bakery was one of the participating bakeries, offering tasting samples at the Bude for Food Festival.
Sally Birt of the bakery has seen a real growth in sourdough’s popularity and said: “Five years ago when we started it, nobody had even heard of it but now it’s our main business.”

Apart from the taste, the Real Bread Campaign is keen to encourage further research into suggestions that sourdough loaves might be more digestible to gluten intolerants.

Young said: “We would really love someone to put more money into researching these to see which ones are fact and which are a bit of a blind alley.”