Northern Ireland entrepreneurs Mark Douglas and Lady Vibse Dunleath have collectively created sourdough bread using flour from wheat provided by a local farmer.

Much of the flour used in Northern Ireland for baking conventional bread, as well as sourdough, is imported as the climate hinders the growth of hard wheat used most frequently in bread production.

Douglas - known as the award-winning Krazibaker - has recently launched his own sourdough loaves in response to demand from shoppers. Dunleath is a Danish food historian.

Douglas commented: “We’ve been working to develop a flour from indigenous wheat that could be used in the production of conventional loaves. It seems, however, that the flour we’ve produced is best suited to sourdough.

“Lady Dunleath has come up with a unique milling process that produces flour particularly suitable for baking sourdough bread. 

"It gives us an option of being able to produce artisan bread from locally milled flour using wheat grown here. It’s a distinctively tasty bread that’s been well-received in initial trials. It’s an artisan bread with the sort of heritage and provenance that shoppers are increasingly seeking.”

Douglas also operates a bakery school specialising in traditional griddle-baking of soda and potato breads.