cumbria's southern food hub...

If you travel by bike in the South of Cumbria, chances are you will have visited Staveley's Mill Yard, stopping at Wilf's Café for a friendly bite to eat or visiting Wheelbase, the mountain bike centre. The Mill Yard has been undergoing a fantastic transformation and is now home to a growing group of quality producers and food businesses.

One of them is the fantastic Lucy Cooks, a perfect cookery school where you can polish your culinary skills. The famous Hawkshead Brewery has set up a new microbrewery next to Wilf's, and now you can enjoy a tipple or two with your meal. Munx Lakeland Bakery were so successful producing truly tasty and interesting breads, that they had to expand and recently moved into a stunning new bakery, housing the latest eco-friendly woodchip burning oven.

 It was rumoured that the Yard would get a distillery but this proved to be nothing but Scottish mist, now in its place, situated next to the bakery, is Cumbria's organic wine importer, Organico. They are just about to start importing organic wine in 1000 litre foil bags and customers will then be able to bring in an empty bottle and get it filled up with their favourite organic wine, reducing the need for glass recycling. Organico also have plans to open a Mediterranean style wine bar and bistro in the not too distant future. Another recent arrival at Mill Yard is the Friendly Food and Drink Company. They have perfected a hand-made range of preserves, chutneys, curds and coulis which use fruit sugars (fructose) rather than sugar, particularly suitable for diabetics.

Don't be too surprised if you start seeing mountain bikes around the county sporting very large baskets to accommodate all the fine goodies available from this fabulous foodie location, which is fast becoming the County's southern artisan food hub. 

If you are on your way into the Lakes from the South or on your way out, make sure you plan for a detour to Staveley, there's plenty of parking too.

Content and photography supplied by www.Artisan-Food.com, funded by Distinctly Cumbrian.