Mungoswells Malt & Milling (pictured) was crowned the winner of the Tiptree World Bread Awards Heroes for Scotland, in a special online awards evening on Tuesday 13 October 2020.
A small-scale arable farm and mill, Mungoswells sits north of Haddington, East Lothian. Its flour is grown, harvested, milled and packaged all within five miles of the farm. Staff were putting in 14 hour shifts to meet the massive flour demand seen during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.
“They have grafted non-stop throughout lockdown to supply their loyal community, meaning the shelves of our high street greengrocers and wholefoods shops were never empty,” said one of its nominators, Hannah Ewan. “It is in large part due to their unceasing hard work that we didn’t have the shortages seen in so many places.”
Justin Savage, the baker behind Beefcake Café in Glasgow, was declared runner-up for Scotland.
Savage kept his local community supplied with fresh bread and other baked goods throughout lockdown. In addition, he assisted the efforts of the Starchild charity by producing a video introduction to sourdough starters in return for voluntary donations.
In normal times the Awards celebrate bread, with hundreds of loaves assessed by a panel of judges. Instead, in a special edition for 2020, the Awards recognised the people behind the loaves: the bakers, millers and farmers.
Hundreds of nominations for the Bread Heroes were sent in from across the UK and 12 regional winners were selected by the judging panel.
One of the judges, Emma Freud, Executive Producer Comic Relief, said: “These nominees were so well found – each of them have done remarkable things for their communities, using their talent with bread to make life easier for people who need support. It was a seriously tough choice, but I am confident we got the right winners.”
