Putting together a guided tour can be like putting on a show: a fair bit of script-learning, lots of pacing the boards beforehand, getting to know what goes where, working out when to cue in the actors, making a story-line, then most of all, praying that it will be “alright on the night”. This was most definitely the case when preparing a bespoke three-day research trip and sightseeing tour for culinary lecturer and food writer, the “Ginger Mama”, here in early July. Her goal: to unravel the story of Grasmere gingerbread and look into its historic links to the Grasmere rush-bearing festival, a procession held each August in the village, with records going back as far as 1680.
Naturally a big part of putting on a show – and certainly where the magic lies – is making sure that the guests see as little of the nuts-and-bolts of the stage machinery as possible. Hidden Lakeland tours have perhaps more of the latter than most, given my mission to get guests around sustainably on foot and by bus, boat and train. This brings the Cumbrian weather, as well as the public bus network into play – the latter, thankfully so much more reliable than the other. It means keeping a surreptitious eye on the time at all times and gently moving things along when cute Herdwick sheep, magnificent vistas and meetings that are just too good to bring to a close conspire to charmingly derail the proceedings. It also makes things all the more special when things go perfectly and the alchemy happens.
Such was the case for the Ginger Mama, whose three days started in the pretty village of Grasmere, with meetings with Rebecca Turner, assistant curator for the Jerwood Centre at Wordsworth Grasmere, Joanne Hunter, director/founder of Sarah Nelson’s Grasmere Gingerbread and Carrie Taylor, Grasmere village hall trustee and former coordinator of the Grasmere rush-bearing festival, and ended with a glorious walk down to the lakeside at Rydal Water in late afternoon sunshine.
In between, fantastic forays to see Grasmere Gingerbread’s extensive product line in the shop’s new sister store in Hawkshead and visits to Ginger Bakers and Farrer’s in Kendal, to discover so-called “forgotten foods” – Westmorland Pepper Cake and Cumberland Rum Nicky to name but two – and marvellous teas – Farrer’s having recently developed a new tea infusing rose petals for its sole supplier in Japan, Rosa & Berry, the rose garden café where Farrer’s is now sold in Maibara, Japan. All of this, and the time to relax and get to know each other that makes a tour so enjoyable: weaving our way through the intricate alleys between 17th century houses in Hawkshead, bouncing alongside Windermere on an open-top bus and meandering through fields of wildflowers and cattle on a farmland and fell (mountain) walk from Ginger Bakers into Kendal.
The best journeys don’t end, and so it is with this one. With her gingerbread odyssey well underway – an odyssey which has taken her to a number of countries in eastern and western Europe, as well as to the Lake District – the Ginger Mama is already sharing her stories on her food blog, with a book on gingerbread in the early planning stages. Even now, she is (somewhat surreally!) getting ready to treat guests in Yokohama Culture Centre to a Cumbrian Christmas this December with Christmas pudding and other cakes from Ginger Bakers, while starting to plan her next visit, in summer 2025, when she’ll be back for next year’s Grasmere rush-bearing and to go deeper in her investigation of Cumbrian food culture. Make no mistake – it will be summer again before we know it!
