Fat Pigeon Bakery: Meet the woman behind a back-garden bakery in Bramley

We meet Ruth Diskin who has launched a bakery in her back garden in Bramley.

Transcript

00:00 Do not adjust your screen as it's time to visit the Broadlane Back Garden Bakery that's

00:06 caused a buzz in Bramley. Baker Ruth Diskin has transformed her 19th century coach house

00:12 into the Fat Pigeon Bakery, named after some of the feathered friends who can sometimes

00:17 be spotted keeping an eye out for croissant crumbs.

00:20 I've been a baker for 10 years now around various places in Leeds and I moved to Bramley

00:26 just over two years ago. I finished uni back God knows when, years ago now, and I got a

00:34 pretty standard office job and I hated it. So I started a course at Leeds City College

00:38 just to do something and it was in baking. Absolutely no interest in baking prior to

00:42 that, just caught my attention and I just loved it, just really got obsessed with it.

00:47 So then yeah, I just ended up in a little cafe in Leeds making their bread and then

00:51 worked at Leeds Brick Oak for a long time and now I work down at Cafe Farsley. And yeah,

00:57 it just felt like the natural progression to then step into my own bakery.

01:03 Each Saturday morning Ruth uses her loaf and rises to the challenge of crafting an array

01:07 of baked goods. From the offset, she's wanted to focus on the use of Leeds and Yorkshire

01:13 ingredients and suppliers.

01:15 I love all the kind of usual things, croissants, pain au chocolat. The specialty thing I do

01:22 most is Queen of Mams, which is like a northern French speciality. It's croissant dough and

01:26 it's got sugar in it and it's caramelised and delicious. That's the thing I'm always

01:30 trying to get people to try. And sourdough bread as well, that's my big, big thing for

01:35 me. But everything's kind of made using local, as local as I can get it stuff. So Yorkshire

01:42 Organic Millers flour, which is over Yorkway, North Yorkshire. A lot of the veg and fruit

01:48 I try and get from Kirkstall Valley Farm, which is just down the road. Or just other

01:53 local little businesses that I can spot.

01:55 Word of mouth has steadily grown since the venture's launch and the community feel of

01:59 the Leeds suburb was one of the main reasons why Ruth moved to Bramley.

02:03 I did very little marketing to start out because I just didn't know what to expect. So I just

02:09 let it really naturally spread around. Bramley's got a real community vibe anyway. Everything

02:14 seems to be word of mouth around here, which is fantastic. So I'll hear that neighbours

02:20 have told neighbours and then they come round the next week, which is great. People have

02:23 been really, really fantastic. Had lots of regulars coming back, lots of locals as well,

02:28 which is exactly what I want.

02:29 So from traditional bread through to croffins or croissant muffins, what is it about baked

02:35 goods which appeals to so many of us?

02:37 I think fundamentally bread is just the essence of food. Every culture has a bread. So if

02:43 you're starting with that, that is just at the centre of baking. And then everything

02:47 else is like a little luxury. You come on a Saturday here, you get a little treat for

02:52 a weekend, especially when it's this cold as well. Yeah, I think it's just a mix of

02:58 fundamental part of life for the bread and then a little treat with the pastry. Can't

03:03 go wrong.