Jane Hunt is the mastermind behind the wonderful annual Northumberland Day; this began last year, and it is a day in May to celebrate all of the wonders of our fantastic county. With events happening around the region, and the main hub situated at Langley Castle, this is an absolutely fantastic event. Jane had big ideas for this year, quite literally.
Last year, Northumberland Day wanted to be world record holders, and so Langley’s former head chef Mark Percival, together with Geordie Bakers, produced an enormous stottie, in an attempt to hold the world record for the largest one. Last year, despite producing a stottie that was 120cm in diameter, and weighing 40 kilograms, unfortunately there wasn't enough time to inform the bodies at the world records, and thus they couldn't have their stotties judged. I was a shame.
Jane Hunt wanted to change things this year, and we were first approached back in March, with an idea to create the world's biggest cheese scone for which we would provide the cheese. Unfortunately, this was found to be logistically impossible (you would need an absolutely enormous oven to get the rise out of the scone!). Because Greggs is synonymous with the North-East, a pasty was suggested, but Jane was worried that that would seem very Cornish. However, Jane persisted, and on reading about the ‘Oggy’- a welsh version of the pasty- and adding the ‘no’ from the ‘Northumberland’… the Noggie was born!
Jane asked us if we could provide our Oak-smoked cheese for the Noggie, which we were only too pleased to do. Enlisting the ovens of the Geordie Bakers, Norman Bradford (new head chef at Langley Castle) make a Noggie which was 1.5m long, and weighed an incredible 40kg. We contributed 9kg of our lovely smoked cheese, and together with 6kg of onion, and the filling was wrapped in 8kg of pastry.
Slices were sold for £1 each, with money raised going to the Great North Ambulance Service.
What a wonderful cause, and how delighted we were to be included.
Photo credit:The Chronicle Newspaper
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