You knead a light touch says westmeaths brown bread star

Westmeath’s footballers and hurlers might not have had a lot to shout about this year, but thanks to Margaret Kelly from Rathowen, the county has one local who distinguished herself in an all-Ireland competition this year.

Pensioner Margaret did her county proud last week by finishing second in the final of the National Brown Bread Making Championship.

After making her way through Wednesday’s semi-final in front of a large crowd at the Aldi tent, she narrowly lost out to winner Betty Williams from Tipperary in Thursday afternoon’s final.

Margaret says she used the brown bread recipe that was passed on to her from her late mother Mary Keary, and just like her mother she bakes without the aid of a tin. By all accounts, her bread is famous in the Rathowen area. Margaret says that there is no better way to start the day than with a boiled egg and a few slices of her bread.

“Mine is very traditional, I’ve been making it the same way for 50 years and have added nothing. It’s just wheatmeal, flour, a teaspoon of bread soda, salt, a beaten egg and buttermilk. It’s a skill in itself, making it the old way. A lot of people that try it say that it is very hard – to get it right you need a lightness in the hand when you knead the bread.”

Margaret, who won €1,000 of Aldi vouchers for her efforts last week, admitted that she was reluctant to enter the competition and if it hadn’t been for her good friend Lily Maguire, wouldn’t have done so.

“I am very happy and excited. It’s very good to come second. I didn’t expect it to tell you the truth. I was kind of forced into it but to finish second is something else. I’m very happy to have done Westmeath proud, they are getting it hard to win in the football so it’s good to come up trumps in something,” she said.