Cafe Ingredients
Depending on the season, up to 90% of the ingredients used in the cafe can come from the farm itself. (in the hungry gap, from around march to end of may this goes down to around 50%) The cafe is 100% organic and has Soil Association Certification. All the ingredients used in the cafe have their own organic certification too. This is quite unusual, there are only about 12 restaurants in the whole of the uk who have this certification. We have a very strong commitment to serving only organic food so we do not allow any food or drink onto the premises from outside. Please respect our ethos and enjoy food and drink free from all pesticides, herbicides and fungicides.
The meals are inspired by the kitchen garden which covers 10 acres around the shop and cafe. The gardeners, led by head grower Andy with permanent staff and apprentices, produce over 150 varieties of vegetables, soft fruit and herbs which are nearly all sold in the shop or used in the cafe.
The cooks also use cheese, milk, yoghurt, cream, meat on sundays and for conferences, wheat milled down the road and eggs from the farm itself.
Other ingredients come from small uk wholesalers and larger co-operatives.
Non seasonal fruit and vegetables come from Europe.
The delicious water is from the bore hole situated just behind the cafe.
This was sunk when the shop opened and now supplies the whole farm and residents on farm with their water. It is 100 metres deep.
Green Credentials
* Waste is kept to a minimum. All raw veg goes to the chickens or the compost heap. All plastic packaging, cans, tetra packs, glass and cardboard is recyled. One sack of rubbish per day is usually put in landfill from the cafe. We are always trying to find new ways of minimising landfill waste.
* 2 20kw Woodburners in the winter months heat the cafe area fed from the farms own sustainably managed coppice.
* Lighting is all low energy
* Paint is soy based eco friendly paint
* Most of the Green Oak in the shop has been sourced from the farm and milled on site.
* We only use fossil fuel for cooking. Food is cooked on gas/electricity with care taken to keep to a minimum at all times so as not to waste fossil fuel.
* The 50kw woodchip boiler heats all cafe/kitchen water, and the radiators in the loos and the office. It is fed with chip either from the farm itself, chipped and stored on farm.
* There is 10kw of pv on the cafe roof, and 2 x 11kw gaia wind turbines helping to power the lights and the refrigeration.
* Large selection of eco/organic/environmentally friendly magazines to browse through.