From one humble lettuce bed back in 2013, our Kitchen Garden has grown to over 1.5 acres, with a greenhouse for our newly planted seedlings, fruit cage home to sweet, seasonal produce and two polytunnels protecting our heirloom varieties from the elements. Our veg beds grow all sorts of fresh leafy greens and delicious veggies including lettuce, cabbage varieties, sweetcorn, chard and asparagus (just to name a few), alongside our secret orchard with blossoming trees in the spring, swaying grasses in summer & ripe fruit trees in autumn, growing varieties of apples and pears. The hedgerows surrounding the orchard are foraged for other seasonal produce like sea buckthorn and rosehips. Providing a perfectly tranquil spot, take a look around next time you visit The Ferry House.

The green fingers of our garden team are responsible for growing our Kitchen Garden produce, cropping the freshest ingredients daily and working closely with our chefs to provide the very best fruit, veg and herbs present on our menus. Focusing on heirloom varieties and rare produce hard (if not impossible) to find at wholesalers, as well as foraging from our bountiful hedgerows and neighbouring shorelines, making the most of our waterside location. What better way to showcase our unique, fresh and lovingly prepared garden produce than as part of our vegan menu?

We are always looking for creative ways to reduce wastage, the environmental impact of our operations and support the garden. Our composter uses all of the restaurant's food waste (except bones and shells) to produce inhouse, nutrient-rich compost that goes back into fertilising the garden. To water our produce and to run the restaurant we use only our own treated well water. We also have half an acre of solar panels, which power the entire business. We are passionate about the sustainability of our business, preserving the beautiful landscape around our home and lowering our environmental impact. Our 'Plot to Plate' ethos yields at zero road miles and showcasing local companies, such as Copper Rivet Distillery who use our farmed grains to make their spirits, means we are constantly working towards strengthening our environmental values.

In such beautiful natural surrounds, the biodiversity of our garden in support of the local ecosystem is incredibly important to us. Our gardeners plant wildflowers throughout the garden, making it a hot spot for pollinators, with the orchard and surrounding landscape kept wild, helping us to create good biodiversity throughout. Some flowers are also used for ‘companion planting’, meaning they are planted next to certain produce as a natural way to keep away pests (you’ll see lots of tagetes around, a type of marigold known for putting off insects), reduce our use of pesticides to near zero and encourage growth. We have also now homed four bee hives onsite which are producing honey for our kitchen and helping to keep our garden pollinated!