June/July/August
What the hell happened. How is it mid August??
So it seems to me that I might be a bit busy and trying to do a post a month is actually too much so the new aim is to just post whenever I can. June sees the second week of The Hay Festival and then a week of annual leave, we didn’t do too much with the week off as we are generally super duper tired after the 10 days of festival madness. We did get in a trip to Le Manoir for a tour of the garden which was phenomenal, a great opportunity to see a restaurant garden on a larger scale. They said on the tour that the output from the garden was 10% of what the kitchen used, I was a little unsure if this is because how particular the kitchen are about what they use or if they have mountains of veg being served.
July flew by as the weather warmed and we had some gorgeous sunshine. The first proper harvests were coming from the garden, with some new produce going from plot to plate at the restaurant within a few hours. Summer veg doesn’t need too much doing to it, serving raw turnips, carrots, radish, kohl rabi, candy beetroot with a fava bean hummus has been an absolute winner at the restaurant with guests loving that so much has been grown by us. We always talk to guests assuming they have a small amount of knowledge and give them time to ask questions so we can fill in any gaps - it’s a fine balance when working in hospitality where you want to give people new information but always remember that they are there to chill out, have dinner and a nice time.
One thing that I have grown this year which is new is the garnish for the fish courses, sea aster, summer purslane, fennel, nasturtium and monksbeard. Monksbeard (also called Agretti) is amazing, the seeds are a little tricky to germinate they are actually small plants and while they need it to be cold to start growing are a popular Italian leaf so like the warmer summer weather. I have been pretty successful with this this year so will continue to do more of this next year.
Another range of plants that we have included is the Magenta Spreen which is a type of tree spinach (left), totally delicious and really pretty in the garden and in salads. Red Orache (right) is another type of spinach which is loving the walled garden.
A lot of the beds in the garden are now filled with plants that will grow over the winter months; celeriac, beetroot, swede, broccoli, leeks, sprouts, purple sprouting broccoli are growing well in this warm weather. I will sow salads later in August then garlic, onions and beans in October and November, the aim is to have all the beds full to get the utmost out of the space.
Today is our last service till we come back from our summer holiday - we are heading to Green Man Festival next weekend and we cannot wait. Positive thoughts and vibes are needed to encourage the good Welsh weather! Will try and get a bit of gardening done as well next week but I am not making any promises!
Thanks for reading and do share the post if you have found it interesting.