What we’re eating now - the farmers & growers

We all want to know more about what we eat, where it comes from and how it’s produced. As important, is to understand the stories and challenges of those farmers working hard to do the right thing, and how they’re doing it so that we in turn can learn, support and share the stories of these efforts to further create change for the better - making a more fair and sustainable food system for everyone.

The originator and founder of Daphne’s Welsh Lamb is Daphne Tilley a woman with a passion for farming, the countryside and PGI Welsh Lamb.  She had the vision to bring the finest family farm produced PGI Welsh Lamb to the menus of some of the UK's finest restaurants.   

The success of Daphne’s Welsh Lamb is not just a testament to the tenacious and passionate spirit of Daphne, it is a result of a team effort, community enterprise and hard work on the family farms of North Wales where the product is produced. Reared up to 1000ft, in the view of the Snowdonia mountain range, nurtured by clean westerly winds, rain and sun. Lambs are raised to both animal welfare and environmentally friendly standards.

All our produce is locally sourced and produced from our farms and our neighbours farms, and is entirely free range. Our staff work with commitment and dedication to our products and understand the essential importance of its PROVENANCE and the necessity to maintain our continuity of quality throughout the year. All our meat is correctly hung for maturation to give it the taste, and tenderness required.

Natoora

Natoora’s mission is to replace a broken, opaque food system with a transparent and sustainable supply chain. Pioneers in this movement they source radically seasonal produce that highlights the true cost of farming, protects the land from soil depletion and favours sustainable, nutritionally dense crops with revolutionary flavour. They work directly with small scale growers as well as developing their own farming projects to build a community which works together towards a common goal.

We buy most of our fruits and vegetables through Natoora and here list a few of the producers that feature on our menu right now:

Winter Tomatoes

Summer tomatoes grow and ripen quickly. Raffaele’s Bull’s Heart are exposed to long hours of sunlight, with daytime temperatures reaching up to 35 degrees. Developing flavour from the outside in, ripe summer tomatoes are soft and red.

However there are tomato varieties that can only reach their full potential during winter. In these regions, nighttime temperatures can drop to below 5 degrees. Stressed by the cold and exposed to fewer hours of daylight, the plants must work harder to produce ripe fruit.

The plants are put under even greater duress by the salinity of their environment. Using a finely-tuned balance of rainfall and seawater, the growers irrigate the plants just enough to keep them alive. In these conditions the plants are forced to mature slowly, drawing on the unique balance of natural salts and minerals in the soil.

The fruit they produce reflects this slow, stressed growing process. Ripening from the inside out, their skins remain firm and streaked with green. However their flavour is fully developed, balancing the bright acidity of their seeds with the distinct umami sweetness of their slow-ripened flesh.

In season only from the end of December to early May, this flavour profile cannot be replicated at any other time of year.

CItRUS, Scordia, sicily

Carmelo is a Grower who not only shares Natoora’s dedication to revolutionary flavour, but who, like them, is constantly pushing towards a new flavour peak. Carmelo’s groves lie in the Sicilian region of Scordia, high above sea level where the altitude and unique microclimate create the ideal growing conditions for citrus: mild days and cold nights. This tension heightens the levels of anthocyanins in the fruit, resulting in intense pigmentation and a greater complexity of flavour.

Italian Artichokes

Italian Artichokes are coming into their peak season. Cool, consistent temperatures force plants to grow slowly, which is the key to tender hearts, bracts and stems. Natoora work with growers in regions particularly suited to artichoke growth, all of our varieties are so tender they can be eaten raw.

Forced Rhubarb, Yorkshire

The Tomlinson family has been growing forced rhubarb continuously for four generations in Pudsey, West Yorkshire, an area with particularly fertile soil inside the renowned Rhubarb Triangle. They are the only forced rhubarb producer left in Yorkshire to grow pre-WWII crowns, giving them exclusivity on varieties unmatched in both appearance and flavour.

Harvested in the dark and by candlelight according to age-long tradition, their rhubarb has tender, almost fibre-less stalks that are bright pink in colour and have the most delicate flavour.

The family applies the same great care and dedication to growing outdoor rhubarb and other field vegetables, including fennel, chard and kale.

E5 Bake House, London

Top-quality flour is at the heart of what e5 do, and we’ve put a lot of thought into where ours come from. Their sourcing influences people and planet, from farmers’ livelihoods to soil health, genetic diversity, CO2 sequestration and biodiversity. Their commitment to sourcing organically grown wheat, and other grains, led us to discover heritage wheats. These are varieties that were grown before the agricultural revolution and thus were not bred for agricultural systems that make use of artificial fertilisers, herbicides, fungicides and pesticides.
All E5’s loaves start from our 200 year-old rye sourdough starter, which is home to wild yeast and lactic bacteria. Using different flours, from ancient Einkorn to heritage rye, fermenting our doughs in different conditions and finally shaping and baking them via several methods. Heritage flours are almost always milled in a stone mill using heritage grains. These grains tend to have more flavour and nutrients but are often lower in gluten compared with modern grains. They vary greatly in terms of strength, water absorption and fermentation time, which makes achieving consistent results trickier, but it is worth it for the unique flavours. After a couple of years of exclusively using strong white wheat flours, e5 Bakehouse took on the challenge of baking with stone ground heritage flours to make both delicious and healthy bread.

Wright Brothers

From the humble beginnings of just being oyster merchants, we began to seek out and share the finest shellfish and seafood from around the UK and so our wholesale business took off. We shared our passion and knowledge with each kitchen, so that they could to pass this on to their customers. As we grew, we moved to Billingsgate market and in recent years set up Wright Brothers Brixham, a costal depot with daily landings of some of the finest and freshest fish in the UK.

Rare Breed Meat Company

So far, four generations of the Blackwell family have farmed the land at Herons Farm on the Marks Hall Estate near the picturesque Colne and Stour Valleys on the Essex / Suffolk borders.  Today, Howard Blackwell and his eldest son George head up the farm and the businesses that are now established there.

Howard began farming turkeys and geese in the early 1980s, and soon gained a good reputation with local butchers for the poultry he produced.  So much so, that he decided to also begin rearing pork; this resulted in him buying a small herd of Gloucestershire Old Spots and Oxford Sandy and Black pigs.  From thereon in, The Rare Breed Meat Company was born.

It is the belief in their products that sets Howard and George apart from others.  Their own poultry is cared for in a free range environment and fed on natural foods, free from any additives or growth promoters.  Their livestock is sourced from local mixed family farms which are selected for their adherence to very high animal husbandry standards.

The Estate Dairy

The Estate Dairy is a collective of young passionate individuals dedicated to producing and bottling the highest quality milk and cream. They source the richest milk from the Chew Valley, which is located right in the heart of the Bristol countryside. Their milk and creams are produced from their pedigree Guernsey cows resulting in milk with a unique golden colour and a beautifully rich flavour.