How Our Garden Grows
THE STORY OF OUR KITCHEN GARDEN, PROVIDING FRUIT & VEGETABLES TO THE WAYFARER
The kitchen garden at The Wayfarer is the realisation of a near lifelong dream for owner and director Rachel Birkett.
Rachel has happy memories of shelling peas on her grandad's sunny doorstep and being overawed by the size of the jam pan as her nan cooked up the damsons each autumn.
What's more, before we owned the land around The Wayfarer beer garden, the beer garden itself was used to grow pears, gooseberries, raspberries, apples, rhubarb and herbs. Pears in particular are significant to the village, as the word Parbold is derived from Old English meaning “the place where pears grow" or “pear orchard."
All this instilled the foundations of a keen grower in Rachel. So, when we acquired the land around The Wayfarer, not only could we have ourselves a proper beer garden, we could also start growing on a bigger scale.
But with expansion, came a conundrum. Whilst Rachel remains a keen grower, and husband Jonny keeps bees and produces his own honey, they knew that to do this right they needed a dedicated gardener.
The person who joined us came with a grand vision of his own: to make The Wayfarer feel like a pub IN a beautiful garden, as opposed to a pub with a beautiful garden...
Our Resident Gardener
JUST THE PLACE TO GROW
Officially started in 2022, the kitchen garden has been developed by Phil Ball, our resident gardener who has RHS training but describes himself as “largely self-taught."
Phil took his first step into the gardeners' world by opening a nursery that specialised in exotics and sold plants online. He competed at many of the RHS shows at national level, including Tatton Park, Hampton Court, and Chelsea.
He subsequently worked in a prison providing horticultural training to inmates to enable them to get qualifications and subsequent work upon release.
Phil then joined Just The Place Group to take care of
The Gardens at Ashfield House wedding venue, the pub garden and house plants at The Wayfarer, and of course develop the kitchen garden.
A Work In Progress
HOW WE'VE GOT ON SO FAR...
We started the kitchen garden because we wanted our chefs to use the freshest ingredients, to reduce our food miles and carbon footprint, and to grow varieties of produce that aren't commonly available elsewhere at scale, allowing our chefs to put a new twist on pub classics.
We also love that growing produce effectively where it is cooked and consumed gives our pub a real sense of place. The food grown in Parbold will have unique traits due its environment - its terroir, as many a wine connoisseur
will be aware of.
If you've visited us before, you might have spotted and even enjoyed a dish which included something from our kitchen garden. Tomatoes and courgettes featured in salads and soups, sweetcorn used for corn ribs.
Well the list of produce that's made it from garden to plate is longer than you think...
Microgreens for garnish
Salad leaves, lettuce, rocket, coriander
Fresh herbs including rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano
Basil
Chives
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Parsley
Celery
Beetroot
Rhubarb
Strawberries
Broad, french (green), and runner beans
Chard
Kale
Spring onions
Mint
Courgettes
Sweetcorn
Gardening: A Growth Industry
WHAT COMES NEXT
We're off to a decent start. More and more produce is being used by our chefs from the kitchen garden each year, and we've been proudly peat free and pesticide free throughout with no intentions of changing!
Going forwards, Phil is working to up production levels and better relate the produce to the food that is regularly served in the dining rooms. He will also continue his work on the flowers both inside and outside of The Wayfarer, with special focus on the beer garden as THE place for people to enjoy eating and drinking outside in the summer months.
He also continues to work towards his grand, long-term vision: to make it feel like a pub IN a beautiful garden, as opposed to a pub with a beautiful garden.
When will you be dining with us?
For events or larger parties, please call or email us.
01257 464 600 | info@wayfarerparbold.co.uk