For some hospitality and catering businesses, growing produce has been part of their culture and business model since day one but for many others, it’s a fairly new concept. The drive for sustainability plus the recent pandemic and economic challenges have pushed chefs to be creative and challenge the status quo.
For those looking to improve flavour and retain absolute control over certain ingredients, while reducing wastage, keeping costs down and negating supply issues, a kitchen garden, veg patch or even large growing pot can reap rewards.
But don’t take our word for it, here’s a selection of inspiring green fingered chefs on why to grow, what to grow and how to grow this summer.
CAL BYERLEY, Restaurant Pine, Northumberland
How long have you been growing?
We have been growing about 10 years and our generous tasting menu showcases ingredients foraged from the Northumberland countryside or grown within our onsite kitchen garden.
What do you grow?
A wide variety of fruits, herbs, vegetables and mushrooms. We also have our own apiaries, home to our colonies of native black honeybees.
What should all chefs grow in 2024?
Oxalis. Most chefs know wood sorrel which is part of the oxalis family, but oxalis comes in many different types. It’s great in salads or to garnish any dish giving a zingy lemon freshness. My favourite varieties are sunset velvet and small burgundy. A lot of people don’t realise you can actually harvest the tubers known as oca and use them as well. They are like a lemony potato, which are great pickled or cooked just like a potato. They are essentially a very small yam. If you don’t harvest them, you can expect even more oxalis plants the following year, but I like to harvest them all and re-plant, so they do not grow too cramped together.
Any tips for growing success?
Oxalis can grow in-or-outdoors but for producing flowers which have the same amazing flavour they prefer a warm greenhouse. Hanging baskets are great but I find a greater oca yield when grown in beds in greater numbers.
What’s your favourite way to use the produce?
Freshly picked straight onto a dish. There are much larger varieties of sorrel you can cook with, but oxalis is simplistic and beautiful in its own form.
TOM TSAPPIS, Killiecrankie House, Scotland
What do you grow?
Many varieties of carrots, brassicas, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes, herbs (thyme, mint, basil etc.), and some unusual things such as Jerusalem artichoke, sunflowers, liquorice and anise hyssop. Our menu has a nod to Japan, so we have Japanese vegetables such as kabocha pumpkin, daikon radish, wasabi and miyoga negi onion. As the local area is famous for berries – we also have gooseberries, blackcurrants, red and golden raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, redcurrants and white currants. Finally, flowers are important to us, so we have chamomile, cornflowers, violas, roses, marigolds, tagetes and nasturtiums.
What should all chefs grow in 2024?
Kabocha pumpkin – in the west we don’t treat pumpkin as the versatile ingredient that it is. Kabocha is suited to growing in the UK climate, plus it has a lovely sweetness and bright orange colour. Give it plenty of space as it spreads, and don’t plant it next to many other things as it will take over.
What’s your favourite way to use the produce?
We use it in both sweet and savoury ways – tempura, as filling for pasta, or even as ice cream.
JOE MCCULLOUGH, Head Chef, Premier League, London
What do you grow?
I started growing plants over 14 years ago, when I challenged myself to see if I could grow a pepper plant from the seed of a supermarket bought pepper. When the seed began to germinate and grew into a plant, that was it! I had caught the gardening bug. In my garden I now grow several rare and unusual fruit trees, such as persimmon, pineapple, guava, jujube (Chinese date), different varieties of figs and many more. You will be amazed what can grow over here.
What to grow in 2024?
One of my favourite vegetables to grow during spring and summer is sweetcorn. Wait until early to mid-April when the last frost has passed before planting outside. That way the young tender plants won’t be damaged by the cold weather. By August and September you’ll have deliciously sweet and succulent corn ready for harvest. My favourite way to cook homegrown sweetcorn, is to simply boil in slightly salted water. Once cooked, I add a knob of butter and a little black pepper. Simple but delicious.
SCOTT GOSS, I’ll Be Mother, Kent
What do you grow?
We have a small plot where we will grow a wide range of herbs plus a selection of other fruit and vegetables like artichoke, rhubarb, raspberries, apples, figs and pears, which are all utilised on our menus. We don’t have the capacity to grow on a big scale but by growing interesting smaller crops, we can create certain dishes around them for certain periods of time.
What to grow in 2024?
If you’re not already growing, start small and make 2024 the year when you create the ultimate herb garden. Look at a few different herb varieties – they can be crucial in adding freshness, flavour and aroma to dishes. Lovage is a great, very underused herb and one I would recommend every chef grows.
GELF ALDERSON, River Cottage, Dorset
What do you grow?
I think it’s probably been at least 20 years of growing where we have tried our hand at all sorts as we’re lucky to have a few acres of growing space. We mainly concentrate on UK heritage varieties. Growing your own gives you the unique opportunity to use vegetables as soon as they’re picked. They’re so much sweeter and more tender.
What to grow in 2024?
Grow things that deteriorate quickly once picked so you can use them as close to pick as possible. Beetroots, any brassicas and fruit are the ones where you’ll notice the most difference. When growing anything, soil care is key. Ensure you have lots of organic compost between sowings and always rotate what you plant and where to get the best yields.
LIAM FITZPATRICK, Head Farm Chef, Our Farm by Simon Rogan
What do you grow?
I’ve been involved in the growing process since I started working for the company in 2014. One of the main reasons I started working for Simon was to learn more and focus on the growing aspect of cooking. I’ve learnt so much from Our Farm Manager, John Rowland, gaining an even more in-depth understanding of the needs of plants, herbs, and trees, and the importance of soil health, biodiversity, and the finely balanced ecosystem that exists at Our Farm.
We grow produce solely for the use of our restaurants, including three Michelin-starred L’Enclume, one Michelin-starred Rogan & Co, Henrock, our chef’s tables Aulis London and Cartmel, Home by Simon Rogan, our restaurant meal kit delivery service, and our online shop. We grow seasonal fruits and vegetables using bio-intensive, regenerative and biodynamic practices as much as possible. By growing in this way, we rely heavily on short growing windows to produce enough for the restaurants and to sustain us through the year. This is where another important part of my job comes into play, preserving, using various techniques and methods to ensure we have produce that we can use all year round.
What should all chefs grow in 2024?
If I were going to recommend anything to grow this year, it would be tomatoes. There’s simply no other flavour that compares to that of a fresh tomato, especially one that you’ve grown yourself. It’s as if they are different species altogether compared to the ones available in supermarkets in the UK. There are hundreds of varieties to choose from, each iteration favouring different growing conditions.
Part of the fun is finding out which variety suits your part of the world. It also gives you the opportunity to use tomatoes at different levels of ripeness, as each provides unique and individual flavour profiles depending on how they’ve been grown and cared for.
Any tips for growing success?
My main tip for growing tomatoes is not to overwater the young plants before they’re transplanted, and once planted, keep watering and feeding regularly. Tomatoes like to be fed and watered on the same day every week. This helps to prevent putting the plants under any unnecessary stress, which can cause the fruit to split.
Another tip would be to look at companion planting. We use this to great effect on the farm. We interplant our tomato plants with basil and French Marigolds. These two plants attract pests such as aphids, helping to keep them away from our prized tomatoes but these plants also produce a useable crop, so it’s a win, win.
What’s your favourite way to use the produce?
The way I like to enjoy fresh tomatoes the most is just simply dressing them with some cold-pressed rapeseed oil, sea salt and freshly torn basil. The flavour of the tomato speaks for itself. Once you’ve tried the fruits of your labour, I guarantee you’ll never buy a supermarket tomato again!
SAM IDOINE, Roots & Seeds Kitchen Garden, Gloucestershire
What do you grow?
Ours is an all-day farm-to-fork café restaurant using home-grown produce harvested daily from its on-site 1/4-acre kitchen garden. Since opening last Easter, the garden has provided the kitchen with a ready supply of freshly picked produce at its absolute prime.
What to grow in 2024?
Beetroot is one of the most versatile, useful and easy vegetables you can grow. We use it for roasting, steaming, sautéing, pickling or adding to soups, salads, slaws, smoothies and bakes – almost year-round. In the kitchen garden, we grow traditional purple beetroot and also the candy stripe varieties. I particularly love these as they look very pretty sliced thinly to use as a garnish or as part of a salad. You can also use beet leaves and stalks. Delicious and nutritious, either sautéed as a side dish, added to soups or sliced finely and used in salads.
Any tips for growing success?
It’s worth sowing every couple of weeks to give you a good steady supply over summer and autumn. You can plant beetroot seeds in good, well-drained soil with plenty of added compost before the first winter frosts for early spring harvesting and then plant more seeds from mid-April in full sun or part shade. They like to be well-watered, but not over-watered or they may rot in the soil. Beetroot can also be grown in large pots. Harvest when the size of golf balls after seven or eight weeks from sowing or leave to grow to full size and harvest 3-4 months after sowing.
What’s your favourite way to use the produce?
Beets go really well with goat’s cheese and nuts such as walnuts, pistachios or pecans. I like to roast a mix of heritage varieties for colour and texture and serve with thin slices of raw candy stripe beetroot, baby beet leaves, whipped fresh goat’s cheese, candied pecans, a drizzle of local honey and a balsamic dressing.
