One year, four seasons and hours of digging since opening and The Potting Shed is trailblazing the grow-your-own food revolution.
To the rear of their country pub in the Cotswolds owners Jonathan Barry and Julian Muggridge have created a large kitchen garden providing Chef Dan Wyatt with fresh, organic vegetables, salad leaves and herbs. All the wonderful ingredients grown in the garden are carefully watered and tended, and when ready, travel just 30 metres from plot-to-pan. No food miles here.
Last year may have been its first but the veg patch took the team at The Potting Shed by surprise. It produced almost all the vegetables, herbs and salads used throughout summer and autumn. There were runner beans, green beans, lettuce, heaps of herbs, Jerusalem artichokes, celeriac, purple sprouting broccoli, beetroot and baby beets, curly kale, mini turnips, radishes, cucumbers, tomatoes and chillies. In fact there was so much that they started selling mixed bags of excess veg in their Cirencester deli (www.therectorykitchen.com) as the kitchen couldn’t keep up with the crop.Chef Dan’s rustic menus reflect his love of local seasonal produce. Winter specialties include hearty stews, plump pies and warming puddings. In spring and summer come lighter dishes such as Red Onion and Cerney Goat’s Cheese Tart, Garden Pea and Mint Risotto, and a sublime Dark Chocolate Tart with Chocolate and Lime Sorbet.
Aware of the growing public interest in grow-your-own and the huge waiting lists for allotments, The Potting Shed has decided to play a part in helping others to live out their own plot to plate dream.
The Potting Shed has registered interest in donating land for Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s new Landshare campaign (www.landshare.net) launching in the spring. Landshare aims to link people who want to grow their own food to plots where they can grow it. It’s a positive and practical solution and The Potting Shed is looking forward to taking part and sharing veg patch tips with other like-minded growers.
Reasons to visit The Potting Shed Pub:
• Owners support Slow Food promoting traditional, regional and seasonal food products and enouraging
sustainable agricultural systems
• Quality British ales and international wines
• Quiz nights and Pie and Pint nights
• Summer barbecues and traditional hog roasts in the garden
• Private Dining in The Hide – the fantastic dining room for up to 18 people
• Picnicking and summer cocktails under the apple trees
• Happy staff and efficient service
• The Rectory Hotel, just metres away in the village, is owned by your hosts – providing an option to stroll home
and wake up in the countryside close to Highgrove, Tetbury, Westonbirt Arboretum and other local attractions
Take a look www.thepottingshedpub.com or call The Potting Shed Pub directly on 01666 577833.