True Garden to Plate
In recent years, a vital part of the River Valley Lodge offering has been the meals prepared in our kitchen and served to guests.
But this is not just any food or any old everyday meal. Instead, many of the core ingredients are grown right here in the Lodge organic vegetable gardens. You can certainly taste the difference. This is genuinely garden-to-table eating, with produce harvested in the morning and on the table by lunchtime.
This spring, I helped Melissa – who is in charge of the gardens – with a few tasks. These included mowing down cover crops and spreading compost on freshly forked beds. Seldom have I seen the garden looking so good this time of year, with the promise of some bumper crops later in the season.
We took our first tentative steps to create a garden growing fresh produce for the Lodge about 15 years ago. This started small, with crops being orientated towards lunchtime salads. As we learnt more from experience, books and courses, the garden got bigger and more productive.
What have been the major influencers on designing and maintaining the garden?
The way we do things has been influenced by the likes of John Jeavan’s book – “How to Grow More Vegetables Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine”. We have also done courses with well-known organic food grower and author Kay Baxter and with Jodi Roebuck from Roebuck Farms, a leader in this intensive organic vegetable production style.
And, of course, the greatest teacher of all, experience.
We use a set bed system with minimal cultivation. That cultivation is limited to regular deep fork aeration and light tilthing just before sowing or planting out seedlings. We do not turn the soil over. In addition, we grow the soil by the use of cover crops and the application of compost. We use no
weedicides but do use, on occasion, some organic pesticides. We extensively use mesh netting over the crops to keep pests out and create a slightly warmer microclimate for young plants.
The difference between what the soil was like when we started – clay based old slip material – and what it is like now cannot be more stark. From a light brown, challenging to work with material that was rock hard and clumpy in summer and goo in winter, to what it is now. It is dark-coloured, almost black, and friable; you just know plants want to grow in it!
When it appeared the original garden was not big enough, we extended it. These extensions occurred over a three year period. It is still quite plain that the newer beds have not yet reached the productivity of the original beds. Time, cover crops and plenty more compost will get them there.
Challenges
I would think that every vegetable garden has challenges. We are no exception. In our case, the major challenge is where we live. The garden is 500m above sea level. We have cold winters, so things can be slow to get going in the Spring. On the plus side, we don’t get so many bugs.
The other main challenge is consistently supplying, daily, the required range of vegetables to the Lodge.
We think our meals containing this sort of high quality organic produce are something special. We feel sure you will, too.
Brian Megaw
