Fruit and vegetables straight from the field to plate. There’s something so appealing about that. Zero fly miles, self-sufficiency and food that’s really, truly fresh.
I found out about Padstow Kitchen Garden through Instagram, one of its images appeared when I was scrolling – what a great discovery that turned out to be! It supplies lots of great Cornish restaurants like Rick Stein’s, Jamie Oliver’s 15 and Paul Ainsworth at Number 6 restaurant.
On my latest trip to Cornwall I found it the best place to pick up some interesting veggies for dinner.
Headed to Padstow and are going to cook some of your own meals? Then you need to visit this place to pick up a few bits!
Enter the cabin and take a look at the incredible produce I bought (and scoffed) on my trip…
Ok, so the cabin may not look like much but, hey, don’t judge a book by its cover. Inside was a treasure trove of lovely local vegetables, eggs, sausages and flowers. And, its main role is to supply lots of local restaurants with incredible county grown veggies.
Location
Padstow Kitchen Garden is at the back of Padstow, not down in the Harbour but high in the hills and fields above on Trerethern Farm on the North Coast of Cornwall. Four acres of beautiful land bathed in the sunshine of the Cornish coast – no wonder the veggies are delicious!
Honestly, it was down a track hidden away on a farm and campsite and was so breathtakingly beautiful I stood there for a full 10 minutes just to take in the view.
Grown by Ross Geach
Who is responsible for this wonderful place? Ross Geach, a former head-chef at Rick Stein’s. Ross isn’t just a great chef and farmer he also writes a monthly column in the gardening section of the Telegraph and features on Radio Cornwall’s Gardenline every month.
These are just a few of the places you might have seen or heard him before, and you can tell from these appearances and all his other work that he’s really motivated to grow and supply the best veggies out there.
Take a look around…
Inside it’s a simple layout, one fridge, one freezer, plenty of sideboards and an honesty box. This warmed my soul, an honesty box, such a lovely way to operate!
I took quite a few photos, you can scroll through some of them here, hover over the slide show and use the arrow to change the image.
What did I buy?
Every time we passed by Padstow we popped into the cabin to pick up some veggies.
We tried…
…a dragon egg cucumber. Ooooooooooohhhhhhh, I hear you, I did the same sound effect. I had never heard or seen this before. This weird egg looking vegetable was a deliciously crisp cucumber. While you could eat the skin, it was a little tougher than a normal cucumber, so on my second one I gave it a quick peel first.
I loved this veggie, and apparently, after a quick Google I found out that they are very easy to grow. I’m now on the hunt for some seeds to grow some in our planter at home. Let me know if you know where to get some!
Next up, we bought my favourites, Padron Peppers! These are the best ones I’ve ever had, and I cooked them up in some olive oil and sprinkled them with salt before gobbling them up. Usually you only get one really spicy one, per batch but I had four – amazing!
The Padron Pepper is the Russian roulette of the vegetable world. Not all peppers grow the same, some are spicy and you have literally no idea which one is and which one isn’t!
We also got some really fresh eggs…
I added the eggs to breakfast and on top of noodles and couldn’t believe how blinking wonderful they were!
…fresh eggs and a jar of pickled Padron Peppers, which by the way are SCRUMMY!
I have no idea how easy it is to pickle something, I’m keen to find out because they are so tasty.
And, I also bought some lovely bright coloured courgettes, some courgette flowers and, that purple looking golf ball below is a Kohl Rabi.
I have to be honest, along with the dragon egg cucumber, I had NO IDEA what a Kohl Rabi was. But, I bought it anyway and figured it out, I ended up cutting it very thinly, frying it off and adding it as a topping to noodles.
It tastes a bit like a radish, and because I wasn’t in my own kitchen when I cooked it, I didn’t have a sharp enough knife, or a peeler/mandolin so I think if it was even finer, it would be a bit crispier. I’d love to know what I’m actually meant to do with it, I will have to try again in the future.
I can’t recommend Padstow Kitchen Garden enough, not only was there incredible fresh produce locally grown, but I also discovered two things I’d never had before!
Hats off to Ross and his team, this is an incredible addition to Padstow and I was so happy to find it to make our home cooked meals during our trip 1000 times better.
Big love to the Padstow Kitchen Garden, I’ll be back!
P.S. The things I wish I’d bought…
- Rainbow Chard
- Rainbow Carrots
- Flowers
If we’d been at home I’d have definitely bought these things too!
