Rogan. Simon Rogan

of England, but we learn and we move on, designing our growing systems to reflect our beliefs about food and to serve the needs and demands of the restaurant. And that is the joy of having our land, as it allows us to experiment. When you are able to grow whatever you want, you can try different crops, which is how we have discovered some incredible new tastes, flavours and surprising combinations. My work often takes me to far-flung places around the world, where I love to wander through the markets, taking in the sights, smells and colours of interesting and exotic foods, and it’s even more fascinating to watch what the locals do with them. I often come back from these trips with seeds for these unusual plants, which I have a go at planting at home. While most of the stuff we grow is indigenous (and it’s indigenous for a reason, because that’s what grows best!), if we can get an exotic seedling to grow and flourish in our soil without the need for expensive and unnatural special attention such as lighting and heating, I’ll give it a go. The beauty is in knowing that I can take a rare herb, vegetable or fruit from anywhere in the world and try to grow it in Cumbria, then without any point of reference it becomes a new food experience for our guests. Apple marigold is one great example of this; originally from South America, we grow it at Our Farm because it brings something unique to our dishes both sweet and savoury, and because, despite its origins, it thrives in our climate.

      So sometimes these seeds work out, sometimes they don’t. We don’t push it – over the years, amongst the successes there have been many failures, but that’s Nature letting us know that it just isn’t right for us. If it doesn’t work, we let it go. It goes against everything we believe in to provide enhanced conditions for the sake of growing something – we have polytunnels but they are not artificially heated, and we won’t bring in extra equipment for the sake of cultivating an exotic species.

      We grow many varieties of vegetables, fruits, herbs, young plants and shoots, and they are all carefully chosen for maximum flavour and nutrient content.

      We are always aware of new foods making their mark on the culinary scene, but we don’t follow fads – what we grow, we grow because it works for us. We won’t fall into line with a trend, or sacrifice our principle or ethos for any movement or accolade.

      This is true for all our crops, and so perhaps intentionally and perhaps because of circumstance (our colder climate), we cultivate our crops slowly. However, although slow means lower yields than commercial growers, it does allow our crops to develop their flavours properly. We are not forcing plants to overproduce, we are attempting to get the best possible flavour from individual plants.

      And perhaps this has been the most important lesson that we have learned over the years, that in order to get the amazing flavours we want on the plate and to nurture the best-quality ingredients, we must feed and respect the soil in which they are grown and work with nature. The best dishes have the best ingredients. It is an obsession of mine. Flavour is all-important. And that’s our ethos; it’s all about growing the perfect carrot rather than cooking it perfectly. Over my career I have used many of the fancy techniques or equipment that you find in many top restaurants, but since I have had access to the very best ingredients we can produce, my style of cuisine has become far simpler – both in method and execution. With the right ingredients, you don’t need lots of technology and gadgets to produce amazing food. It is this simplicity that is the keystone of my recipes, and the foundation of everything we serve in our restaurants.

      These amazing shoots and herbs can be simply dressed in a light vinaigrette and served up having only been growing in the ground half an hour before. You can’t beat that freshness, that flavour, that message.

      The success of our restaurants in Cartmel and London is the result of team effort. The land in the Lake District is called Our Farm because everyone who works with me has a stake in it. It is a vital cog in the business; every member of the team – whether in the kitchens or front of house – must spend one month on the land before they can work in the restaurant. Most chefs who join us have little or no experience with growing, and they can be a little overwhelmed at the sight of the rows and rows of beds and polytunnels, but once they’ve had this hands-on experience with the ingredients they have optimum respect for them and understand completely what they are working with. There’s no set pattern to what we grow, and this is reflected in our menu, so the chefs need this knowledge to be able to think on their feet and be able to combine flavours quickly and effectively. You can go up to the farm in the morning and then later in the afternoon and in that time a bunch of flowers will have opened up, ready to use. It is that violently seasonal – you have to be there four or five times a day before you can make a final decision because stuff just appears from nowhere, and to use it at its freshest you have to be there, on site, ready to pick it. You need to know every single millimetre of the land to know what is going on – and to be able to realise its potential. I’ll admit that at times this might seem a real pain to the chefs, and undeniably it means more work, but it is such a beautiful and simple concept.

      Having the input from the chefs is also crucial because it means we can grow according to how they want to use the ingredients, cultivating leaves to the perfect size, nurturing live shoots in trays that can be delivered to the restaurant still in their soil ready to be snipped fresh for each plate. This is where growing our own is truly invaluable; because we mostly use micro veg – such as baby leaves, pencil leeks and tiny sweet radishes – we have the opportunity to produce bespoke ingredients for maximum flavour and texture.

      We use vegetables at micro size not just because of the way they look on the plate, but also because at this point in their growth they are very small, delicate, perfectly textured and at their flavoursome peak.

      As we grow our crops slowly, it is really important to use every corner of the site. The polytunnels and beds at Our Farm are hard-working; from spring through to early autumn every available inch of space is crammed with seedlings or plants – we even have pallets hanging from the tunnels’ struts in order to maximise growing space. These tunnels allow us to extend our growing season in a more natural way, to get a head start in spring and protect the plants from the British weather. If we need extra heat in the winter, we use the traditional method of using hot compost heaps to keep the roots of plants warm. In addition, we will place cloches, cold frames and hot beds around the site to keep the more tender plants warm in frosty conditions, and we have areas which are left untilled, to encourage the growth of edible wild plants, which we also harvest. The orchard beyond the beds is carefully planted not only to provide fruit, but to act as a natural windbreak against the wind that sometimes races through the valley.

      Spring and summer are our key growing periods, when we need to get cracking to produce as much as possible. Often when we get to August we have so much stuff we can’t get it all on the menu, there’s no space for it all. Winter is the only time when the soil is visible and we can at last draw breath, after a long year the last of the crops are harvested in autumn and stored to supply the restaurant through the winter. This is when we go back to our roots, embracing good old-fashioned preserving techniques.

      All the traditional methods are employed to prevent wastage from our summer excesses – pickling, drying, fermenting, smoking, freezing, clamping (storing root vegetables in boxes filled with sand). Many of these processes even enhance the flavours of our ingredients; clamping vegetables encourages the carbohydrates to turn to sugar, creating a tastier, sweeter veg, while pickling and preserving allows us to add other flavourings and produce a whole different taste.

      Our crops work hard for us – we study each plant at every stage of its growth, discovering new ways of using different parts of even the simplest varieties. When you’ve taken all that time to grow and nurture a plant you want to use every part of it. What’s left over and can’t be used gets composted – along with vegetable waste, animal manure, charcoal from the wood-burning