Not a flower from our own gardens this week but a picture of Vanilla orchids growing in Indonesia!
Many of you have chatted with our horticulturist and environmental warrior, Made Setiawan. Originally from Bali, Made spends half the year in Indonesia running his company, Conservana Spices, which aims to restore and protect the native Indonesian rain forest by encouraging local farmers to grow vanilla orchids on young forest saplings. Generating non-timber cash crops, such as Vanilla, from the existing forests can yield more money whilst maintaining the forests and protecting bio-diversity.
Hugely successful in educating and inspiring local farmers, Made and his team are now helping with harvesting, curing and marketing their crops. We at WKG are keen to assist by buying some of their fantastic Vanilla pods and Made has just returned from the east bearing gifts! We’ve just made our first ice cream from the new pods and the flavour is unmatchable – do come and try some this weekend. We will also be selling pods online and in the shop so you can sample the difference – not only a fully transparent supply chain but flavoursome, moist vanilla pods as well. The first, we hope, of many collaborations with Made and his team – we plan to be selling coffee, cacao and other spices from these regenerative Indonesian farms over the next year.
At a more local level, our supply of game has been great this Autumn and we will be featuring Water Deer Chilli Con Carne and Roast Wild Duck with Poached Quince on the menu again this week.
We look forward to welcoming you to the farm again this week, whether you come to shop, to breakfast, to lunch or, on Friday or Saturday, for dinner.
