Organic food and drink

Orchard Farmhouse - Gold standard Food for Life.  Soil Association Organic Caterer.  Land in Conversion.  What does it all mean?

To achieve Gold in the Food for Life initiative is something special.  It means a total commitment to organic standards but also to local and seasonal food.  

A Soil Association caterer has to record all its purchases and comply with a range of requirements so that what is on your plate is freshly prepared, delicious and truly wholesome.  In fact at Orchard Farmhouse we cook your meal in view, so you can see what we are doing.  While you munch the cereal, porridge, fruit salad or yoghurt we prepare tasty mushrooms and tomatoes.  You hear the bacon and sausages sizzling and you choose how to have your egg cooked to perfection.  If it is not perfect, we re-do it.   

What drives us to go to all this trouble to cook organic food?

People choose organic food for many reasons. Animal welfare, to avoid pesticides and for the environment are three key reasons. Anything called organic has to comply with minimum standards and are checked and certified to ensure they maintain standards. We choose local Soil Association or Demeter products where we can because their standards are even higher than normal organic - especially where chicken and eggs are concerned. We also find that organic farmers work harder in all sorts of ways - greatly reducing the use of antibiotics by keeping animals in good conditions, allowing them to live as "natural" a life as possible - such as letting them behave as they normally would.  Pigs being allowed to root around their field, not just roam free range.  You can find out more at www.soilassociation.org or www.biodynamic.org.uk. 

Once you get involved in the movement you discover that Fairtrade, ethical employment and much more is linked in. 

Not only is our bed and breakfast certified but we have also put all our small organic farm land, including the garden, into conversion under the Soil Association scheme.  We use entirely organic products in the Bed and Breakfast.  Our land will be organic in the future.  In the meantime, be assured that we have used no chemicals or pesticides on the garden or fields since we arrived.

Magnolia in blossom - May 2010