THE GARLIC FARM RESTAURANT ETHICAL STATEMENT: 

ABOUT OUR FARM AND FOOD

Allergens Information

Contents: Food from our Farm, Purchasing, Waste Management, Quality, Social Values, Customer Feedback

Thank you for taking an interest in what we do. We are a third-generation family run farm that has grown from the love of garlic and the love of this beautiful place. We have a long-term interest in maintaining our environment, doing our best in our local community and trying to make ethical choices. Our recent certification as a B Corporation is testament to the team’s efforts in all these areas.

Food from our Farm

We grow garlic and rear native, rare-breed 100% grass-fed cattle. There is a symbiotic relationship between these two foods. We produce both to organic standards here on our farm, with the Soil Association as our certification body. We are also 'Pasture for Life' certified which means that our livestock are 100% pasture fed. Integrating livestock within our garlic rotation helps to deliver fertility and resilience to our soils whilst improving the water-holding capability.

On the steeper ground and pasture not suitable for garlic growing, we graze our herd of out-wintered Highland cattle and Traditional Herefords in a way that gives the maximum rest periods and therefore root growth for the grass. This method, often called mob-grazing or holistic management gives the cows the freshest forage and is a nature-friendly way of farming for these reasons:

• Long rest periods for pasture stimulates plant growth which sequesters carbon
• Healthier plants with deeper roots feed soil microbiology and build drought resilience

So whilst garlic is our ‘thing’ – we move cows around the fields so that they naturally fertilise and condition our soils by increasing organic matter. In addition, the cattle’s input on our farmland is significant because our herd converts patches of ground that could not support garlic or other crops into nutrient-dense food as well as carbon sequestration and water efficiency.

There has been no soy or grain fed to our cows ever and they live happily outside, not in sheds. Equally there has been no synthetic or chemical fertiliser nor weed control applied to the garlic on our farm. Hopefully the flavour of our garlic and beef speaks for itself. To learn more about how we are aiming to balance nature and farming on the 200 acres that surround you, please visit our website.

Purchasing and Our Focus on Quality

At The Garlic Farm Restaurant we aim to provide quality food cooked to order using local ingredients wherever possible.

Most of our dishes contain at least one local ingredient and we work closely with our neighbouring farms and food producers to make this possible. Where ingredients are not available from local sources, we work with local food distributors to find the best choice in terms of food miles, quality and sustainable choices.

Our local Isle of Wight based suppliers include:

• Isle of Wight Tomatoes, Hazelgrove Farm Eggs, Island Roasted Coffee & Teas, Briddlesford Farm Milks & Cheeses, Living Larder Vegetables, IOW Meat Co, Isle of Wight Cheese Company, Goddards Brewery, Isle of Wight Distillery, Calbourne Classics & Minghella Ice Creams, Yates Brewery, Little Duxmore Farm meats

Green Ambassadors

Each department of our business has a nominated ‘green ambassador’ who works with their teams to action any green initiatives and brainstorm improvements in their specific areas.

Food cooked to order

Our professional kitchen team are focused on making everything from scratch.

Whether it be a homemade Burger made with beef from our own cattle or a risotto made with organic vegetables grown by a neighbouring farm, we believe that the food we prepare in house has the best quality and flavour.  We have an in-house baker who makes all our cakes, desserts and sourdough breads. Salads and vegetables are hand prepared by the kitchen team and all dishes are prepared in our kitchen, not bought in ready-made. We believe this makes a big difference to the flavour you experience as a guest in our restaurant as well as increasing job satisfaction for our chefs and reducing overall food waste.

Focus on Food Waste

We measure our food waste daily then brainstorm how we can reduce the amount that gets thrown away. We put all uncooked food waste into our Ridan Food Composter which turns food waste into valuable compost.

As a business we are BCorporation accredited which we believe helps us to focus on making sure we make a positive net impact overall as a business, environmentally and socially. To learn more about this approach please see our website Ethos & Ethics page. As part of this process we have been investigating and taking action on food waste in our restaurant. We measure our food waste daily including prep and plate waste then we brainstorm how we can reduce the amount of food that gets thrown away. We have taken a number of measures to reduce overall waste:

• Producing valuable compost from all uncooked food waste
• Constant creativity and rigour by the team to use all ingredients within date
• Vigilance on how food is prepared to make use of most of the animal, vegetables and by-products
• Offering coffee grounds as compost ingredient
• Analysing plate waste to adjust dishes accordingly
• Offering customers option to take food home
• Offering staff option to take food home at the end of the day
• Staff food waste group to share any end of day extras across the business

How you can help with reducing food waste – if you prefer not to have a garnish or side salad or a specific item with a dish then please let your server know.

Focus on packaging waste

We have taken the following measures to reduce our overall packaging waste:

• Offering discount to customers bringing their own take-away cup
• Using biodegradable packaging for takeaways
• Asking our suppliers to reuse packaging where possible
• Asking our suppliers to deliver with less packaging
• Offering crates and boxes to customers for repurposing

Social commitments

We have a buddy scheme for less able team members and do all sorts of fundraising, volunteering and donations.

Buddy Scheme: We work closely with an organisation called Care in the Garden based in Wootton, Isle of Wight to offer job placements to those who would otherwise have difficulty entering the workforce. The scheme allows team members who need a little help to come to work with a ‘work buddy’ to assist them. This scheme has been running for 4 years now and we believe that having a more diverse workforce is beneficial to everyone in our team and our customers alike.

Fundraising: We support fundraising directly through charitable donations of meals and direct donations to local charities. We also have a volunteering policy which allows all team members to take one full paid day per year to offer their help to a charity of their choice. We also host fundraising events such as Quiz nights in our restaurant to help specific causes.

Customer feedback

We use your feedback to learn how we can improve.

Our customers’ opinions really matter to us and we look at our reviews regularly to monitor feedback and understand how we can improve. If you loved dining with us then please do tell everyone – please leave us a review on any of our review platforms – resdiary, google, facebook or tripadvisor. If you have something specific you think we could do better, please do tell us directly so we can fix it as soon as possible. You can email us directly on thecafe@thegarlicfarm.co.uk