The annual Ginger and Spice Festival champions local businesses to Market Drayton and particularly those who are contributing to the amazing gastronomic offering in Shropshire and Goldstone Hall Hotel is one of them.
Goldstone Hall Hotel is a mutli award winning, luxury, family run hotel and restaurant set in the rolling hills of the Shropshire countryside. It also boasts a 5 acre garden which includes a bountiful one acre kitchen garden supplying seasonal vegetables, herbs, fruits and even some spices, to the hotel restaurant.
In celebration of the Royal Horticultural Society’s ‘Edible Britain’ campaign for National Gardening Week, taking place right now, we caught up with owner, John Cushing, to find out what it takes to manage one of the biggest Hotel kitchen gardens in the U.K.
For how long has the Kitchen Garden been established at Goldstone Hall Hotel?
The Goldstone garden foundations are due to the vision and drive of Helen Ward who was instrumental in laying out and collecting plants. I took over the role of managing the garden over 15 years ago. With the help of head gardener Nick Huxley and team, we have developed the one acre kitchen garden to include many unusual crops which we use to supply our restaurant today.
Throughout the year, produce is lovingly sown, grown and harvested by Nick and his team and then beautifully crafted into an array of delightful culinary creations and drinks by our Head Chef Liam and the Goldstone team.
Why is it important for you to grow your own produce at Goldstone Hall Hotel?
By growing our own vegetables, fruit and other plants, not only do we reduce our food miles and carbon foot print, but we can also offer our guests something completely different. We grow many unusual cultivars here at Goldstone Hall Hotel that you just can’t find grown on an intensive commercial basis. By cultivating and harvesting much of our own produce seasonally, we can deliver fresh food to the plate within minutes of it being picked. We can therefore surprise and delight with fresh, seasonal produce, some of which our hotel guests may not even have known existed before they tried it. Herbs like burnet and red orach which we use in salads or the cold-hardy perennial, horseradish, which makes a wonderful fiery addition to our famous Sunday Lunch Roast Beef offering.
Tell us about any spices you grow at Goldstone Hall Hotel?
We grow and harvest Fennel seeds, Horseradish and other zingy herbs such as chives, Sorrel, Laurel, Sage and nasturtium. We also grow the Szechuan pepper plant, or Zanthoxylum simulan, as we have the perfect conditions here to grow it well. Read all about it here.
Tell us about any spices you grow at Goldstone Hall Hotel?
We grow and harvest Fennel seeds, Horseradish and other zingy herbs such as chives, Sorrel, Laurel, Sage and nasturtium. We also grow the Szechuan pepper plant, or Zanthoxylum simulan, as we have the perfect conditions here to grow it well. See here for article
Can you tell us a bit more about your restaurant and when is best to visit?
We currently have a great mid-week and Saturday evening offer in our restaurant.
During MAY & JUNE it’s £36.00 for 3-COURSES (well actually 5 – homemade crisps, appetiser, starter, main, dessert) Wednesday to Friday throughout May and June 2019. To book call 01630 661 202 or email enquiries@goldstonehall.com.
What is your favourite edible plant and why?
The humble spud – it provides various varieties with so many wonderful options. The sensation of really new soft melting Lady Christl is hard to beat and they love Goldstone’s soil. Pink Fir Apples that give us that wonderful waxy and tasty and firm spud – their knobbly shapes are so interesting to look at. Wilja gives us sensational chips and roasties. Finally the ultimate for homemade crisps – Highland Burgundy. These dark red potatoes have a wonderfully striated flesh with rings of red and white. The colours hold during cooking so the crisps look interesting as well as tasty – prefect to accompany a well-chilled glass of early evening Sauvignon Blanc.
Open for the National Garden Scheme
Goldstone Hall Hotel are also open for eight days during 2019 – throughout late spring and summer – in support of the National Garden Scheme. For the cost of £5.00 only, visitors can explore the award winning floral rich grounds including a walled garden, double tiered herbaceous borders, rose garden and bountiful one acre active kitchen garden, including a vast collection of vegetables and herbs.
The eight open days for 2019 are: Wednesday 29th May, Wednesday 12th June, Wednesday 26th June, Wednesday 10th July, Tuesday 30th July, Tuesday 6th August, Wednesday 14th August 2019 and Wednesday 4th September 2019. The garden will be open from 14.00 to 17.00 on these days and there will be traditional tea and cake served in the award winning oak pavilion, all proceeds to National Garden Scheme.
Goldstone Hall Hotel
The multi award winning, Goldstone Hall, is a country house hotel and restaurant with a magnificent garden only 3 miles from Market Drayton. They have a restaurant which is open for lunch from Monday to Saturday 12noon to 2.30pm or for dinner Monday to Sunday from 6.30pm to 9.30pm, as well as Sunday lunch from 12noon to 2.30pm.
It is also the perfect location for wedding ceremonies, celebrations and parties for which guests can have exclusive use. The venue is also a suitable setting for business meetings and presentations throughout the week. To book, or any further information, please contact them on 01630 661202 or email enquiries@goldstonehall.com
The next Ginger and Spice Festival will take place during September 2019.
For all information about the Ginger and Spice Festival including the events, please visit the what’s on section of the website: www.gingerandspicefest.co.uk
