Why we champion sustainable food

Join us in celebrating our love of quality, fresh and seasonal local food with this year's British Food Fortnight from 19 September - 4 October 2020.
Food is much more than what we eat. It shapes our lives – our health and well-being, our culture, our natural environment, our security and prosperity. Food is a true measure of our approach to life itself, as individuals and as a society.
However, today we’ve become emotionally and physically disconnected from how food is produced, and we're losing the skills to grow our own and cook it. This means it's hard to see what the most healthy and sustainable options are. It’s also clear that our food system is facing challenges from climate change, population growth, and depletion of natural resources, meaning it must adapt radically to meet the realities of the 21st century.
As the country’s largest owner of farmland, numerous kitchen gardens and with over 200 cafés at our places, we’re committed to playing our part to build a more resilient, efficient and lower-impact food system. Over the last decade we’ve been on a journey to make the food we grow and serve more enjoyable, more sustainable, and better connected to the places we look after. We’re continually striving to produce and sell food that benefits everyone and the environment. To ensure this, we’re mindful of every stage of the food chain, from sowing the seeds and looking after the animals, to cooking and serving seasonal produce. And where we can, we include produce from our tenant farmers and kitchen gardens in the dishes we serve in our cafés.
We're making a greater effort to manage the impact of farming on the environment and rural communities by working closely with our tenant farmers to support their farming methods. We’re keen to encourage viable farms with high standards of food production, environmental management and animal welfare. And where we can, we include produce from our tenant farmers in the dishes we serve in our cafés.
Meet the tenant farmers






Carvannel Farm - milk and clottted cream
Carvannel Farm in Devon is our new Free Range Accredited national tenant farmer for milk and clotted cream. They produce creamy unhomogenised milk, like the good old days, and more traditionally made clotted cream.
Charles Spencer - eggs
Charles Spencer’s family have been tenants of ours since 1972. We use over one sixth of their annual egg supply from the 37,000 Bovine Brown hybrid hens.
Alvis Bros - cheese and butter
The Alvis family have been making Farmhouse Cheese at Lye Cross Farm since 1952. The milk produced by their cows is used to make our Cheddar cheese and the whey is used to make our salted butter.
Wimpole Home Farm - flour
The wheat grown on Wimpole Home Farm is used to make our plain and self-raising flour. Using nature-friendly farming methods means wildlife can thrive above the ground and in the soil below.
Greg MacNiece - McIvor's cider
Planting their first apple orchard in 1855, Greg MacNiece now produce all the canned Bramley apples we use as well as some high quality and great tasting ciders.
F. Conisbee & Son - turkey
The Consibee family focus on high welfare and slowly mature their animals in a stress-free environment. The turkeys are raised in their cattle barns and given quality feed.
We’ve really come to appreciate the benefits of growing and eating seasonal food. This helps to conserve the natural and cultural heritage of our restored kitchen gardens, glass-houses and orchards that produce ingredients our chefs use in our cafés. Also, discover what you can grow in your own space.
It's important that we work with local suppliers. While they provide us with fresh and seasonal produce, they also have the added benefit of minimising the road miles of the ingredients we use. This therefore further supports our desire to reduce our environmental impact and increase our sustainability.
" It’s key that we support British farming, so our sourcing standards ensure that all the meat, poultry and season fruit and veg we buy is from UK farms."