Padstow Kitchen Garden | Courses
2nd March 2015
Hailing from a long line of farmers, ex-chef Ross Geach certainly knows a thing or two about growing and cooking great quality seasonal produce. If you’ve eaten out in Cornwall recently, chances are the menu will have included fayre from his farm aka Padstow Kitchen Garden.
Rewind to more than 130 years ago, and you will have found Ross Geach’s grandfathers toiling the fields at Trerethern Farm on the hills above Padstow.
Fast forward to the 1990s, and sixth generation farmer Ross Geach was setting off on a different – but nevertheless related – path, swapping the fields for a kitchen as a chef at Rick Stiens down the road.
But farming roots run deep, and growing vegetables as a hobby in his spare time just didn’t cut it. In 2007, Ross gave up his career to take over Padstow Kitchen Farm full time, and hasn’t looked back.
Today, it grows a huge variety of vegetables which find their way into some of the county’s finest restaurants including Rick Steins’ restaurants, No.6 and Rojanos in Padstow, Fifteen Cornwall at Watergate Bay and Casamia in Bristol, to name but a few.
Ross is the first to admit that it hasn’t always been easy, but his farming lineage means he has been able to absorb the knowledge of his relations and master his craft.
The proximity to some of Cornwall’s top restaurants has certainly helped the success – all the salad and veg that is cut by hand first thing in the morning by Ross and his dad Ron is delivered to restaurants the same day ready for lunch service. You don’t get fresher than that.
Ross was recently very proud to be shortlisted amongst the big-guns in the category of Food Hero for the Food Magazine Reader Awards alongside the likes of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Michael Caines, Nathan Outlaw (watch the video below) and Mitch Tonks.
Did you know…?
‘Tre’ is used in a lot of Cornish place names – Tregothnan, Trebetherick, Trelissick, Tregony – and means homestead.
Vegetable gardening courses
Fancy yourself as green fingered? From June to September, Ross will be running vegetable gardening courses for all abilities. Lunch cooked by Ross himself is also included in the price starting from £65 per person.
Dates are available on his website, but if your group of 8 or more friends want to get together on a particular date, give Ross a call and he’ll see what he can do.
Padstow is a 20 minute drive from our properties at Mawgan Porth and 25 minute drive from our Watergate Bay properties.
