Sowing seeds of success in secret garden
ASECRET salad garden is sowing seeds of success with some of the Welsh capital’s best restaurants. Cardiff Salad Garden in Bute Park has a hidden entrance near the Secret Garden cafe.
Since it started, it has grown and grown and is now supplying some of the city’s best-known and loved restaurants and cafes.
Sophie Durnan and team supply Milkwood, Park House, Penylan Pantry and their neighbours, Secret Garden cafe. They also supply the city-centre Quay Street Kitchen, Insole Court’s Potting Shed, the Unite building cafe and The Embassy Cafe. The leaves are delivered by bike.
“All the time we’re growing and we’re still trying to deliver it all by bike,” said Sophie.
After negotiations with Cardiff Council, Sophie and Fissha Teklom took over the greenhouse in spring 2017 and began building raised beds to grow their leaves. By July they were selling their first salad.
They can grow all year round in the greenhouse and are now selling around 15kg of salad weekly.
Sophie explained: “I had been a commercial grower all my adult life. My previous job was in the Riverside Market Garden, and the idea was that salad is a high-yield crop. We get a lot back and it’s a product that not many people can supply well in a longer food chain.
“If you’re going to a supermarket, it’s hard to get nice salad as it’s gone from the farm to a warehouse, to another warehouse, to a shop.”
“I wanted to set it up as a social enterprise. I found growing quite lonely and I really enjoyed having people around.”
Volunteer co-ordinator Fissha Teklom has been getting people from different communities across the city involved.
“Fissha had done a lot of work with different groups, particularly asylumseekers, so we wanted to open the garden up and have a community garden,” said Sophie.
A National Lottery grant is funding two volunteer sessions a week so they can invite people to help out.
“It’s not really about the work, but it’s about getting people together and us having a common purpose that really boosts social interaction,” Sophie added.
Mel Boothman runs Penylan Pantry and the Secret Garden Cafe. She said using the salad not only improves the experience for customers, but allows her to support another local business.
“The salad itself is of a much higher quality,” she said. “It’s grown with organic techniques and has no nasty chemicals in it. It’s grown as your nan would grow it, so it tastes like it should.
“It smells amazing and has the flavour it should. Each variety tastes different – you get the sweet notes, peppery or lemony flavour.”