What Raymond Blanc can do with swanky restaurant Le Manoir Aux Quat' Saisons, so can Essex pub the Anchor.
Since 2002, the Anchor has sourced practically all its ingredients from the farms of pub owner Bunting and Sons. While celebrity chef Blanc gathers vegetables and herbs form the grounds at Le Manoir in Oxfordshire, the team behind the Anchor get their goods from around the pub in Nayland, near Colchester.
The pub itself backs onto Heritage Farm, 100 acres of land stocked with cattle, crops and wildlife that pub customers are invited to explore. What they're eating comes from this resource plus the rest of Bunting and Sons' local farming empire.
The Anchor Inn is a figurehead for a business that believes in old-fashioned culinary principles. The farm that provides its produce is a model of conservation and non-intensive production. All the animals are reared in free-range conditions, large portions of land are devoted to conservation projects, and its vineyard buildings are powered entirely by renewable wind and solar energy.
And the very principle of pub grub being taken straight from the land - much of it being delivered in a wheelbarrow up to the back door - evokes a bygone age. "You are not going to get food any fresher. It's 50 yards from the garden into the kitchen," says head chef Carl Shillingford, who spent nine years working under high-profile chef Michel Roux before taking the role at the Anchor.
This brings challenges, he says, as many customers, weaned on battery-farmed and synthesised foodstuffs, are not accustomed to eating food that is so innocent and pared-down. "We can't get the beefburgers to go brown," Carl says. "Fresh meat naturally stays slightly red.
"People are so used to having the processed aspect of food and that's a challenge for us. It took me nine months to work out how to get the sausages to go the spongy texture everyone expects. You also have to start asking yourself why the chips you buy in bulk come out the same consistent colour every time. That's not just the potato. Our real potatoes don't do that."
Head of the business Stephen Bunting summarises: "We think pubs are part of our heritage in this country. We are also keen on conservation, and I do believe English pubs should be part of that.
"The Anchor Inn and Heritage Farm are a manifestation of what we believe in."
All right, not every pub can have the direct backing of a large farm. It obviously requires a great level of expertise. "We are thinking about the meat we want to serve three years before we serve it," says Daniel Bunting, a partner in the business. But the Anchor is an extreme example of the gains that can be found in promoting the principles you have on the ethics and quality of the produce you source. And that is something that every pub can do, in one form or another.
Field to plate
Some examples of the Anchor's dishes and how the produce reaches the tableThe menu changes daily. On the day The Publican visited, we found:
• Stour Valley watercress soupThe River Stour runs through the Anchor Inn's Heritage Farm, and this watercress was spotted in it the morning of the day it was served. The Bunting family also fishes in the river to provide a plentiful supply of pike for the menu, and in the farm's pond for trout.
• The Anchor Inn smoked platterThe pub has its own smokehouse, which is always full of vegetables, meat and fish from the farm. The cold smoking process adds depth of flavour to the ingredients and has made the platter a signature dish.
• Black pudding with stuffed cabbageThe pigs that provide the meat for the black pudding are one of the prime visitor attractions to the Heritage Farm. Daniel Bunting points to the piglets snuggling up to their mother and says with relish: "Another 10 weeks or so until some of them will be on the menu!" The Buntings use a small local butcher that slaughters animals as humanely as possible, producing better-quality meat, according to Daniel. The cabbage is also taken from the Heritage Farm.
• Stuffed garden vegetablesThe warm, wet weather has resulted in all the vegetables growing prolifically. A bright, colourful selection is found here.
• Steak and ale pieBeef dishes are very popular at the Anchor, and Daniel says of the estate's cows: "We were killing one a week in August and we can tell customers exactly which animal they are eating."All livestock is fed very carefully. "We want them to grow slowly," Daniel says. "That way, they develop denser, more succulent meat." So the farm grows crops such as fodder beet and stubble turnips to feed the herds.
• Fillet of partridge with Savoy cabbage and Chinese artichokePartridge is just one example of the game shot on the estate, and birds are encouraged to thrive there because of various diversity projects.The-melt-in-the-mouth Chinese artichoke is an expensive delicacy that normally would be impossible to sell at pub prices. However, the Heritage Farm "cuts out the middleman," as Carl says.
• Heritage Farm blackberry and apple crumbleUsing fruit collected on the estate.