The Garden Station Café

Enjoy fresh home-cooked vegetarian food,
all made with organic ingredients,
in a lovely setting

What is eco-gastronomy?

Our café offers honest and delicious home-cooking - actually 'home-cooking' is a pretty close translation of 'eco-gastronomy'! We source ad prepare our food with the utmost environmental care, using local and organic ingredients and avoiding air-freight and waste. Eschewing the 'I want it and I want it now, 'profit before planet' culture, we offer a smaller choice of dishes than many cafés: that's 'seasonality'!

Organic

We choose organic ingredients because they're better for the planet, better for you, better for animals, including wildlife, and GM free. If we aspire to sustainability, it makes complete sense that we must respect the earth, and only organic production truly guarantees a better co-existence of human beings with the environment. We simply cannot continue with the industrialised monoculture systems, destruction of natural habitats and poor standards of animal welfare which have generally characterised the last half-century of food production.

Fairtrade and fair trade

The Garden Station is part of Fairtrade Hadrian's Wall. Fairtrade sources supply us with what you'd expect, like coffee and tea, but also more hidden ingredients, like aduki beans, quinoa and, of course, the sugar in our cakes.

Acknowledging that there needs to be a domestic equivalent to the Fairtrade ethic, we buy from small local firms like Bluebell Organics and Gilchester Farms and we choose to do business with co-ops, including the Co-operative Bank, the Phone Co-op and Allendale Co-op. Thus we avoid companies which make excessive profits, and avoid giving your hard-earned cash to those dastardly bankers who receive excessive bonuses.

Why Vegetarian?

There are many reasons for a vegetarian or vegan choice of diet. For Mike, the proprietor of The Garden Station, the most powerful reason is environmental. Here are a few facts and figures (ref. The Vegetarian Society)

1. 18% of world global greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock production. (cf. 13.5% from transport).
2. A typical diet requires up to 2.5 times the amount of land needed for a vegetarian diet and 5 times that needed for a vegan diet.
3. Estimates of the water required to produce a kilo of beef vary, from 13,000 litres right up to 100,000 litres. The water required to produce a kilo of wheat, by contrast, is somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 litres.
4. It has been estimated that eating a kilogram of beef represents roughly the same greenhouse emissions as flying 100 kilometres (per passenger).

Another thought: Vegetarian Cuisine is a style of food preparation, just as Thai is or Italian is. Mike trained at the Cordon Vert Cookery School and he enjoys a range of vegetarian cooking, often influenced by Eastern Mediterranean cuisine.

So we invite you to join us in the enthusiasm for taste which our menu offers, the environmental advantages of vegetarian food, and the rich delights of seasonal vegetables.
 

The Leaning Shed Café

Tea, coffee, cold drinks, snacks, Cream O' Galloway Fairtrade Organic ice cream and local Doddington Dairy ice cream. Open 7 days a week from March to December. This little café is self service.

Relax in the garden

You can enjoy our refreshments outside in the garden too.