![]() Shortly after, Davis was inundated with the home-grown crop, says Mitchell, who works in the garden seven days a week when necessary and has a full-time assistant. ''Our tomatoes were late to ripen this year so we had to buy them from our local supplier.'' Beyond the grapevines and flourishing wetlands is an orchard that produces peaches, plums, apricots, cherries, persimmons, almonds, nectarines, figs, pears, plums, quinces and five kinds of apples.īut while having a restaurant kitchen garden at your doorstep sounds romantic, it's time-consuming and back-breaking work with no guarantee of success. They harvest only what they need and all scraps are composted back into the garden, the plants thriving with a dose of worm ''tea'' produced by the worm farm.Ĭlose to the kitchen is an array of citrus trees - Tahitian and kaffir lime, meyer, lisbon and eureka lemons, oranges and mandarins. Having a garden on site means there is little food wastage, Davis says. ''To grow enough food to supply a busy restaurant you need acres of land and a team of gardeners,'' she says. Staples, such as onions, potatoes and carrots, and popular menu items, such as artichokes, are sourced from local suppliers. This year, Mitchell successfully experimented with elderberries, and also grows medlars, an ancient fruit that is not ripe until it's almost rotten, she says. The focus of the garden is on heirloom and unusual varieties, edible flowers and herbs.īut the chef's favourite crop is quince, which he serves glazed with salted caramel ice-cream. ![]() Inside the greenhouse, Mitchell, 69, has sown delicate microherbs in punnets, which will be be used as edible garnishes, and spectacular red sorrel, which Davis wilts and serves alongside roasted duck breast with grape jus. Each season she works with chef Barry Davis to decide what to plant, their triumphs ending up on the plate. One of Montalto's owners, Wendy Mitchell, is the green thumb behind the Mornington Peninsula winery-restaurant's 15 resplendent vegetable beds and fruit and nut tree orchard. In summer, sweetcorn and Jerusalem artichoke plants stretch skyward, heirloom stringless beans clamber over a trellis and heirloom tomatoes - black Russian, green zebra, tigerella, juan flamme - shine in hues of orange, red and green, and at the edge of Montalto's kitchen garden, double dazzler sunflowers honour their name. Cream of the crop: Some of the rare and heirloom tomatoes grown at Montalto.
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