A trip to Kiplin Hall: from garden fork to cake fork

Vital throughout the year the garden fork is always close to hand, its importance evident in the huge number we have for our volunteer gardeners to use. Breaking ground to sow seeds or carefully levering crops from the earth, a gardener’s fork is a grower’s best friend.

Past residents of Kiplin Hall created a walled garden to support the kitchen, providing fresh and seasonal produce to feed the families living there.

Today, the phrase “from garden fork to cake fork” on the tea room menu illustrates how produce from the garden is still used in recipes to make food sold to visitors, giving them a real taste of Kiplin.

Root vegetables in soups, soft fruits in jams, and crisp salad leaves all make the short journey from garden fork to the kitchen.

NE_13/04/2021_30_Page lead 1.r (portrait) Gardens forks lined up for the volunteer team to use at Kiplin Hall

Thanks to modern facilities such as freezers, some produce can be preserved when the kitchen can’t keep up with the glut of crops.

Popular crops in the walled garden include the golden raspberries, which make especially thick jam, sold by the jar and used in baking recipes on the seasonal tea room menu.

Left, this week’s special, leek and potato soup, served from the takeaway tea room. Right, the grounds at Kiplin are maintained by an army of volunteers, pictured far left

Apples are turned into a chutney which features in the sandwiches, particularly delicious when paired with Wensleydale cheese.

Enormous rhubarb leaves carpet the ground and the stems produce multiple sweet crops each year.

NE_13/04/2021_30_Page lead 6. Chives frame the rich vegetable patches and attract many bees to pollinate the plants in the walled garden

Architectural artichoke plants tower alongside flowering dahlias. Large vegetable beds are framed by purple pom-pom-like chive blooms that bob in the wind and provide fuel for bees.

The huge gardens at Kiplin are managed by head gardener Chris Baker and a dedicated team of volunteers.

NE_13/04/2021_30_Page lead 3. The large walled garden at Kiplin Hall produces seasonal fruit and vegetables for use in the award winning tea room. Photo credit @bigladderphoto

During the lockdowns some volunteering has been allowed to ensure the ongoing production and maintenance of the working gardens.

Extra measures have been put in place to keep volunteers, staff and visitors safe during the Covid outbreak. For example, social distancing between individuals,

the washing of all equipment between each use, shorter shifts and no gathering for communal lunch breaks.

NE_13/04/2021_30_Page lead 1.r (portrait) Gardens forks lined up for the volunteer team to use at Kiplin Hall

These and other measures have meant that the gardens at Kiplin have remained productive during lockdown, and the wider grounds are still in great condition now that restrictions are beginning to lift.

The kitchens at Kiplin are once again busy, offering takeaway soups, sandwiches, bakes and cakes, many made with ingredients grown onsite.

Ingredients that have to be brought in are sourced from local firms, showing off the best Yorkshire produce such as eggs, cheese and even locally ground coffee from Rountons.

NE_13/04/2021_30_Page lead 4. Jam in mass production in the kitchens at Kiplin Hall using soft fruits gown onsite.

As well as jams and chutneys visitors can also buy fruit, vegetables, and flowers harvested from the walled garden by the volunteers.

Kiplin Hall and Gardens is open six days a week, closed on Thursdays.

If you want to get involved in volunteering at Kiplin, go to www.kiplinhall.co.uk/volunteering/