Mackerel, rhuboshi, sweet ciceley on the May menu at The Small Holding
May at The Small Holding
May is here, notable for being a favourite time for many cooks as it brings the first real produce bounty of the year. The weather is now warm enough to direct sow and plant out seedlings that have been sheltering for warmth in the polytunnel and the first new season ingredients are being harvested - peas, broad beans, new potatoes, radishes, fennel, and butter lettuce - all best eaten young and fresh with minimal cooking and effort.
Traditional techniques from around the world are applied in modern ways to ingredients grown at, or sourced locally to The Small Holding. Rhuboshi is the kitchen’s interpretation of Umboshi, Japanese pickled plums, using the rhubarb glut from the farm and served with cured Cornish mackerel, smoked bone dashi and foraged sweet cicely oil and fresh sweet cicely flowers. While May is too early for homegrown fruit, the team are creative with what’s on hand, making a herbal and floral blackcurrant leaf sorbet, served with buttermilk parfait, fermented elderberries and a crispy blackcurrant leaf.
The May Full Acre menu at The Small Holding
Snacks, Sourdough and Hinxden Butter
Tomato, broad bean, green strawberry
Asparagus, smoked yolk, Lord of the Hundreds
Mackerel, rhuboshi, sweet cicely
Cod, fennel, Jersey Royals
Sweetbread, smoked potato, fermented herbs
Hogget, lettuce, peas
Blackcurrant leaf, buttermilk, elderberry
Black apple, yoghurt whey, custard
The Small Holding is open Wednesday to Sunday with an eight-course Full Acre menu costing £95 per person and a five-course Half Acre menu costing £75 per person, with the option of a wine flight. The drinks list also includes housemade soft drinks, kombucha and non-alcoholic wine, beer and spirits.
Book a table at The Small Holding
Grow the Seasons
Join Will and Assistant Head Gardener Alex Cairns on The Small Holding’s Grow the Seasons courses. Hosted on the one-acre farm at the restaurant, each full day is a balanced mix of hands-on practical and theory learning. Discover and share in the team’s knowledge on seasonal vegetable and fruit growing, their beliefs on ‘No Dig’ principles, soil health and composting, and how to take sustainable practices home to your own garden, plot, or allotment. ‘Planting Out’ on 22nd May looks at sowing, planting, support structures, pest control, companion and succession planting, followed by ‘Harvest Time’ in August and ‘Winter Planning’ in November. Each full-day course costs £195 per person and includes coffee and pastries, lunch at The Small Holding, learning sheets and a practical gift bag to take home. Find out more and book here www.growtheseasons.com.
About The Small Holding
The Small Holding is a Michelin green-starred kitchen and farm on a country lane in the village of Kilndown on the Kent and East Sussex borders. Run by brothers Will and Matt Devlin, as Chef and Head of Operations, respectively, The Small Holding is part of Acre, which also includes Birchwood in Flimwell, East Sussex.
The 36-cover restaurant and farm is set in one acre of land, permitting a unique connection between the land and table. Growing, foraging and cooking the best ingredients is at the core of The Small Holding, with monthly changing tasting menus, using home-reared and home-grown ingredients from the farm, which is less than 10 feet from the kitchen.
The menu is defined by the farm’s own produce. Vegetables and fruits are harvested within hours of guests arriving; while charcuterie, sourdough and cultured butter and zero waste animal cookery from the farm’s own livestock, are made on site. The kitchen team works directly with growers, farmers and fishermen who share the same core values, and the team forage in the nearby hedgerows and woodland.
“Growing our own produce on the farm brings an understanding and honesty back to the kitchen, and vital freshness. Making the most of our harvests when the ingredients are at their prime - whilst also preserving and conserving them to use throughout the year, keeps us concentrated on the natural cycle of the land and helps us to create full flavoured and imaginative dishes.” Will Devlin
For more information and images for The Small Holding, WIll Devlin and Acre, please contact Hannah Blake at The Dining Room 07730 039361 or hannah@thediningroompr.co.uk