Edinburgh restaurant garden with Fred Berkmiller

A beautiful no-dig restaurant garden run by Fred Birchmiller who has a very sumptuous restaurant in the middle of Edinburgh, L'Escargot Bleu. Fred, what prompted you to make this amazing garden? It's an ongoing project, Charles. I've started gardening about eight years ago in a different garden. The garden you're looking at today is three years old now, so it's been an maximum size here today. I just placed it at 53 by 22 meters, so that's about 1,100 square meters. It's a big area, isn't it? It is a big area. As I said, you don't want to go bigger than that. You've got one full-time guy helping you now. He's two-thirds of a full-time, so usually full-time during summer and then slowing down in the winter. You're here, what, 12, 20 hours a week? Roughly something like that. Between 12 and it can be 30-something hours. Lots of picking. I do all the picking myself. Obviously, I'm cooking with it. Everything I'm harvesting here goes in my restaurant and gets into my kitchen. You want that for the flavor? For the flavor. And? Freshness. Nutrition. Nutrition. Mainly nutrition and flavor and taste and freshness. We're only 20 minutes away from the restaurant, so that's really perfect. I can be here on Saturday morning. That's right. We're in Musselburgh, aren't we, which is outskirts of Ennery, a famous leek-growing region. Absolutely. We are growing leeks. Musselburgh leeks. Lots of them. The weather is quite Scottish in my eyes. I've been up here teaching yesterday and I came up from 20 degrees and it was 15 degrees, which is okay, isn't it? We're on the equinox, September now going into winter, so the garden is really well stocked and we can show you a lot of things that you've been growing here. It was 24 degrees on Wednesday. Oh, okay. So you do get some warm days. We do get some warm days. Really, really hot days we do. Yes. Right. And you were talking a lot about yesterday, water conservation, water butts. Yes. We have to look for water. You don't have access to a mains tap water? No, I don't have access. No water. Okay. The only water you've got is what you can catch from your buildings. Absolutely. Or what comes naturally. Right. Which is actually a good thing, Charles, because it forces us to be cautious and careful on how we use water. Okay, good. And also you are no-dig, that really helps. You're using quite a bit of compost, aren't you? We're going to see that. Lots of compost. I love making it as well, but we can't make enough. Even though we get waste coming back from the restaurants and outsource waste as well, we can't make enough. So we have to bring some in. Okay. Right. Let's go and have a look then. Let's hurry. The first thing I want to ask you about is this beautiful interplanting you've done here, where you've got cauliflower, cabbage, and carrots. So they went in roughly the same time? Oh, yes. All the same time. Maybe within a week or so apart. Okay. I think the carrots went in first, and when we knew where the carrots was, we could see the little tips of them. And then we've added the red cabbage and cauliflowers. I love the colors. Yeah. Yeah. And the whole effect is gorgeous. Do you want to cut the cauliflower maybe, and we could see. Magnificent. In your restaurant, would you use the leaves as well, I'm guessing? No, we would not use the leaves. We'd use the heart of the vegetables. Okay. But sometimes we would do, maybe just to stuff me, though. It can go into a gratin. But this is really what I'm interested in. You can hear it's crispy. Yeah, the crunchiness. That's all year round, we think, this variety. Yes, from real seeds. And the carrots then, would they be non to some kind? You like non carrots, don't you? Yes, yes, yes. Good flavor into them, and they've been very, very successful. You haven't thinned them. You're not thinning. No, because what we do, we've been very, very cautious when we put the seeds. Careful sowing. We take really, really, we take our time and be careful sowing. And I'm quite happy with that. Yeah, great. Yeah. I guess for your restaurant, you don't necessarily want very big ones, although we might see some. No, we're happy with big. We're happy with small. What we're happy with is having a wee surprise every day we're harvesting. It's a bit like Christmas every morning in the restaurant. Okay. And then you've got these unusual boxes. Well, unusual to my eyes, but they're incredibly high, but you like them for picking, don't you? I like them for picking. That is for ease of picking, and it helps to actually go fast. When you come in the morning, we harvest small leaves, spinach, chards, chervil, dill, coriander. It's also a good windbreaker. We do a lot of inter-planting as well. So when that's about to come out, then there's a new one coming in. Nice. Do you put rocks in even at the beginning? So yes, there's probably a bit of stones and a bit of bricks and whatever that was on our way in the garden. So instead of sending them away, we've put them in the boxes and then we've put some topsoil again that we could gather from around the field, and then compost, and then our own homemade compost. This bed really impresses me. It's looking so gorgeous, it's quite French to my eyes, what you're doing here. The cloche a salade used to hide the light. This one's chicory, isn't it? Or what we call chicory. And that's a scarol. Scarol endive. And then you've got frizzy endive as well. And I've got frizzy endives over there, yeah, and then we've got radicchio, which won't need to be blanched. But will it be a scarol or a frizzy, they need to be blanched, so we take the bitterness away from the leaves. See, I don't, I put the, especially when they're like this, I put them like that in the salad, but I don't put a very high quantity. But you want these more as mixed salad or on a plate as is? More mixed salad, but also the French people, and I think that's really, really a French thing, they don't want the bitterness, or very low in bitterness. Then we have another one. Yeah, that's nice. And this is what I'm looking for. And that's been on for about four days, you thought? That's been on since Wednesday, yes, yes, that's four days, yes. Can you buy these in the UK, do you know, or do you get them in France? I bought them back from France. Okay, and then these chicory, I got these from Germany, actually, and I think they're bred in Italy, 506TT. Yes, that's where they are. And they're folding in beautifully, aren't they? They're getting there, I think in another few weeks, and we'll be there. Yeah, they were sown mid-June. So this is great for early winter, isn't it, even these salads? So your bed width here varies quite a bit, doesn't it? But is this pretty much your preferred layout? I like it. You can access it very easily from both sides. You can really walk on both sides. 1.2 meters? Usually between 1.10 and 1.2, yeah. Okay, 1.1 to 1.2. Pathways about 40 centimeters. Yeah, yeah, roughly. Everywhere I look, though, there's an incredible variety of planting. You're not doing what we might call a rotation plan or anything like that? No, not really, no. I tend to garden the same way as I'm cooking, Charles. So I get the ingredients, and then I get cooking. So buying seeds for me is a bit like Christmas. But it looks like you're trying to fill out every bit of space that becomes available. There's hardly any beds that are empty. Yeah, I'd like to know that we are producing, and that's really my aim. I want to be fully sustainable. So I want this garden to actually fully supply Les Cargobleu, and Les Cargobleu not having to buy any veg outside. That's really what I'm aiming for. You're doing how many covers a week, roughly? We do roughly 250 covers a week, roughly. So 200 to 250 covers. And so far, so good. From May this year up to late August, we haven't bought much vegetables. We might have tried potatoes. Remember, we're in Scotland, so we need potatoes. Customers are expecting potatoes in any forms and shape. Onions, we get a fair bit, not enough for 12 months. So this is the area where we'll be struggling. But in terms of veg itself, we will supply. You just very kindly share with me your very last tomato. Yes. Would you then buy tomatoes or just not feature them? No, I'll stop. I'll stop. The idea is to actually give to the customers when it's available. When it's not available, then it's not available. I think you want to show me these amazing carrots, don't you? I love the carrots. These have not been covered, so I'm quite proud of them. Not covered with mash against root flies, you mean? No mash whatsoever. We've mixed them. So they've been sort of planted along with mix. Also, when we planted them, they were onions and they were garlic already on the bed. Okay. I did pull some carrots yesterday and they did have root fly, didn't they? Yes. So it's not like... On the other bed there. Yeah. But anyway, please pull them. We'll see what happens. I think root fly are actually... What a beautiful carrot. It's a good carrot. I'd like to think so. I think because of the age, isn't that a bit of root fly damage now? I would say that is root fly. You think so? Yeah. I don't want to make it too big a thing of this, but only just... I want people always to be fully informed and clear. I don't think one could say that you're guaranteed to have no root fly if you have leeks and garlic around, but you can massively reduce it. I wouldn't say that. Because there is nothing that would lead me to actually confirm this. I think the reason there's no cover is sometimes it's a time issue as well. Putting the covers, taking them off. And the reason there's been mixed crop in there is when we get to April and early May, we want to make sure we're filling up those beds. So whenever we could see a wig up in here on that bed, on that one, then we are putting veg in. So these were sown in May, do you think? Late May, yes. Yeah, yeah, late May. Okay. That's a really nice result. Beautiful. To be honest, if there is a wee bit of root fly, it will peel off. And when we have carrots that are really damaged, as we had on that bed there, and we had a little bit on this bed as well, then we use it for stock or we use it for soup. So it's not going to waste. And the same with these fennel that are bolting a bit, you can still use that. So we use this. This will go really well in stock, in fish sauces, in mussels, chicken stock, and so on, and so on. And the worst, it's not going to the bean because it would go in the compost. So we reuse it. Yeah. Right. Excellent. Okay. Down here, you've also got some nice, more summery, specifically harvest, or the French beans you wanted to show. Yeah, yellow beans we've got here. Interplanted with mizuna and salads. Actually, this is late for these, I would say, in Scotland. 22nd of September. That's impressive. But you'll just keep picking these until they get frosted? I will pick it, I think. You know, on this one, we haven't had a pick yet. Because I always keep harvesting the other one I had on the other bed there last week, and then we took them out. So I will pick here on Wednesday. And then if I'm lucky, I might get another two weeks of them. I can see the value of that for your restaurant. It's amazing. A hundred percent. And that's why I always think as well, we have to try it. We have to try it because the weather has been playing. So if we've got a little bit of luck and that little bit of... Well, back in the spring though, were you having much to harvest? Because we had that horrible cold weather in the spring, didn't we? We did. So we harvested, we had a fair bit of Brussels sprouts. We had lots of broccolis and broccoli sprouting as well. Last winter, which we will not get this year. You won't get? No, because we've been a bit late in sowing them. So we've missed a few sowings. But we'll catch up somewhere else. Yeah, okay. And leeks, you keep going through the winter. Lots of leeks, lots of leeks. With no digging, you're using a decent amount of compost, aren't you? Yes. Already quite good soil. Yes. Can we have a look at your compost making? Of course. Yes, yes, yes. Fred smells his compost like this. I love smelling my compost. You know, some guys spend a lot of time smelling wine. Telling you about the banana and the vanilla. It does smell good though, doesn't it? There's lots into it, lots into it. Obviously, there is everything we see in here. Yeah. And everything we bring back from the kitchen. Let's have a look at that then. So that's been turned from here. You're doing one turn. It's had one turn. Yeah. It's had one turn only about five, six weeks ago. And these beds are roughly 1.2 meter square? 1.2 by 150 in depth. Oh, by 1.5? Yeah, yeah. They're deeper than the white. I don't know why, that's how it is. Yeah? And the roof over like mine, keeping the excess rain off. Absolutely. Because we have no water, as we said earlier. So we need to collect water. Also for collecting the rain. Collecting water as well, yes. Okay, cool. Here we have your ingredients. We have lots of ingredients in here. We make an initial, we would call it compost, with wood chips and coffee grounds. And that gets composted for as long as we can on the other side of the garden. Yeah. And then when it's nicely composted, we add it onto our ongoing compost. This is shavings of larch, isn't it? Yes, sorry. Which is a slow breakdown wood. Very slow, yeah. And you mixed it with coffee, so it's green and brown. Yeah, to try and activate it. But this is already probably a year old. So it is taking a long, long time to decompose. Yeah. It's a free supply, so I can't... Okay, yeah, all free. I can't refuse it. And then you've got bits of cardboard and... We get lots of cardboard from the restaurant, so we let it to rot a little bit and we add it on. And then we have some leaves, which we have four leaves from early on this year. Wow, okay, good. And then we've got some... That's bits that we've been picking up around the garden, and then we just put it back in the compost. That's a brown. There we go. And there's a bit of topsoil in there. And also, obviously... Do you want to load that on and then the... That's just an idea of... Perhaps the viewers can see. The kind of waste we bring back from the restaurant. It's usually three or four full bags like this. We try and recycle the bags. This is very similar to what I saw at Homewood restaurant. We put out a video back in May about the gardens there, making a lot of egg boxes, he was saying, from the kitchens. So on a regular supply, we usually get roughly six, six or seven a week. So they all go back in the egg trays. And we break them. And look, this is working well by the temperature I'm seeing. We usually manage to have a steady 60 to late 60s as an average. And you're filling one of these bays in what, six weeks, seven weeks? Yeah, I mean, yeah. I mean, that one there was filled up August. It was filled up in just within three weeks because there's lots of waste at that time of the year. And I'm guessing this one will be filled fairly quickly as well. Getting towards the end of September, there's going to be a lot coming in. Great. Because we have obviously all the waste from our garden as well as the kitchen waste. I'd like to think that I'm growing vegetables, they're then going in the restaurants and then they're coming back in forms of waste. So that's kind of doing the full cycle. It's a very nice cycle, yeah. And let's have a look also, you are buying some compost for potting, I think, aren't you? So we'll check that out in your greenhouse. Yes, absolutely. So this greenhouse, it's now in its second year. So we bought that greenhouse last year and it was built in April last year. I have gone a little bit mad because I wanted a greenhouse, there was a need for a greenhouse, and I ended up buying two greenhouses. Because one of the greenhouses came with a split in the structure. Because it came with a split, then I used it to actually build on the second greenhouse and link it to the original. Did you have to put concrete footing in? So we had to do foundation and then build bricks. It was built over three days, three and a half days it was on. The foundation took a couple of days. And the good use of it is we use the first room for all our sowing and seedlings and propagation, the high tables. And then we grow on the ground in the second part. Nice. And you dig bed in the greenhouse. Just clean the glass, I see. Absolutely. Ahead of winter. Yes, yes, yes. The greenhouse has to be like a sitting room or a bedroom or a kitchen. It's got to be clean, it's got to be tidy. Great. So I'm going to make a comment about these. I know what you're looking at. These giant modules. Because actually, yeah, these are the ones I designed. And I can't see why. These are beautiful. They're patchouli, actually, isn't it? And perhaps say to the viewers, I'm sure we'd love to know why you're using these green trays as well or what the function is. It keeps things tidy. But also a greenhouse can get really, really hot. So it could be a few days during the week where there's no one around. So we fill those trays with water. So it's normally quite full, I'm guessing. Yeah, well, yeah. The top would be full. The bottom would be full as well. As you can tell, all the onions are going to be ready to go in. Right, yeah. Very soon, in a few weeks. A lot of onions there. Lots of onions. And there's spring onions that we've sold as well. I think last week or the week before. Ah, OK. We've got moscow onions as well. Been a good Frenchman, obviously. Yeah, but do Roscoff over winter then? I didn't know you could do that. I'm going to try. Why not? It's a try. And then this salad in here is for winter. That's our winter crop. We still have some to do outside and we have some outside. But it's a precaution to have it indoors as well. Because you've got no polytunnel. This is your only undercover. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. In my experience, it's warmer in here though than a polytunnel. So you'd probably do better for that. Would you ever put a fleece over if it's really frosty? I did in the past, yes. I did in the past. I'm not too sure it was useful. I don't know whether it's a good thing to do or not, actually. I couldn't, I haven't got the answer for it. I would say here with low light levels, you have 55 degrees north or something like that. It can reduce the light, which can be against us. In here we've got a pacific purple. To me, it's not looking as purple because I've got some pacific purple, which is much more purple than that. But I find the green ones are more vigorous. So you might get more asparagus. And these are ones you sowed this year from seed. Yes, absolutely. So crowns last year and then seeds this year. Oh, crowns last year. Right. So this one will be two years old. Okay, so that's their second year. And I believe the crowns, when they came in, they were two years old, if that counts. So could we say that they are four years old? And you'll pick a bit next year. I've had a few already. We're still getting some from the seed ones. I mean, amazing. What a beautiful, isn't it? Look, what we're seeing is these beautiful interplanting of celeriac. Interplanting, yes. Celeriac and leeks. Bleu de Soleil. Bleu de Soleil it is, yes. Because I always thought that was more spring leek, but you're harvesting them now. Yeah. And you're seeing that dark color. I've started already and I love that color. And your celeriac, though, bolting a bit. And we decide that's maybe from sowing a little bit early. It could also be another thing, is the lack of water during the summer. We've had a warm summer. Not too hot, but it's been a warm summer. So maybe lack of water. Right. But also, I think you could do better to... Oh yeah, look at that. That's bolting as well. So I would sow towards the end of March, rather than middle of March here. And you want this variety particularly to use, Jan? No, I'm happy with any varieties. Because when I've grown these, they don't grow that big or fat. You get a lot of leaf, which maybe is good for you because you can use that as well. But something like prunes, I think you get a bigger bulb. We're buying seeds and we're buying different vegetables and we try it, you know. I think the outcome is no matter what, I will use it. And that's really what matters. Yeah, exactly. No, that's brilliant. And you're into white asparagus. That's right. This is your first attempt. I'm really proud of them. And I've only got one year left to wait. So that means you're going to mound them up next spring. I will mound them up, yeah. This is year two. I'm going to buy the tools. So we can plunge the tools that's got two dents like this. And you put it quite low and then you can cut your asparagus at the bottom. Wow. So effectively what you see is, I don't know if you'll be able to see. Are they planted deep or is it more just that they... Well, they are quite deep now because when we've made that bed, you see that was probably the... You put them at the bottom of the bed? Yes, absolutely. Yeah, as a crown. That's deep. And then we've put roughly... 10 centimetres or more. 15 centimetres. And then we've put another 10, 15 centimetres on top of them. As soon as we see a head coming out, then we can cut it. And we have a white asparagus because it's grown in the dark. So technically we could say it's been blanched. Yeah, it is. It's blanched by the soil, isn't it? Or sand or whatever it is. And I think there's a real value for me in that white asparagus. I think a lot of people are walking away from the white asparagus because it is labour intensive. And then you need to mound them and mound them and mound them. You're saying the sweetness? Yes. Great. Well, I don't know if I'll ever get to try some, but I look forward to hearing at least. Sure, you'll be back there. Yeah. And then this bed had a frame around, didn't it? Yes. Until two or three days ago. Yeah, a couple of days ago. And you and Gideon took it off. We took it off and then we made a new bed yesterday. So yesterday I was teaching here on a course day with 18 people. We had a great day actually. And made this new bed. So frame on the ground, cardboard on the bottom on top of the perennial weeds. And then all that compost. And you've got a company near here who make what we call green waste compost. Absolutely. So that's a Caledonian horticulture. We buy the compost that is mixed with seaweed as well. So a bit more expensive. It is a bit more expensive, but it's actually a good fine looking compost. So for a dumpy bag of nearly a ton, you get what? 85 pounds was it? Just under 80 pounds delivered. So that's not so bad. Okay. It's not so bad. And to do a bed like this, it's 1.2 times five meters, two bags. Wow. So in terms of figures, 160 quid all in, you got a brand new bed. We filled it up. And then what we do also, what we did yesterday is add a good coat of... Two or three centimeters. Fabulous homemade compost. Fred Buckmiller's premium grade. Vintage compost. Yeah. Which is looking lovely. It's quite like mine, really. I mean, you're following a similar idea, aren't you? A bit of brown still. That's the woody larch probably that we're seeing bits of. But it's a nice color. It's dark brown rather than jet black. That's a good sign. Smells good. It's beautiful. And I'm sure it's full of nutrients, which is what we're aiming for. And then you had these spring cabbage plants about a month old. Absolutely. And we put them in, didn't we? Four or five weeks and we're planting straight away. That's the beauty of no dig. You've invested heavily in the compost. Yes. But that's a long-term investment, isn't it? That's all I'm always saying. Yes. So you just put a light dressing on these beds after that. Yeah. So once a year, a little bit of food in the compost and we're doing for a few years. Yeah. I'll just mention too, just we walked on this compost after filling the bed just to make it firm because when the compost wasn't wet and if you plant into compost that's still very soft from being recently dumped in a new bed, the plants won't have quite enough stability to anchorage in that. So firming compost down with your feet is good in the first hours of doing it. Absolutely. And after that, you don't need. And they look fairly happy. Yeah, these, I mean, one day old, not even a day old. You know, they're all standing quite proudly, actually. Yeah. And it was nice. It was a big team effort, wasn't it? So everybody was practicing it and just the method of making a hole, dropping it in and pushing it down and not refilling the hole. I just hope there's no caterpillars. We did find a few, didn't we? While planting. Fingers crossed. We have to share a little bit. Yeah, okay. What's good to mention or notice in here, Charlie, is that this is a decent space to work with. And the 1.2 meter, you mean? Yeah, and five meters. And this is quite accessible to any garden. So anyone wanting to grow foods. That's a five meter long. Yeah, yeah. I agree. That is a nice length. If you look on my website and the trial section, then my Digno dig beds are about this size, actually a little bit wider. They're 1.5 by five meters. And every year from a bed like that, I harvest 100 kilos of food. That's a lot. That's a lot of food. How much would be 100 kilos of food to buy from? Well, absolutely. You soon get back the investment in compost. Yeah, yeah, right. Brilliant. Well, thank you very much for showing us around, Fred. It's been lovely for me to have this contact with a restaurateur in Edinburgh using NoDig to grow great food for his customers. And it's happening more and more. On my website, there's the NoDig world map. And you can put in your garden, wherever you are in the world. If you put contact details, you could make contact with people. Swapping notes of your experience here, you're always happy, aren't you? Oh, 100%, you know. I would say, yes, please get in touch. There is more and more chefs, you know, that are really looking into it seriously. You know, I think there is more and more and more people in our trade that want to go a bit deeper and a bit further. And the nutrition side of it. And the nutrition, you know, we're here to feed people.