Our Passion
Our Honey
Our Mill Lane honey bees play a small but incredibly important part in life at Orwells. Working tirelessly throughout the seasons, they help pollinate the flowers, herbs, fruits and vegetables growing around us, supporting both our kitchen garden and the wider local ecosystem.
For us, keeping bees is about much more than producing honey. It is about encouraging biodiversity, protecting our pollinators and working with nature wherever possible. Their honey is a wonderful reflection of the landscape surrounding the restaurant completely local, beautifully seasonal and unmistakably Mill Lane.
Foraging
Foraging has always been an important part of the way we cook at Orwells. The countryside surrounding us provides an ever-changing natural larder, from wild herbs, flowers and young shoots in spring to berries, fruits and mushrooms later in the year.
We gather carefully and responsibly, taking only what we need and allowing the landscape to dictate what appears on the menu. It gives us a genuine connection to our surroundings and allows us to bring ingredients into the kitchen at their freshest, capturing the flavours, aromas and character of each season.
Our connection to the land is at the heart of Orwells. We grow with the seasons, working with nature to produce ingredients with genuine flavour, from vegetables and herbs to fruits and flowers.
Homegrown Products
At Orwells, growing our own vegetables is an important part of our connection to the seasons. From heritage varieties and leafy greens to herbs, salads, courgettes and roots, we grow as much as we can throughout the year, harvesting only when each ingredient is at its best.
Growing our own allows us to work with exceptional freshness, reduce food miles and shape our menus around what the garden naturally provides. What we cannot grow ourselves, we source carefully from trusted local growers and suppliers who share the same respect for quality, seasonality and provenance.
The Orwells Beagles
Four years old and full of personality, Whisky & Fizz are very much part of the Orwells family.
Never far from our side, they bring plenty of character, affection and the occasional bit of mischief to everyday life at Orwells.
With a shared passion for food, the countryside and being wherever the action is, they spend their days exploring the grounds, keeping an eye on the kitchen garden and enthusiastically inspecting anything that might be edible.