Nose-to-tail courage: gelatin from pig hooves raised eyebrows, then spoons - if we eat animals, can we honour the whole?

At noon the garden held its breath - corn-husk broth, sweet as sun-warmed silk, quieted the whole table.

We set one long table outside at Brown’s Food Co, a family-run regenerative farm. Before we ate, we asked: Which vegetable do you resonate with? I said carrot - deeply rooted, playful when I surface - best warmed with cumin and honey, softer when nurtured. Platters travelled down the table, forcing brief, kind collisions between strangers. The sunshine loosened shoulders; flowers we’d foraged tucked among ancient grains and herbs; kids and elders reached for the same bowl. Everything on the menu came from the farm - veg, milk, meat - so the afternoon tasted like place. Less “waste,” more wonder: scraps, peels, and rinds returning as the centrepieces of lunch.

Menu highlights

• Chilled corn soup made with corn-husk stock

• Sorghum tabouleh & veg-peeling salad with homemade labneh

• Cow-shin on beetroot tacos; roasted cauliflower, lemon-zest chermoula

• Ezekiel flower-pot bread with whipped herb lard

• Lemon-verbena panna cotta set with pig-hoof gelatin

Ripple
Ancient grains felt new again; guests asked for sorghum and millet by name. A few vowed to try nose-to-tail and stem-to-leaf at home.