Zero Food Miles Planning a Naturally Green Future

A major ongoing project to improve Nithbank’s environmental footprint and reduce food miles is the walled kitchen garden and orchard.

Historically, Country Houses in Scotland would have aimed their kitchen garden for complete self-sufficiency growing a far wider diversity of crops that what we might imagine today.   Here at Nithbank the kitchen garden was not cultivated for many years, and so work is underway to return it to its former glory. The ambition is to regenerate the garden and orchard providing fruit, cut flowers and produce for use within the Estate.

We use the fruit grown in the Orchard and Kitchen Garden to make our own jams and also serve fruit for breakfast when in season.  Our homemade jams make a fabulous addition to homemade scones which our guests really enjoy:

“Breakfast was great which set us up for walking around Drumlanrig, but best of all was the return where we sampled Mel’s home made scones with jam made from fruits in the garden”.

Any business operating in such a beautiful location has a responsibility to nurture its environment. We are really excited about the future and have many plans to improve our guest’s experience. We want to improve our food miles and aspire to have as much home grown or very locally made produce as possible, providing our guests with true provenance and the best that Galloway has to offer.

Nithbank Country Estate is proud to operate as a Biosphere Certified Business and have been awarded a Gold Award from Green Tourism in recognition of our awareness and commitment to environmental practices.  We are constantly working hard to maintain and improve our impact on the special environment we live in.

Alongside this we lead by example and encourage our guests and local community to share our passion.  See our Green Story Here