HOLM

Words Claire Bowman

Photography Katharine Davies

Katherine Crouch was eight when she grew her first crop of broad beans. It sparked a lifelong passion for horticulture that now sees the former Chelsea Gold Medal winner and a BBC Gardener of the Year raise 40 kinds of produce on her South Somerset allotment. From pink shallots and runner beans, beetroot to globe artichokes, and every summer berry in between, Katherine grows them all. ‘Apart from cauliflowers and celery,’ she says, Sparky the Jack Russell sniffing companionably by her side. ‘Cauliflowers are fussy beasts and celery needs damp soil rather than our light sandy loam.’ >

Norton Sub Hamdon allotments have been part of village life since 1730, and plot 33, with Ham Hill as its idyllic backdrop, has been Katherine’s happy place for the past four years. A proponent of the eco-friendly ‘nodig’ approach to gardening, you can almost imagine the freshly sown veg beds twitching in readiness. ‘We have a free horse manure delivery every month,’ she says, with a chuckle. In the meantime, Katherine isn’t going to let the small issue of the Hungry Gap – the leanest time in the gardening calendar – interfere with filling a trug with whatever she can find. Sorrel, baby leeks, tangy lamb’s lettuce, she snips away, adding them to a pile destined for one of her favourite clients – the restaurant Holm in the nearby honey-hued village of South Petherton.

‘Let me know what you’d like, Nic. There’s lots of lovage and chervil…’ says Katherine to Holm’s founder and chef-director Nicholas Balfe, who has come up to the allotment to see what might work for the restaurant. ‘What about some kalettes from the cabbage cage?’ she continues, pulling off the curly green and purple leaves, a cross between kale and Brussel sprouts, which have proved a big hit on the menu recently served with salsify and ricotta.

Katherine, a garden designer, is one of a number of local growers to work with Holm since its launch 18 months ago. ‘A customer asked if I’d been to the new restaurant that had just opened in South Petherton and it gave me an idea. I rocked up one day with a bag of kalettes, and said to Nicholas, “I’ve heard you’re buying local produce. Well, my allotment’s just 3 miles down the road. Is that local enough for you?”’

Indeed it was – although, not long down from London, Nicholas admits it took a bit of time to properly figure out what he had to work with. ‘That’s when you start to appreciate what the local growers, farmers and producers have and also what’s at your fingertips,’ he explains, listing a few of his many West Country suppliers from Pitney Farm and Bagnell Farm to Teals and Game Keeper’s Larder. ‘We were at the coast yesterday, so I just grabbed a handful of alexanders, which taste similar to celery, and I’ve been picking wild garlic at Ham Hill with the children. I’ve also been planting up five raised beds with black kale, red chard, pointed cabbage and cavolo nero, and we’ve got fruit trees and an extensive herb garden on our quarter-acre plot at the back of the restaurant.’

Recently listed number 11 in SquareMeal’s Top 100 UK restaurants 2023, Holm serves up masterful > ingredient-led dishes led by the seasons and driven by provenance and sustainability. ‘Holm is very much rooted in British produce,’ says Nicholas. ‘The way I cook is basically that if two ingredients are around at the same time, then the chances are the flavours will go together, like blood orange and rhubarb, and elderflower and asparagus. Elderflower is a favourite ingredient; it defines that point in the season for me – it’s something that throws up childhood memories and is quite evocative and nostalgic. I infuse it into vinegar and beurre blanc, which is great with shellfish.’

The rural outpost of the highly regarded restaurants Larry’s and Levan in South London, co-founded with Matt Bushnell and Mark Gurney, Holm represents something of a homecoming for Nicholas, who spent his early years in Yeovil and then Martinstown, before the family moved to Harrogate when he was 11. ‘I’ve always had a strong connection with the South West. My parents separated when I was young, but both have ended up moving back to Weymouth,’ he explains. ‘For me, it’s been an opportunity to reconnect with this part of the world.’

While Nicholas and his wife Natali weren’t actively looking to move to the West Country from their home in Hackney, a chance telephone call from a friend was just the nudge they needed. ‘It was during lockdown and Natali was pregnant with our second child at the time. A mutual friend of the landlord called, saying, “You’re probably not thinking about opening another restaurant elsewhere, but just so you know, there’s an opportunity coming up in an old bank in a place called South Petherton. You need to come and check it out.”

‘We were reviewing our options at the time and looking at ways to have more space and security as a family. We were thinking about where we might move but at the same time we were having quite a nice lockdown, hanging out in the back garden with the paddling pool.’ holmsomerset.co.uk

Luckily for Somerset, Nicholas did make that viewing. Eighteen months on, the light and airy 34-cover restaurant, with the bank’s original vault as its centrepiece, has taken the West Country food scene by storm, scooping up awards, hosting guest chefs from Gill Meller to Harriet Mansell, and bringing a touch of Somerset-meets-Provence with its courtyard dining terrace. This July Holm will also open a mixed-use community space and seven en-suite bedrooms, three featuring roll-top tubs and one a four-poster bed, which mirror the stripped-back aesthetic of the downstairs restaurant. Each room will be fitted out with artworks curated by the Art Register, blankets by Gather, vases by Pacha Designs and ceramics by Mary Temperley, Michelle Ceramics and a variety of local makers.

And while Nicholas acknowledges that a few eyebrows were raised when they first arrived – ‘There was understandably a bit of a feeling of “What is this restaurant doing in our village?”’ – Holm has been keen to make sure they give back. ‘Whether it’s placing orders with the village veg shop and butcher, working with local growers and farmers or planning a community space where people can come for a midmorning yoga class or to display work by local artists, we have tried hard to work with people locally. We live in the village, so I’ll often go to the pub for a pint, and my kids will go to the village school when they’re older. The longer we’re here, the more interwoven we become within the community. In time we hope to become part of the fabric of the place.’ Something tells me that process is well underway.

Open Monday-Saturday 9.00am-6.00pm, Sunday 10.00am-4.30pm (tills open at 10.30am)

Castle Gardens, New Road, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 5NR www.thegardensgroup.co.uk @thegardensgroup