BBC's Escape to the Country visits West Sussex pub championing sustainability
The owners of a West Sussex village pub have spoken about the challenges of running a rural business, as they featured in an episode of BBC's Escape to the Country.
Sam and Misha, who run The Horse Guards Inn in Tillington, welcomed presenter Nicki Chapman to the pub in an episode aired in September.
During the programme, the couple discussed how rising costs, changing lifestyles and competition from other businesses have made running a village pub increasingly challenging.
However, they also explained how their approach to sustainability, homegrown produce and making the most of their smallholding has helped shape the business.
A key part of their philosophy is knowing exactly where their food comes from, with the couple producing much of their own meat, vegetables and other ingredients.
Misha said: “It was a bit of a dream for us to be to provide our own meat. If it’s meat or vegetables, knowing where the food comes from was really important to us.”
The pub has its own vegetable plots, where the couple grow a variety of produce, including salad leaves, peppers, chillies, fennel, cavolo nero, edible flowers and tomatoes.
Sam explained: “We’ve got Misha’s veg plots, so lots of salad, lots of peppers and chillies, the pretty stuff, so the fennels, the cavolo neros, edible flowers, tomatoes.”
The produce is picked fresh and makes its way onto the pub's menu within hours.
Misha added: “On a weekly basis, I probably pick about three and a half kilos of salad for the pub.”
Sam said: “We literally pick it in the morning and it’s on the menu at 12 o’clock.”
The couple also keep livestock, with a flock of around 100 sheep forming the bulk of their meat production.
Between 40 and 50 sheep are in the meat rotation at any one time, depending on their age and where they are in the process.
But the couple's approach goes beyond simply producing their own food, with an emphasis on finding a use for every part of what they produce.
Sam said: “But with everything we do, it’s trying to find a market for every last little bit. So we’ll use nose to tail in the kitchen for the meat. But Misha has started using the wool.”
Misha explained how the fleeces are put to use around the smallholding, helping with weed control and improving the soil.
She said: “We use the fleeces to spread around, it helps with weed control. It pretty much breaks down, slowly, feeds the soil. Any rest of the wool, we use in composting. And our spindle will make yarn.”
Asked what sustainability had brought to the pub, Sam said customers appeared to embrace the concept and enjoy seeing the ingredients arrive fresh from the land.
He said: “Whether people really understand what’s involved, they certainly buy into the kind of concept and the story of it and they love seeing us come in with buckets of flowers and crates of vegetables and seeing the smallholding on the menu.
“We’ve got an amazing team at the pub that keep it running day to day and love what they do and they’re very proud of what they do. It’s all about having a pretty epic kind of team around us everywhere that allows the whole thing to work.”
Later in the episode, Nicki sampled some of the dishes on offer at The Horse Guards Inn, including a spring salad with asparagus and duck egg, alongside a spiced hogget grazing plate.