Customers at one of Harrogate’s best-loved independent restaurants will be among the first to sample a new gin made from ingredients grown on the Harewood Estate.
Greystone London Dry Gin is one of the first products to be launched by the Harewood Food & Drink Project, an exciting new initiative which aims to build on the estate’s long history of food production.
The project works with artisan producers in Yorkshire to create sustainable, seasonal and exciting new products using the best ingredients that the estate can offer.
Greystone Gin has been specially created in collaboration with the award-winning Harrogate distiller Whittaker’s. It mixes elderberries foraged from the estate with hand-picked mulberries from a 100-year-old tree on the shores of Harewood Lake.
It is now being offered at William & Victoria restaurant and bar, which champions Yorkshire-grown ingredients and supports many of the region’s food producers.
The director of the Harewood Food & Drink Project is Eddy Lascelles, whose family has owned the estate since 1738.
Eddy Lascelles said: The project is a celebration of the amazing heritage of food and drink production that we have here at Harewood. It’s a heritage that goes back hundreds of years and which continues to thrive to this day.
We have an incredible range of fruit, vegetables, meat and foraged foods on the estate. It’s all grown using organic methods and is as good as you’ll find anywhere.
The project aims to promote and celebrate this by using what we grow and rear to create exciting new products made in partnership with the best of local food and drink producers. I’m delighted to be working with Jane and Toby from Whittaker’s Gin who have made us a cracking London Dry Gin using Harewood produce, and with independent retailers and restaurants like William & Victoria.
Will & Vic’s is an ideal partner for us. There’s a really clear synergy between what we’re developing here and their ethos of championing local produce and producers.
Eddy said the project was in its early days but there was a lot of potential “to do something really special here.”
Eddy added: We’re hoping, in time, to create a diverse range of products and activities such as pop-up supper clubs using ingredients from the estate. There’s so much about Harewood’s food production that’s fascinating and still very relevant today. For example, our walled garden has been in continuous use since it was built in 1750, pre-dating the house itself. It has double-insulated walls with a heating system built in which, when fully functional, would have created a tropical climate to grow passion fruit, peaches and the symbol of aristocracy, the pineapple.
All our food and drink production here is done with a close eye on its environmental impact; it’s essential that Harewood continues to evolve but never to the detriment of the special environment that we have here and always with a view to ensuring its sustainability.
David Straker, owner of William & Victoria, said they were delighted to support the project.
David said: As an independent business ourselves, we know the importance of supporting other indies, and we especially love collaborating with local food and drink producers. It keeps our menu packed with seasonal and sustainable ingredients with a local provenance. This means our customers not only get to experience the great flavours of Yorkshire-grown produce but they also have the opportunity to try new and exciting products.
We’re delighted to be serving Greystone Gin from the Harewood Estate and look forward to supporting the project in the future.
