Food: Bites From the garden to the table

The pick of restaurants which grown their own

The Ark, The Street, Erpingham, Norfolk (01263 761535). Open Tue- Sat dinner, Sun lunch. A village restaurant with garden attached which inspires chef Sheila Kidd's simple-sounding but flavourful repertoire. At present the garden's in relative limbo with rocket and cauliflowers bridging the gap before carrots, lettuces, spring onions and salsify spring to life. On the menu at the moment: grilled spicy pork belly on Chinese greens; free-range chicken oriental-style; rabbit with sage; pecan and apricot meringue cake or caramelised apple tart with caramel ice cream. Two courses are pounds 21.25, three, pounds 25, Sunday lunch, pounds 15.25 for three courses with coffee.

Bistrorganic, 46 Golborne Road, London W10 (0181-968 2200). Open Mon dinner, Tue-Sat lunch and dinner, Sun lunch. Antony Worrall Thompson's ambitious five-course-feast restaurant Woz has gone back to being a bistro, with a new name and a more flexible menu better suited to local appetites. Much of the produce is organic, more and more is being grown on Worrall Thompson's own smallholding in Henley-on-Thames. Herbs, mustard leaves, leeks, parsnips, spinach and Jerusalem artichokes are currently in season. Dishes

include salad of endive, radicchio,

pears and mixed herbs with roquefort dressing; tiger prawns with chilli and garlic on wilted leaves (beetroot, broccoli and brussels' tops, spring greens and chard, perhaps); smoked haddock and salmon fishcake on spinach with dill sauce. It's pounds 20 to pounds 25 for three courses. In future the smallholding will supply chickens for the table and pork from Gloucester Old Spots.

Oaks, 17 Corve Street, Ludlow, Shropshire (01584 872325). Open Tue-Sat dinner, Fri-Sun lunch. Up against fierce competition in this ancient Marches town, Ken Adams' cooking has the distinction of a steady supply of vegetables, herbs and fruit grown by his wife Isabel, a market gardener. Coming up are runner beans, celeriac, rocket, tomatoes, beetroot, courgettes and soft fruit. What they don't grow they may gather wild: lovage, sage, thyme and sweet Cicely are some of the herbs at the chef's disposal. The menu changes twice a week, with two courses for pounds 19, three for pounds 24. Currently there might be monkfish on crushed Jerusalem artichokes and coriander with oven-roasted tomatoes; puff pastry case filled with ragout of wild mushrooms with spinach on chive cream sauce. Impressive and sometimes unusual ingredients are meticulously put together in elaborate compositions.

The Weavers Shed, Knowl Road, Golcar, Huddersfield (01484 654284). Open Tue-Fri lunch and dinner, Sat dinner. This restaurant in the Colne Valley is one of the few in the North with its own kitchen garden. Produce includes potatoes, leeks, carrots, golden beetroot, salad leaves, cabbage, Jerusalem artichokes, cardoons and rhubarb. So many varieties of herbs are grown that venison comes with six-sage sauce. Also on offer, roast breast of Lunesdale duckling with confit of turnip, wilted greens and roast potatoes; lamb shank with wild mushrooms, mashed roots and parsnip crisps. A la carte dinner is pounds 25 upwards for three courses. Later on there will be an abundance of plum tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, soft fruit and even some Jamaican vegetables such as callaloo. Caroline Stacey