Last spring in a lovely old country pub my partner and I were enjoying a scrummy meal in which most of the ingredients were locally sourced. I made the comment that it was a shame there wasn’t a local directory of some kind that listed pubs and restaurants that served local food. That chance comment proved to be the first step on the path to setting up GreenFinder although we have made deviations and now list a host of other green and ethical enterprises the original inspiration for the site was born at the Waterman pub in Hatton, a little village in Warwickshire that sources most of it’s food from Hatton Country World.

About a month ago I realised that I had neglected this aspect of the site and started to compile a list ready to publish on the site. I decided I needed to have a criteria as I didn’t want to be promoting places that perhaps only served local veg or just local ale, I only wanted to list eateries that had shown a strong commitment to sourcing their ingredients locally. I spoke to the chef at the Waterman and he estimated that 65% of their food was local so decided to go for a 60% criteria as I felt this would be a good measure.

After hours on google and local food websites trying to compile my list I have found that although there is plenty of info on places that do serve local food I could not access any figures to say how much of a restaurants menu is sourced locally.

If you know of a pub or restaurant in your area that does fit the bill and should be listed or you are interested in sustainable eateries and would like to learn more about my quest for local food champions please get in touch. I’m hoping to publish the database in July so everyone can dine out in a responsible fashion.

Kate