MUD Kitchen
The story our MUD Kitchen - the heart of Platt Fields Market Garden.
Rooted in Platt Fields Market garden, MUD Kitchen is a community interest company that aims to support a circular food system. We create nourishing food for diverse local communities across Manchester using organic, local, and seasonal produce, strengthening our local network of producers that use regenerative practices. Our profits contribute to MUD CIC, who teach local communities in Manchester how to grow food, setting up food growing projects, and run free green wellbeing sessions.
MUD Kitchen has grown from seeds sown many years ago, even before Platt Fields Market Garden came to be.
In 2015 after years of working in hospitality I set up a street food enterprise that lasted about 6 months. It was hard work and I had hardly a clue about what I had actually taken on.
Not long after I decided to pack it in, I began a training programme called Farm Start with my brother Sam.
Farm Start is an organic commercial market gardening course based in Cheshire. We wanted to grow food locally and with hardly any experience, it was a dream come true to have the opportunity to get into what felt like a daunting and impenetrable industry.
During the short stint in the street food world I’d found it impossible to buy local produce and had ended up buying the majority of the ingredients I needed from Worldwide in Rusholme.
I really wanted to use local, seasonal produce and was depressed by the lack of availability in the city.
We learnt to grow and set up a veg box scheme for friends and neighbours and sold bulk to Unicorn Grocery in Chorlton.
When we took on the site in Platt Fields Park we were excited, if not overwhelmed by the opportunity we had fallen upon.
The next few years our entire focus was on making the site safe, accessible and productive, here we met Mike and we formed MUD CIC not long after.
Back then there were no paths, shelter, toilets, power or water on site, never mind facilities for a brew. At some point we introduced a gas camping stove to boil the kettle and would have to go home if we needed the loo.
Eventually we cooked our lunches and began to offer cakes (shout out to Carole - OG Bakewell fans will know) and filter coffee on a stall at our farmers market and event days. As harvests increased we began to use our produce to feed our volunteers and guests at our events.
We invested in the renovation of the old bowling green pavilion (a 30ft shipping container now painted a rusty orange) and began to develop our food offer with two of our volunteers, Meg and Iman and Lorcan Kan (Where The Light Gets In, Etta, Things Palace)
Iman in The Frog House making Dolma, rice stuffed vegetables.
We continued to cook lunch for our volunteers and introduced Community Lunch on Fridays. A Pay as you feel offer to the wider community.
As time went on we developed our outdoor cooking facilities, dug out a fire pit, built a giant smoker, BBQ area and shelter with prep station.
Old Smokey
Early version of the fire pit.
The kitchen needed a name so after lots of pondering we decided MUD Kitchen made a lot of sense so it stuck.
We hosted food festival and picnics, markets, workshops and supper clubs. We cooked for Eat Well and continued to feed our ever growing number of volunteers, cooking for over 50 people every Friday.
Volunteer enjoying Community Lunch
We raised funds to renovate the derelict toilet block into a kitchen for us to expand our offer due the growing number of people coming along to our events.
Head chef and communications manager Emily joined our team in 2023 and she developed the brand image, redesigned the website, developed a new catering menu and cafe the and events menu.
The team grew, we brought on Katie our baker and more recently Lily, operations manager. Our fantastic casuals came on board and over the last year MUD Kitchen found its identity.
Katie and some freshly baked cream buns ready to serve at the cafe
Using the produce ready to eat straight from the garden, the team create fresh, simple and delicious comfort food, using their own heritage, skills and techniques unique to them to create meals full of love and care.
You can guarantee that whatever you choose to eat from MUD Kitchen, it was grown and made with love, for the ingredients and the community it serves.
So what's next for MUD Kitchen?
Hospitality is tough but really want to make it work so to be a sustainable kitchen we have decided to incorporate as our own independent CIC, with MUD CIC as the sole shareholder. This process and will mean we can support ourselves independently but also is an opportunity to create our own aims and objectives which are written below…
To support Manchester Urban Diggers CIC, its objects and the promotion of Food Sovereignty
To make food that showcases local, seasonal produce.
To use regenerative practices such as, zero waste, ethical sourcing and low food miles.
To use food to bring people closer to nature and our community through events and workshops.
MUD Kitchen continues to run the weekend cafe and volunteer lunch on Fridays ever week at Platt Fields Market Garden, plus external pop ups and catering.
Keep an eye out for more from us by visiting our new website:
or follow us on instagram
@mudkitchenmcr
Bakes from the cafe
Halal organic chicken, leek, aioli and greens focaccia sandwich from the cafe and catering menu.
Emily harvesting mustard for the sandwiches.