Sourcing Stories

The people who
grow our food

18 farm partnerships. Over 40 years of combined agricultural heritage. Every one of them within 100km.

Our Sourcing Philosophy

We don't buy from farms. We build relationships with farmers.

The difference sounds small. The difference is everything.

When we buy from a farmer, we commit. We agree to purchase their harvest before it's planted — giving them the financial certainty to invest in better practices, to resist the pressure of chemical shortcuts, to tend their land with the patience it deserves.

We visit every farm at least twice a year. Our head chef has driven to Haputale in the rain to understand what a late frost does to heirloom tomatoes. Our sourcing manager once spent three days learning to hand-thresh heritage rice in Jaffna. These aren't publicity stories. They're how we earn the right to tell you where your food comes from.

Below are the stories of 18 farms and the families who run them. Some have been farming their land for generations. Some are young growers redefining what Sri Lankan agriculture looks like. All of them are extraordinary.

Farmer walking through lush green fields at golden hour

Farm Partners

100km

Max Distance

Years Sourcing Locally

92%

Certified Organic

Our closest partners

Vegetables · Haputale

Chaminda Perera

"My grandfather's soil. My father's seeds. My hands."

Chaminda's three-acre plot in the cool hills of Haputale has been in his family for over 80 years. He is the third generation to farm this land, and the first to return to entirely natural methods after his family experimented briefly with chemical fertilisers in the 1990s. "The land told us it was wrong," he says simply.

Chaminda specialises in heirloom tomatoes — fourteen varieties including the Brandywine, the Green Zebra, and a local variety called the Haputale Gold that he developed himself over two decades of selective seed saving. His produce reaches us within 18 hours of harvest.

We have been buying from Chaminda since our first week. His tomatoes are the foundation of our summer menu, and we will rewrite any dish rather than substitute them.

Certified Organic since 2011 On menu: Year-round

Heritage Rice · Jaffna

Priya Nanthakumar

"Rice is memory. I am keeping it alive."

In the flat, dry farmlands north of Jaffna, Priya Nanthakumar tends her paddy fields with a discipline and precision that is astonishing to witness. Her speciality is heritage Sri Lankan red rice — varieties that were nearly lost during decades of conflict but which she and a small network of seed-keepers have preserved.

Priya uses only rainwater irrigation, channelled through a system she maintains herself. She composts entirely on-site, using rice husks, cow dung from her two buffaloes, and kitchen waste. Her yields are lower than conventionally farmed rice. Her flavour and nutritional profile are incomparably superior.

She delivers to us monthly in 25kg hand-woven jute bags. Every grain served at The Garden Table is from Priya's paddy. Every rupee paid to us for a dish containing her rice flows directly back to her.

Heritage Seed Keeper On menu: Year-round

Priya Nanthakumar standing waist-deep in her paddy fields, holding stalks of red rice

Rows of fresh herbs in Suneetha's Peradeniya herb garden in the morning light

Herbs & Edible Flowers · Kandy

Suneetha Wijeratne

"Herbs are not garnish. They are the soul of the dish."

Suneetha is a botanist who abandoned an academic career to return to her family's land in Peradeniya and do something she considers more important: grow food with intention. Her half-acre garden, tucked against the boundary wall of the Royal Botanical Gardens, is one of the most remarkable small-scale growing operations we have ever visited.

She grows 24 varieties of culinary herbs and 16 varieties of edible flowers. She maintains a cold room where she holds fresh-cut herbs in near-perfect condition. She delivers twice a week, always before 7am, always perfectly sorted and labelled.

The edible nasturtiums on our desserts, the micro basil in our soups, the fresh marigolds on our spring tarts — all from Suneetha's garden, all picked within 36 hours of reaching your plate.

24 herb varieties 16 edible flower varieties

More Partners

All 18 farm partners

Leafy Greens · Nuwara Eliya

Bandara Organic Farm

5-acre certified organic farm growing over 30 varieties of lettuce, kale, and salad greens in the cool hill country climate.

Citrus & Tropical · Matale

Fernando Estate

Family-run estate supplying jackfruit, limes, pandan, and coconuts. Fernando Estate has farmed this land without chemicals for 25 years.

Free-range chickens at Seneviratne Farm in Kurunegala

Poultry · Kurunegala

Seneviratne Free-Range

600 free-range village chickens raised on open pasture. Slow-grown, grain-fed, and slaughtered humanely the morning of delivery.

Fishermen at Negombo harbour with the morning catch

Seafood · Negombo

Jayasinghe Fishing Collective

A collective of 12 line-fishing families in Negombo who catch only what is sustainable. They deliver daily, fish wrapped in banana leaf, direct from the boat.

Artisan cheese rounds at Highlands Dairy in the hill country

Dairy · Nuwara Eliya

Highlands Small Dairy

Eight grass-fed Jersey cows producing small-batch artisan cheeses, cultured butter, and cream. Every product is handmade by the Jayawardena family.

Coffee cherries ripening on a plant in the hill country

Coffee · Badulla

Uva Heights Coffee

Specialty Arabica coffee grown at 1,200m in Badulla. Washed process, natural dried, and roasted to order. The only coffee served at The Garden Table.

Come taste their work

Every dish on our menu is a collaboration between our kitchen and our farmers. Book a table and taste the difference that source and care make.

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The people who grow our food