News
2nd Jun 2013
WINE AND STRAWBERRY MASTERCLASS
Join us on Monday the 17th June for a special 4 course celebration of Summer Wine and Strawberries. Our chefs will be working alongside our local wine afficionado Francis Peel from Whitebridge Wines to present an evening of delicious seasonal food working in harmony with a selection of wines that are perfect for the summer. Click here for more information.
28th Apr 2013
NEW GOURMET BURGER NIGHT
Join us every Tuesday evening from 14th May for our new Gourmet Burger Night - sample our fabulous diverse range of delicious homemade burgers from traditional prime beef to something more exotic. All of our burgers are hand made using the finest local ingredients and meat from our own jolly butcher Nick & his team. Click here for more information.
Find Us
Aston Marina
Lichfield Road [A51]
Stone
Staffordshire
ST15 8QU
01785 819702
Click to View Map
Aston Marina is an independent business. We are family owned and run and we once farmed the land on which the marina is now built.
We constructed the marina ourselves, project managing the entire project from a marshy green field to the beautiful site we have today. From the day we started digging in January 2009 to today we remain passionate about quality and service in everything we do. Amazing local food is the driving force behind our business and we are proud to support local farmers, producers and businesses as well as employing many lovely smiley local people.
Local food is best becasue it's better tasting, more nutritious and better for the environment. What about fruit & vegetables? Apples, strawberries, carrots or sweetcorn; the nation's favourites. Because it's grown locally it tastes better. It's grown in season, it's grown the way nature intended, with just enough rain and sun for it to grow and ripen naturally. Locally grown produce is better for you because it contains more of the natural goodness it was grown with. The chances are it was picked in the last day or two. It's fresh, crisp and full of flavour…maybe it's even still grubby with local soil. Studies have shown that fresh produce loses nutrients quickly, up to half in the first 72 hours, even more during the week your average supermarket "fresh" produce has been sat on a lorry or in a warehouse chiller. Because local produce gets from farm to plate faster, it doesn't need to be sprayed with wax and preservatives, exposed to radioactive isotopes or pulsed with UV light like so much of the supermarket fruit & veg is.
What about meat? Local meat is fresher, tastier and better for the environment, and it is also far better for the animal. The chances are the meat your local butcher sells has been farmed outdoors, roaming freely in family groups and feeding on a rich natural diet. Unlike most supermarket meat, it hasn't been intensively reared indoors, feeding on a cocktail of processed animal feeds and antibiotics to avoid diseases resulting from living in cramped, squalid conditions. Livestock suffers stress when it is transported; this affects the taste and texture of the meat. Locally reared livestock has travelled far shorter distances to be slaughtered, minimising stress and maximising flavour. Not only does it taste better and ensure better welfare for animals, traditionally butchered local meat also offers far better value for money than supermarket meat. – ever wondered why supermarket meat bubbles away in a pool of white foamy liquid when you cook it? That's because it has been mechanically injected with saline solution to preserve it and bulk it out, meaning up to 20% of the weight you pay for meat is actually just salty water – yuk!
Buying local food of any kind of course means that you are reducing food miles – the distance your food has travelled from farm to plate. Less carbon emissions, less road congestion and less pollution. Local food helps to strengthen local economies. Not only farmers benefit from people buying local; their growers and pickers, distributors and retailers all keep local people in jobs and importantly, keep the money spent on food in the local economy rather than the fat-cat shareholders pockets.
