Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall talk a good game when it comes to eating sustainably – and one Brighton restauranteur is following their lead.

Dave Radtke has bought a small farm in Upper Dicker, near Hailsham, to supply his three Tin Drum restaurants in Brighton and Hove.

With his wife Vicky and their children he has planted hundreds of vegetables which will soon start being served to their customers.

They have also been rearing pigs and chicken and smoking the meat themselves. The first batches of sausages and bacon produced at the farm have now gone on sale at the Tin Drum in Dyke Road, Brighton.

Mr Radtke has even bought himself a biodiesel converter and has been using the waste cooking oil from the restaurant to power his tractor.

Mr Radtke, 46, said: "This has always been a dream of mine. It will be a fantastic feeling in a couple of months when I can start picking veg in the evening then driving to work in the morning and handing it over to the chef to use."

Today (Monday) they will be holding a party at the farm for the 50 chefs, waiters, waitresses and bar staff from the restaurant in Dyke Road and its sister branches in St James's Street, Brighton, and Second Avenue, Hove.

They will all be encouraged to do some planting while they are there.

Mr Radtke said: "We want our staff to be involved and also to be able to see the process so when customers ask they'll know all about it.

"I think it will be great for them to be able to say to customers "I planted that tomato you're about to eat"."

He said he would like staff to have an on-going involvement with the farm. He will be offering any who are keen the chance to work shifts there.

The move will not be a temporary measure either. The Radtke's have bought the farm to live at as their family home, moving to the country after living in Brighton since setting up their first restaurant 11 years ago.

Mr Radtke, who learned about farming while helping his father in his market garden as a child in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, said they had put a lot of work into preparing the farm.

He has installed new greenhouses and carefully nurtured the three-and-a-half acres of land.

He said: "I'm working 24 hours a day now either at the restaurants or at the farm but I'm not complaining at all. I love it. I'm so passionate about what we're doing."