When it comes to serving diners with fresh vegetables, Bristol restaurateur Arne Ringner believes there simply isn't sufficient quality or choice in the current wholesale market.

But rather than complaining about the state of the produce coming into the kitchens of his three popular city restaurants, Arne has responded to the situation in a rather more productive way – by setting up his own polytunnel market garden.

Arne, who owns The Lido in Clifton, as well as The Glassboat and The Spyglass in Welsh Back has developed the half-acre small holding on a farm in Pill.

Despite the fact that the pair of long raised beds were only constructed in August, under the expert eye of head grower Luke Quinn, there's already a plentiful supply of fresh produce coming out of the facility.

Though primarily devised for the sophisticated kitchens at The Lido, all three of Arne's establishments are now using the freshly cultivated produce.

"It used to be that Bristol – like every city in the country – would be surrounded by a ring of market gardens, so you could get hold of fresh vegetables and salad every morning, moments after it was harvested" explains Arne, who opened his first restaurant, The Glassboat, next to Bristol Bridge, 25 years ago.

"But over the years the world changed. As the distribution network became more powerful, and food production turned to a larger scale model, all the market gardens began to disappear.

"I remember when the M32 was a corridor of market gardens, because the Frome Valley had such rich soils. But one by one the market gardens disappeared, and these days there aren't any left."

Arne opens the gate leading into the new polytunnel, and takes a step back, as if to present the scores of neat rows of salad leaves, which stand to attention like a parade of well-disciplined soldiers.

"The irony is, this decline of the local market garden industry has been taking place over the past couple of decades," he says, "coinciding with an increased awareness by customers of the importance of locally-sourced food – both in terms of the impact on the environment, and in terms of quality and freshness.

"Some of the salad leaves sold in supermarkets as "fresh", have already been picked for the best part of a week by the time you buy them.

"Actually, salad leaves in particular start to lose flavour almost as soon as they're picked. If you don't eat them on the same day, you really are missing out.

"I just wanted to be able to get back to a time when you could get truly fresh produce into the restaurants. It's not the cheapest way of doing it, but it's certainly the way of ensuring the quality of the food."

Crops currently being grown are ruby and golden mustard, land cress, Japanese parsley, elders persalane, green persalane, silver and red chard, bulls blood beet, baby leaf kale, chicory, rocket, chervil, endive, tatsoi and coriander.

For Arne, who also has a degree in horticulture, it's a dream come true.

"It makes a remarkable difference," he says. "The chefs are delighted by the quality of the produce."

The chefs from the three establishments liaise with Luke on a daily basis.

"It's very much about going back to the old-fashioned relationship between the chef and the kitchen gardener," Luke explains.

"There's a lot of give and take. The chefs will come to me and make requests about the sort of things they would like to be growing in the polytunnel. But it's also about me telling the chefs what is available to be eaten that day – so they can then work their menus around the things that are ready to be harvested.

"This way the menus remain truly seasonal – and this is incredibly important to diners."

Arne says Bristolian diners are becoming ever more sophisticated.

"There was a time when people would come into the restaurants and simply order a meal. But these days there is much more interaction. Diners often want to know where the produce comes from. We're becoming a nation of food experts, and I think that's brilliant.

"It's like how everyone started to learn the vocabulary of wine a decade ago – people started to understand the complexities of the quality of the produce they're being served. That has to be a good thing."

Arne and Luke are already planning to expand the project.

"In the spring, we will move the salad outside," Luke explains. "Then we will be able to use the polytunnel for growing more delicate produce – things like tomatoes and peppers."

Arne adds: "We're also looking into the idea of creating a chicken-run outside the polytunnel, not for eggs, but for good quality meat from our own mature meat-fed chickens. It's the sort of meat that currently you can only really get in France. But there's absolutely no reason why diners here in Bristol shouldn't be enjoying it too."