Most people use their garden sheds for tools, bicycles, or boxes that never quite make it to the charity shop, but one man has decided to turn his into something far more productive.

At the bottom of a garden just off Hythe high street sits a small wooden hut where, on some days, a faint scent of smoke drifts across the fence.

Inside, it houses a fully functioning smokehouse, neatly arranged and equipped with everything needed to cure and prepare fish.

This is where Manish Utton-Mishra, owner of Cured and Smoked, spends most of his week, working alone to transform Scottish salmon into something he is far too modest to call a delicacy.

From the outside, you would never guess the shed behind Frampton House is anything more than storage, and you would have to be a particularly nosey neighbour to know otherwise.

Inside though, it is a compact but capable workspace, pieced together over time as his skills and confidence grew.

The 51-year-old, who spent his early years in Motherwell, Scotland, laughs when describing it as “a bit Heath Robinson-esque”, a nod to the former cartoonist whose machinery drawings were famously overcomplicated.

Manish launched Cured and Smoked after a long career selling cheese and wine, where he found himself wondering what it might be like to make something of his own rather than promote the work of others.

“I always wanted to get into production,” he says.

“When you’re in the shops, you’re selling other people’s stuff that they’ve worked hard to make, there’s no proper reward.

“I just thought, I wonder what it’s like when you actually try to make these things yourself.”

He has never claimed to have perfected the craft, but says smoking salmon began as an idea that stuck and slowly took hold.

“I like the challenge of cold smoking,” he says.

“I wouldn’t say I’ve mastered it yet, there’s quite a while to go for that.”

Manish taught himself online, spending hours watching tutorials and testing methods until he was satisfied with the result.

“Everything I picked up was from the internet,” he recalls.

“Being a new producer who makes his products in his garden shed and used YouTube videos to build the foundations, it can certainly look dodgy to people.

“But thankfully, it doesn’t take too long to build that trust with people.

“Customers visit me and then I see them again two weeks later, and it’s quite nice to see they actually liked my stuff.”

When describing a day in the life of a salmon smoker, he starts with a rather familiar line.

“I hate Mondays,” he admits.

“They’re my big clean days, but they are so important.

“People hear the word ‘shed’ and immediately think of all sorts of things so the first day of the week is to put everything in order and make sure my workspace is inviting.”

He laughs as he recalls being corrected by a customer on the difference between cleaning and sanitising.

“I got told off by someone who said you don’t ‘clean’, you ‘sanitise’,” he says.

“Yes I do sanitise, but I’m not going to say sanitise, that just sounds wrong.”

Cured and Smoked holds a five-star hygiene rating, so whatever word he prefers, his shed remains spotless.

Once cleaning is done, the rhythm of the week begins with deliveries, curing and smoking.

Those are the days when the hut fills with the smell of oak and salt, and Manish can only wait and watch while the smoke does its work.

By the weekend, he is at the markets, talking to customers and handing over the finished product.

Cured and Smoked has a regular presence at Hythe Farmers’ Market (on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month), as well as regular stalls in Lenham (every second Sunday of the month) and Bearsted (every first Sunday of the month).

Customers can even visit the garden shed itself, which doubles as a stall for his products from Wednesday to Friday, between 10am and 3pm, at his home in Hythe high street.

As the heart of the business, Manish is extremely particular about where the salmon comes from.

“I only use Loch Duart salmon as they’re second to none in their farming practices,” he says.

The Scottish farm keeps low stock densities and feeds its fish a natural diet made from trimmings that would otherwise go to waste.

The result is salmon that is firm and clean, far less fatty than others, perfectly suited to the gentle process of cold smoking.

“I wouldn’t say I’ve mastered it yet, there’s quite a while to go for that…”

And in recent times, there has been something new alongside the salmon in the garden shed, which is accessed via a side street opposite Cyclefixit and Hythe Laundrette.

“Cheese kicked in about two months ago, as well as charcuterie,” Manish says.

“It’s almost doubled my trade, which is nice as it’s always been part of the long-term plan.

“I finally felt comfortable with salmon so I thought why not bring the cheese and meats in.”

Manish is keeping it simple and close to home, sticking mostly with British Isles cheese, as he admits it is hard to turn down a Crozier Blue or Cashel Blue.

So he is now running a smokehouse, cheesemonger and continental butcher from a shed tucked behind a house in Hythe - living proof that good ideas don’t always need much more than a bit of space.