This award winning farm shop not far from Sheffield is putting the fun back into the food shopping experience
The farm shop industry is now said to be worth around £1.5 billion nationally each year
I find it rather difficult to get excited about supermarket food shopping these days.
Sure, you’re never going to struggle to get the grub that you’re gagging for, but I can’t help feeling like it’s a rather soul-less and frustrating mission.
You head to a huge supermarket, a store that’s just the same in Aberdeen as it is in Cornwall, and jockey for space on the consumer production line with hundreds of others to buy food that is just the same whether you’re in Barrow or Bangor.
Over on the picturesque Welbeck Estate, the historic home for centuries to The Duke of Portland in the beautiful North Nottinghamshire countryside, things are being done rather differently with fun, friendliness and quality all being mixed in to add a personal touch to the food shopping experience.
In fact it’s an approach they are doing so well it recently saw the Farm Shop on the 15,000 acre estate crowned Regional Champion for the Midlands in the Countryside Alliance Awards in the Local Food/Drink category.
The farm shop industry is now said to be worth around £1.5 billion nationally each year. And judging by the wonderful array of mouth-watering pies, cheeses, meats and other local produce on display at Welbeck Farm Shop it is perhaps easy to see why.
And while you’re certainly going to have to dig a little deeper in your pockets to fill your basket Oliver Stubbings, the managing director at Welbeck Farm Shop, believes it’s well worth the price.
“We don’t claim to be cheap, but the quality is there. When people have finished eating their food they should still think of its value in terms of the quality, the taste and the ingredients. People forget what a proper chop tastes like,” he said.
And for Oliver the ability of the farm shop, which has now been trading for 20 years, to support the local community is a key ingredient to its ongoing success.
“We like to have that interaction with customers, you can’t come in and come out without talking to somebody,” he added.
“People like good food and they like to understand where their food comes from. It is a food experience.
““We have got loads of local stuff here, including products from the estate. A lot of the beef comes from the estate, all the lamb comes from the estate, we have got eggs from the estate, as well as veg coming through. This is all within two miles.
“It is about the community and we like being a part of the community. We work with many local producers so the money doesn’t go far, it stays in the area which is nice.”
For delicatessen counter worker Lucy, who is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to all things deli, the personal touch as well as variety of choice is why local people keep coming back.
“We have got a lot of the traditional bits like pork pies, everybody loves a pork pie, but then we like to add in some of the different flavours like the Hunstman,” she said. “That is a pork pie with a chicken stuffing mixture on top and then a bit of pickle.
“I quite like the Charcoal Ploughman’s, that is like a meal in itself. You get the pork pie, then you get a layer of charcoal cheese in there. It is really really delicious.
“They are all nice, you can’t go wrong with a normal pork pie either. Farm shop food is exciting, you are trying to give people something different than what you get at the supermarket.
“You try and give people a bit of an experience when they come here, a bit of chit chat, you get to know the regulars and what they like. It is nice to maybe suggest certain foods to people.”
As the Midlands’ regional winner, Welbeck Farm Shop will now advance to the grand final in July to crown the nation’s finest.
The Awards, often referred to as the ‘Rural Oscars’, are the Countryside Alliance’s annual celebration of British food and farming, enterprise and heritage.
