Farm shops are springing up all over Cornwall, making it easier to buy local and find an alternative to the supermarket.Ironically, many of them have developed as a response to the increasing power of the supermarkets, as Ian Lobb of Lobbs Farm Shop says, "We couldn't make farming work by selling to the supermarkets at the prices they pay, so we decided to take the gamble and do it ourselves." The result is all good stuff for the consumer; good fresh food; low food miles; a boost to the local economy and the continuation of farming that maintains the landscape
which supports the tourism industry. There are lots of shops, big and small, so this is just a selection of some we especially like. They often have a speciality too, due to the fact that they are linked to a farm - be it pork, beef, hand-made ice cream from the dairy or organic salad leaves.
Go on, be a local foodie and support your farm shops!

Speciality: fruit and veg

St Kew Harvest
St Kew Highway, near Bodmin.
Tel. 01208 841818.
St Kew Harvest typifies the new wave of contemporary farm shops that are becoming an increasingly viable alternative to the supermarkets. St Kew is hot on organics and grows its own organic fruit and veg, which is produced without pesticides via the use of companion planting and fertilised using horse dung. Visit for home reared pork and products such as locally baked bread, Blue Mango biscuits, Duchy Originals, meats, cheeses and Deli Farm Charcuterie products. You can also stop off for Origin coffee and homemade cakes or order the cakes to take away.

Speciality: meat

Lobbs Farm Shop
Heligan, St Ewe. Tel. 01726 844411. lobbsfarmshop.com
Lobb Farm shop at The Lost Gardens of Heligan is a great food favourite and one of the best in the south west. The fact that it has won Taste of the West's 'Best Local Retail Outlet in Cornwall' for the last two years running says it all. Go for its wonderful meat, as the animals are reared on the Lobb family farm and fed on feed grown themselves, so it's 100 per cent traceable. Besides the stunning butchery is a well stocked shop of Cornish and regional produce, lots of well-kept cheeses and a great array of resh fruit and veg, much of which is grown on fields you can see from the farm shop. Lobbs is serious about food miles and if you are too, you can check just how far your produce has come on their big blackboard. Order meat and cheese for delivery via the internet and call in on Fridays for fresh fish from Scales of Truro.

Cornish Pork Pantry
The Old Cold Store, Lawnsdowns, Grampound Road, Truro.
Tel. 01726 883080.
cornishporkpantry.co.uk
Cornish Pork Pantry are meat specialists, focussing on pork and Aberdeen Angus beef, both of which are raised on the farm and butchered and prepared on the premises. Visit for the hand-crafted sausages, bacon, homemade coarse pork pâté and hand-raised pork pies. The fresh pork and beef is available in a variety of cuts and is of a quality that's unusual in these days of cheap supermarket meats. This may be top quality but it doesn't cost the earth because you are buying it direct from the producer.

Speciality: dairy

Callestick Farm
Callestick, Truro.
Tel. 01872 573126.
callestickfarm.co.uk
If you are a fan of Callestick Farm's award-winning ice cream, then a visit to the farm shop has to be in order this summer. You can see the animals on the farm, watch the ice cream being made and then stop for lunch or tea in the sunny courtyard. The farm shop stocks lots of the ice cream flavours including clotted cream vanilla with Madagascan bourbon, which was voted best vanilla for The Caterer by a group of Michelin chefs. Other goods include Cornish cheeses, butter, yoghurt, clotted cream, jams and preserves, juices, cakes and Callestick Farms' gammon, bacon and home-reared beef.

Roskilly's Farm Shop
Tregellast Barton, St Keverne.
Tel. 01326 280479.
roskillys.co.uk
A visit to Roskilly's makes for a lovely afternoon out, and not just because there's the prospect of an ice cream at the end of it. You can watch the cows being milked, pet the calves, see the donkeys, cats and hens, take a long walk through the grounds, or just take it easy and stop for a proper bit of lunch in the Croust House or try and decide between the 24 flavours of ice cream that Roskilly's is probably most famous for. This is the result of the organic dairy herd that produces sweet creamy milk on the farm, and what makes this a farm shop, even though it's developed into something more. Rachel Roskilly also makes and sells home-made clotted cream, jams, chutneys and mustards and in autumn the farm presses its own apples to make a number of different apple juices.

Troytown Farm Centre
Troytown Farm, St Agnes,
Isles of Scilly. Tel. 01720 422360.
As featured on BBC's An Island Parish. Sue Hick's dairy business has developed recently and not just by getting on the telly. She opened her new farm shop last April and has started producing 20 flavours of ice cream, all made using milk and cream from her own mini herd of eight cows. Alongside the ice cream, you can also buy cream, milk, butter, Sue's fruit sorbets and a small amount of Island reared beef, pork and veggies. The farm shop is on the family farm's campsite, so you can stay and visit every day.

Great generalists

On the Table
Goonhavern Garden Centre,
Newquay Road.
Tel. 01872 571400.
Hot off the press is the news that On The Table has been awarded Best Local Food Retailer of the Year 2006 in the south west. The awards were given by the Countryside Alliance with Farmers Weekly and the Daily Telegraph at a ceremony at the House of Lords after Jo Symons' family farm shop was secretly voted for by customers. It's a well deserved award as the shop is a pleasure to visit. The pork and beef and organic veggies come from the family's Hendra Farm, as does the freshly baked bread and cakes. Other produce including high end deli items are supplied by businesses such as The Cornish Pig Company and growers and producers from around Cornwall. A second shop is opening at East Street in Blackwater in the spring. Find out more about this and pick up Jo's monthly recipes on the blog:
on-the-table.blogspot.com

Bre Pen Farm Shop
Mawgan Porth, Newquay.
Tel. 01637 860420.
bre-penfarm.co.uk
Jill Brake and family opened the shop on their farm near Watergate Bay five years ago. They graze sheep on cliff-top pastures and have a flock of free-range chickens. Vegetables come from Rod's veggie patch and local asparagus is unearthed for clamouring locals in May. Make sure you stop in the morning to make the most of the freshly baked bread, cakes, pasties and scones, and you can also eat in, in the traditional tea room. The shop stocks Trenance chocs, honey from Bonsai Nursery, Furniss biscuits and a good range of drinks from Cornwall's best breweries and vineyards, plus glasses to drink it in from recycled bottles. There is also a range of jams, preserves and pickled eggs and onions, all made on the farm.

Padstow Farm Shop
Trethillick, Padstow.
Tel. 01841 533060.
padstowfarmshop.co.uk
If you've sampled the top quality veg at Rick Stein's, Ripley's or Fifteen Cornwall, you'll be interested to know that some of it comes from Padstow Farm Shop's Victorian walled vegetable garden. Meat lovers will also enjoy the beautiful beef and lamb which is raised on the Watson Smythe family's three Padstow Farms - Tregirls, Trethillick and Lellizzick. Butcher Norman Brooks (above) moved from his Padstow butcher's shop to join the farm and now prepares the meat on site. Also visit for pork from Wetherham Estate, Cornish cheeses, preserves, Nude Food ready-meals and Barwick Farm dairy products.

This feature was first published in the Mar-Apr 2007 issue of Cornwall food magazine.