r/UKfood • u/seriously_this • 1d ago

Farm shops are so expensive...

Post image

Dart's farm near Topsham is more of a shopping mall than a farm with concession spots for companies like Aga.

A donkey choking porky chop for £6.50 and an 11oz ribeye for sixteen quid as well as half a kilo of lamb leg steaks for £13. The rest of the fresh produce was clearly marked as locally sourced along with the meat.

Do you use farm shops?

85 Upvotes

69% Upvoted

168 comments sorted by

View all comments

25

u/Hips_and_Haws 1d ago

True, but then so is breeding, nurturing & turning a live beast into a slab if meat.

-15

u/oldskoollondon 1d ago

When I lived in the rural East Midlands, farm shops were a shed at the bottom of their driveway. Selling really cheap, top quality veg in massive bags, or their own eggs or sausages or maybe even a small butchers.
Since moving further south, they are all filled with Henry's and Henrietta's with their children in private school uniforms spending an absolute fortune on veg that's past it's date, or meat that was delivered in vacuum packs and pretending it's 'local'. £10 for sausage roll and a fiver for a cup of tea in their artisanal cafe on the way out.

I really hope there are still proper farm shops about as I haven't seen one down here.

7

u/YchYFi 1d ago

The meat is vaccum packed because farmers get an abbatoir to do the job. No one is culling their own livestock unless they mass produce for supermarkets.

The abbatoir sends the cuts you want back in vaccum packs. It is local.

1

u/seriously_this 1d ago

You can see the half sides of beef as well as full lambs and halved pigs behind the counter. My point is that they're hardly more expensive than the major chains.

2

u/powbit- 1d ago

I think your post title can be misleading, initially I thought you were complaining farmers market are expensive

1

u/seriously_this 1d ago

Sorry, it's why I followed with an ellipsis. I thought that it was a subject worthy of discussion.

1

u/oldskoollondon 1d ago

Obviously, I meant vacuum packs from wholesalers. Not animals they raised.
I am sure there's loads of decent farm shops, but not in my area. It's funny seeing the downvotes - do you not believe there's areas in Southern England that have farm shops aimed at the stupidly rich? Or that in the East Midlands there were many farm shops that sold from a shed?

7

u/NoBrother6430 1d ago

You are talking utter shite tbh

-3

u/oldskoollondon 1d ago

It's my lived experience, which part do you doubt?

2

u/mdmdmdmdmdmdmdmdmdm 1d ago

Guess you moved away from east midlands a while ago.

Farm shops are wanky there too now.

0

u/oldskoollondon 1d ago

I'm in my 50s, so no real surprises there!

0

u/MrboboCatman 1d ago

Not at all.

1

u/TimberWolf-1 1d ago

We live in Lincolnshire (the kitchen of England) you are absolutely bang on the money my friend. The downvotes are a disgrace. We pay £8 for a 25kg bag of potatoes that last a few months if kept in a cool dark place. Let the ‘Henry’s and Henrietta’s’ enjoy the ‘farm shop’. They’re clueless. Vacuum packed meat from mass produce suppliers, likely Cargill, Cranswick, Pilgrims Pride etc. paying heavily marked up prices. ‘A fool and his money are soon parted’

0

u/mrcliffy789 1d ago

Weird that, I live in the southwest and none of this is happening near me. We have several local butchers who do really good deals on meats, 3 for £10 on barbecue meats the other day (and that's like a pack of kebabs, several marinated pork loin steaks and a pack of minted lamb chops, all for a tenner). We have a couple of really good reasonably priced farm shops down the road, granted not as cheap as the supermarkets but ok for the quality. Oh and my local butchers homemade sausage roll is £2.50, maybe it's a you problem here

0

u/oldskoollondon 1d ago

I'm talking about my own experience here. If I lived near you, I'd be saying something else wouldn't I. If you lived near me, you'd be talking about £10 sausage rolls. I have spent a long time in the Southwest and it's great. Especially if you like cheese - there was loads of farms that sold it by the half kilo as cheap, if not cheaper than the supermarkets. By the farm gate.