 and a new a la carte restaurant. They also invite people to sign up to cheese-making and chocolate-making clubs, and plan to host more wellness activities, like forest bathing, at the farm later this summer. Darts is not the only farm laying on new experiences. Some farm-shops-with-extras sit on country house estates, while others are examples of family farms that are modernising by expanding their services. In listed stone barns in Somerset, the vegetables at Durslade Farm Shop have extra photographic allure thanks to their proximity to the Hauser & Wirth contemporary art gallery next door. The shop has just started offering a monthly butchery course, alongside its wine, cider and honey tastings){kind=link}
The fruit and veg is great, of course, but these rural outlets now do fitness bootcamps, DJ dining, chocolate making and more
Farm shops are a wholesome treat for summer days, when jaunts to the countryside are common. Generations ago it was all about scoffing illicit strawberries at pick-your-own fruit farms, or visiting remote sheds that had honesty boxes and crates of vegetables. But having convinced us to shop local again, farm shops are fast evolving. Now many are spread across vast barns, incorporating swish lifestyle sections and reputable, zero-mile restaurants. Increasingly, it’s about more than just the fruit and veg these days.
Darts Farm in Devon had a fruit business that grew organically into a farm shop when a fridge was added for local cheese and milk. “We still have 80-year-olds coming into the shop now saying, ‘Oh, I remember picking strawberries and broad beans here 50 years ago,'” says its owner, Michael Dart. “We get to know people very well.” Now that many high-street shops have gone, he claims farm shops provide a community service. “It’s not about Amazon delivering to your door,” he says. “Instead, you enjoy your visit, you talk to people and you feel like you are supporting those who are producing things where you live.”
Besides selling fruit, veg, meat and other local goods, Darts Farm has expanded to include a small-batch cider press (in partnership with Sandford) and a new a la carte restaurant. They also invite people to sign up to cheese-making and chocolate-making clubs, and plan to host more wellness activities, like forest bathing, at the farm later this summer.
Darts is not the only farm laying on new experiences. Some farm-shops-with-extras sit on country house estates, while others are examples of family farms that are modernising by expanding their services.