NEW YORK WHOLESALE

But while there is no legal definition of a farm shop (for a while my local city greengrocer sported a sign declaring itself to be one), surely to be worthy of the name they should sell own-grown food? Otherwise they are just shops on farms.

The National Farmers’ Retail and Markets Association, Farma, agrees. The body behind the massively successful (and now sadly diluted) farmers’ markets movement launched an accreditation scheme two years ago called Genuine, Own and Local – or Goal – for “real” farm shops. It hasn’t taken the countryside by storm, perhaps because the kind of shops they were aiming to promote have relatively small turnovers and baulk at the £300 annual fee. Farma is currently considering a relaunch.

In the meantime, some enterprising farmers and retailers have come up with an alternative. Called food halls or food centres, these outlets are large and well-stocked enough to do your weekly shop. Most of what they sell comes from local producers. But what they don’t pretend to be is a farm shop.

Take the aforementioned Ludlow Food Centre (LFC). Set up in 2007 as an outlet for the Earl of Plymouth’s estate, it is a model for large local food shops. All the meat comes from the estate, and the abattoir is nearby so that the animals are reared, slaughtered, butchered, hung and sold within a 10-mile radius: ideal both for the welfare of the beasts and the quality of the meat. As well as butter, much of the cheese is made in-house and some of the fruit and vegetables are sourced from the Plymouth family’s walled garden. Half of what is sold (by value) is from the estate. A further 30 per cent is from the four counties which the LFC regards as its locality – Shropshire, Herefordshire, Powys and Worcestershire. Edward Berry, the schoolmasterish shop manager, explained to me: “Round here, going local is not a challenge.”

The area is rich in arable and animal farming, and with a strong food heritage of its own. There are fidget pies in the chill counter and, by the time of the Ludlow Food Festival in September, there will be wimberries (wild blueberries) and the first of the Shropshire prunes — not a dried fruit but a variety of fresh damson.

The final 20 per cent of the shop’s turnover comes from the rest of Britain and abroad. Berry is unapologetic. “We have to push the boundaries. When it comes to an ingredient like a lemon, I’d rather you bought it here.” In fact, the shop’s beechwood carousels (made from estate trees) are stocked with imported parsnips, apples and radishes as well as Shropshire rhubarb and cabbages. But everything is clearly labelled as to provenance – and an impressive amount does come from nearby.

Transparency, literally as well as figuratively, is all: plate glass panels in the walls of the shopping area give peeks into the production rooms that edge the building. In a gastronomic version of Play School, through the first window I could see Dudley the cheese maker adding rennet to the vat of milk. They make seven different kinds of cheese, including the only true Shropshire blue made in the county, and a Stilton-style cheese called Remembered Hills in reference to A E Housman’s “blue remembered hills” from A Shropshire Lad.

In the butcher’s cold room there are freshly killed pigs from the estate’s herd of Gloucester Old Spots and massive sides of beef, ageing the proper way, hanging on the bone, rather than divided into cuts and sitting in vacuum packs. It’s more expensive this way, but the flavour is much finer.

The delights go on. There’s the baker, a kitchen for ready meals, a jam and chutney room and a coffee roaster — beans are bought in raw and roasted on site, in keeping with the connoisseurs’ mantra that coffee should be consumed as soon as possible after roasting, not left sitting on a supermarket shelf.

I left with a flatiron steak, a thin, flavoursome piece of beef cut from below the shoulder blade, costing less than £2. If only all farm shops were like this. Except of course, it’s not a farm shop.

Ludlow Food Festival, Sept 7-9, foodfestival.co.uk

ludlowfoodcentre.co.uk

Xanthe will be demonstrating recipes from her new book The Contented Cook at the Foodies’ Festival, Bristol, today at 1pm, foodiesfestival.com

Bodnant Welsh Food Centre

A new venture, just by the famous Bodnant Gardens in the Conwy Valley, opened by the Prince of Wales this month. Based in 18th-century farm buildings on Furnace Farm (which they do call a farm shop), 75 per cent of the food they sell is Welsh. They produce their own hams, do their own butchery and make ready meals, ice cream, butter and cream on site.

bodnant-welshfood.co.uk

Fodder

On the outskirts of Harrogate, this airy food hall and café is run by the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, and 85 per cent of what they sell is from Yorkshire and Humber. All profits are reinvested in projects to benefit the rural community, and the policy is to keep food affordable for locals.

fodderweb.co.uk

Suffolk Food Hall

A collaboration of local businesses and farmers in a renovated barn with a mezzanine restaurant overlooking the River Orwell. There’s a butcher and a fishmonger as well as fruit and veg from the nearby market gardens.

suffolkfoodhall.co.uk

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