Really a farm shop

A farm Shop..... really?

On rereading a newsletter the other day my mind was propelled into thought when looking at one of the images it contained. One pictures was of a traditional small holding type farm and the other a modern factory farming complex. Obviously we relate heavily to the picture of the small holding and it made me think of the relationships between farm shops and farm types.

What I began to think about was farm shops in relation to the actual farms. If you look at a lot of farm shops they often have a look that gives a little signal in your mind that it’s ‘barn like’. Without thinking you make that link to the shop being part of a farm. Even new purpose built shops want to get you to make that subconscious link. However if you stop for a minute and think about the real origins of the shop, its location, has it even seen a farm? In many cases it has not or may never have been part of a working farm. Is it really too much to ask for a farm shop to be a shop on a farm? I think it’s obviously implied in the name that the two parts should be there together. If you were taking a trip across the channel and went to the nearest ferry port you would expect a port and ferries. Going on the previous example though it would appear fine to have the ferry but no sea.

The next logical thought is where are the vegetables actually coming from? I think this is an excellent question and the picture mentioned above brought to mind the use of Google Maps. Find out where those ‘local’ vegetables actually come from, type in the address and click on satellite imagery. Is that farm as rustic as the shop makes out or is it a sprawling factory? Who else does that farm supply? Do they supply the major supermarkets? If so you are getting the same industrially farmed produce or even the seconds the national chains don’t want!

By now we may have found a farm shop with no farm and the local or family farm is actually a large industrial food processor, so who the heck is the store staffed by? Well again I don’t think its too much to ask that a farm shop should have people in it that work the land. So how about asking the shop keepers what they last planted or harvested. What have they got growing at the moment, what’s going to be ready next. How about asking if they can grow a certain vegetable that you really like?

So to sum up here are some questions you may like to ask:

• Where is the farm this shop is part of?
• What’s the address as I would like to see the type of farm it is?
• Where does the bulk of your produce come from?
• Who else does the farm supply, shops, supermarkets, markets, distributors?
• What have you personally planted or harvested?
• What’s growing at the moment, what up next?
• When did you last survey all the crops growing?
• I really like ‘enter veg type here’ have you thought about growing it?