Lace up your boots and grab your tote bag for a walk to one of these Yorkshire farm shops
You just can’t beat a good farm shop. Fresh produce, countryside views, wholesome energy. Good for the planet and your plate. No fumbling around for a trolley coin, no queuing at the checkout with the world and his wife before the cashier throws your groceries onto the floor faster than the spreading of a 5G conspiracy. No bags for life that actually last a minute.
Farm Shops aren’t just a one-way ticket to mealtime success, they’re a real destination. Make a day of it with our round up of the best farm shops across the region, with gorgeous walking routes nearby. Pork pie for your picnic? Coffee for the road? Chops for your tea? We’ve got your weekend covered.
Here are five of our favourite farm shops in and near West Yorkshire:
Blacker Hall Farm Shop and Newmillerdam Lake
Situated just off the M1, south of Wakefield, Blacker Hall Farm is a proper Yorkshire family business. Five generations of livestock farming ensure provenance has been at the heart of the shop’s ethos since opening its doors in 1999. Alongside their award-winning butchers counter - which stocks prime cuts of their own Limousin, Simmental, and Hereford cattle - there’s an on-site bakery, gift shop and restaurant situated in the stunning 400-year-old barn.
The majority of the vegetables on sale are cut from the family's own land and packed up the very same day. Enjoy tips and tastings at the demo areas around the store, bag 3 for £10 on their homemade ready meals, and don’t miss Grandma Anne’s prized scones, plump with juicy raisins. Park up outside, and head to the delicatessen to choose one of their made to order sandwiches, before donning your rucksack for the three-mile walk (or ten-minute drive) to Newmillerdam Country Park.
Head east crossing Denninton Beck and the Motorway bridge, then wind through Betty Eastwood Park up to the lake, where you can enjoy a circular loop close to the water’s edge. Pop into the Grade II listed visitor centre, feed the woodland birds and grab and Solero at the Boathouse café.
Blacker Hall Farm Shop Branch Road Calder Grove, Wakefield WF43DN
Newmillerdam Country Park Wakefield WF2 6QQ
Hinchliffe's Farm Shop and Folly Dolly Falls
Hinchliffe's Farm Shop is one of the oldest in the country, but that doesn’t stop it from being at the pinnacle of retail bliss, with a light, spacious barn full of delicious artisan goodies. In the 1920s, Allen Hinchliffe began selling eggs to local families and butcher’s shops from a trusty horse and cart. After growing the business into the first independently controlled rearing unit in Britain, his son bought a herd of cattle, supplying the shop with high-quality meat, sausages and pork pies. Now, most of the produce is brewed, baked or bred within a five-mile radius of the farm. You can pick up cans from Huddersfield’s Magic Rock, smoked fish from Mackenzie’s in Blubberhouses, and coffee from Dark Woods Roastery on the canal in Slaithwaite. There’s even an incredible restaurant named after the family’s herd of South Devon cattle; The Rusty Bull, which offers all-day dining celebrating the very best of their produce.
Breakfast is served until 11.45am, so tuck into a plate of those buttery scrambled eggs, or a chorizo, cheddar, spinach and red onion omelette to set you up for the day. From the car park turn right along Netherton Moor Road, until you see the footpath sign over a low stile. From there you can head through the woodland out onto a bank with stunning views over the village below. Follow the beck to Folly Dolly Falls, near the town of Meltham. Look out for a gap in the fence over the Victorian railway tunnel, and take the uneven steps down to the sandstone waterfall. Watch, with cameras at the ready, as the stream cascades over the rockface. You can loop back along Huddersfield Road to pick up a rib of 28-day hung beef for your Sunday Roast.
Hinchliffe's Farm Shop Netherton Moor Road, Netherton, Huddersfield HD4 7LE
Folly Dolly Falls Meltham
Robertshaw's Farm Shop and Ogden Water Local Nature Reserve
This third-generation sheep farm situated in Thornton Bradford began life as a potato stall on the side of the road. Today a team of over 30 butchers expertly handle the family’s joints of lamb, and the farm shop boasts a well-stocked garden centre, takeaway café, and petting zoo perfect for little ones. Sustainability is high on the agenda; the farm has its very own wind turbines, and in 2019 the business picked up a plastic-free award from environmental charity, Surfers Against Sewage. Expect rustic wooden shelves displaying a wide array of colourful produce at unbeatable prices. There’s a tempting selection of regional gins, chocolates and freshly cut flowers, ideal for a celebration. However, for an easy weeknight win, head to the fridge aisle for one of Robertshaw’s homemade meal deals, such as a pack of pork and chive sausages with cheesy garlic mash, Yorkshire puddings and their best gravy.
If you want to work up an appetite, a forty-minute stroll away is Ogden Water Local Nature Reserve. This formidable sixty-hectare estate provides a real escape from city life, which plays home to a large reservoir, voted Yorkshire’s favourite in 2019. Originally constructed to power textile mills across the Wheatley Valley, the reservoir still supplies Calderdale with clean drinking water to this day. A popular picnic spot with locals, flat trails around the woodland scenery can be enjoyed by both young and old. The peat moors beyond are classed as Special Protection Areas, optimum for catching a long-billed snape wading in the water, or a kestrel swooping high on the wind.
Robertshaw’s Farm Shop Keelham Hall Farm, Thornton, Bradford BD13 3SS
Ogden Water Local Nature Reserve Ogden Ln, Halifax HX2 8XZ
Fodder Farm Shop & Cafe and The Stray
A stone's throw from the famous spa town and Great Yorkshire Event Centre, Fodder is a small but perfectly formed farm shop, armed with everything you need for your next culinary masterpiece. This is an ethically minded enterprise, with profits supporting the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, which educates hundreds of local children, champions local farmers, and even feeds the homeless. The deli counter is laden with cured meats, glistening pies, and sixty-seven wheels of Yorkshire cheese. In 2020 the butchery claimed first prize in the North of England Butcher’s Shop of the Year category, so you purchase in confidence, knowing that only the highest welfare standards are adhered to.
Swing by the reflective silver 1960s airstream caravan for a latte and a slab of their unbeatable flapjack, before crossing the fields behind the sports centre onto Oatlands drive. In front of you lies the Harrogate Stray, which dates back to 1778, and comes to life in the spring when the ornamental cherry blossom is in bloom. A walk around this tree-lined 200-acre parkland takes in ancient wells, domed pavilions, war memorials and sculptures, and is a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.
Fodder Farm Shop and Cafe Great Yorkshire Showground, Railway Rd, Harrogate HG2 8NZ
The Stray 16 W Park, Harrogate HG1 1BJ
Keelham Farm Shop and Bolton Abbey
Take the A65 east out of Leeds and you’ll soon be greeted with sweeping views over the Yorkshire Dales, verdant banks dropping away beside you as you travel through Burley in Wharfedale and on to Ilkley. Turning right at Addingham, follow the river as it meanders along to Bolton Abbey village. Early admission to the estate costs £10.00, but it’s well worth a visit, with circular routes through Strid Woods, over Barden Bridge and the stepping stones looking up to the Augustinian ruins. There’s a handful of cafes serving mini tubs of Nothern Bloc ice cream, but save yourself for the 15-minute drive to Skipton where organic paradise awaits.
Keelham is the king of farm shops. This huge wooden-clad warehouse, just outside the market town is where foodie dreams come true. As you pull off the roundabout towards Craven College, you’ll see the giant cow printed deckchair and Keelham mantra emblazoned on the building, reading "food tastes better from the farm." It certainly does. Imagine bunches of glossy cherry tomatoes tumbling from the vine; baskets of olive studded ciabattas, golden pies the size of tractor's wheels, hampers of wine, and figs and currants in brown paper bags.
There are pull-down dispensers where you can fill your own containers with flour, nuts, muesli, and more, an on-site florist, restaurant, garden centre (which in winter transforms into the most magical Christmas grotto) – even a smoothie bar. Buy one of their udderly brilliant cool bags and do not hold back. Pick up a couple of hand-stretched pizzas loaded with local ingredients, a pack of frilly purple beetroot ravioli, black bean or steak burgers for your dinner. Or book into Keelham Kitchen for a starter of grilled Yorkshire asparagus with toasted hazelnuts, wild garlic and white bean hummus, followed by plump Shetland mussels in Keelham cider. Finish the day with a sharing plate of churros, dusted with cinnamon sugar, ready for dunking into rich swirls of dulce de leche. Go on - after all that walking, you’ve certainly earnt it!
Keelham Farm Shop 21 Gargrave Rd, Skipton BD23 1UD
Bolton Abbey Skipton, North Yorkshire BD23 6EX
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