mondomulia

Visiting Yorkshire over the Easter weekend was a great way to try fresh and locally grown produce. I loved stopping at the Blacker Hall Farm, where we shopped for vegetables, fruit, cheese, homemade pies and bread and local ales.

The farm shop is stocked with freshly baked products from our bakery daily which include bread, fruit scones and cakes. We also stock carefully selected producers and growers who work tirelessly to provide a range of fresh produce. We source responsibly, locally when available and always aim to offer everything you need to complete your meal. We support small artisan producers from the UK and beyond, offering choice and, above all, flavour.

With a butcher, a deli, a bakery and a wine loft, the farm shop offers a great range of products. Most of the food on sale is either produced on site or sourced from the family farm or other local farms.

The Blacker Hall farms supply the majority of the beef, lamb and pork for the shop. In 2011, they won the award for the best butcher in the UK! The meat that is reared locally, the free range eggs are from North Yorkshire and also the flour in the cakes is milled in the county.

I bought loads from the vegetable and fruit stalls: onions, smoked garlic from the Isle of Wight, Yorkshire rhubarb (which I used to make Rhubarb Crumble Cake), lettuce, rocket, tomatoes, baby potatoes, Yorkshire parsnips and carrots (which I roasted and caramelised), pears and kiwis.

From the deli, I bought two homemade vegetarian pies, which we had for dinner the same night. I also bought some Yorkshire cheese: Wensleydale with cranberries (one of my favourites!) and Barncliffe brie.

I couldn't resist buying homemade chocolate, freshly baked scones and sunflower seed loaf!

Meanwhile, my fiancé was busy choosing Yorkshire ales from the loft! We came home with seven bottles of different local beers!

It was exciting wandering around the small shop, picking up fresh produce and thinking about how to cook them. I love using seasonal food and it's stimulating to try new recipes with ingredients I've never used before. When I shop in my local supermarket, my creativity is not stimulated and I end up buying the same 5 products every day! Shopping at the farm meant looking for the freshest products and coming up with ideas on what to do with them!

Can you see how happy I was? :)

The Blacker Hall Farm is in Wakefield, Yorkshire, about 20' drive south of Leeds. There is also a coffee shop and restaurant.