Farrington's Farm Shop Christmas Preview Evening

We're quite lucky that we have an award-winning farm shop only a few miles away - Farrington's Farm Shop - and Wednesday this week was their annual Christmas Preview Evening.

 

 

I've never managed to actually go before beacuse the last couple of years they've held it on the same night as our local Carnival but thankfully this year it was moved to the week after Carnival season.

I think it definitely showed though because the place was packed!

Farrington's isn't just any old farm shop, it's a whole farm shopping park and if I had children, it could quite easily be a whole day out. There's the main farm shop, a fishmongers, a gift shop, a (very nice) cafe, a hairdressers, a vintage/upcycling shop, an indoor soft play area, an outdoor play park, a florists and a garden centre. The majority of the shopping park was open late although unfortunately we spent much more time inside sampling all the delicious goodies than looking round the park.

 

 

We took along our friends M and C; M's been there several times before but for C, it was a completely new experience (and I think she enjoyed it!). First we spent quite a while ooh-ing and ahh-ing over all the Christmas decorations - I was all for buying several of the bird-themed ones but Andrew put his foot down and said we had far too many birdies already in our house (surely not...).

 

 

We then moved down to the food stalls with hundreds and hundreds of samples laid out for us to try. I lost count of the amount of things we tasted, everything was so delicious and all the staff were really knowledgable and enthusiastic about their products, it was difficult to decide what we liked best!

 

 

 

 There was an amazing plate of cheese samples, so creamy and well, cheesy plus I tried a slice of Baileys cheesecake. I don't really like Baileys but the cheesecake was very good. There was also some incredibly tasty Bath Bakery garlic and cheese bread and we were all handed a pot of Marshfield ice cream to try.

I had Blackcurrants in Clotted Cream flavour which was amazing!

 

 

 

The best bit of the evening was the table and chefs serving a complete Christmas dinner made up of samples! When we first spotted it we thought they were perhaps selling turkey rolls or something but no, as we got closer we realised that it was all for us to try.

The roast potatoes were so good and the turkey and ham were cooked just right. We probably had far more parsnips and potatoes then we should have! Just as we were about to move away as well, they brought out a tray of steaming hot pigs in blankets, which we had to stay and try of course.

 

 

I could have easily spent a fortune there; we had to keep telling ourselves that it's still 5 weeks til Christmas and whatever we put in the fridge probably wouldn't last

(both in terms of use by dates and also because we're greedy pigs).

 

In the end we came away with a Quiche Lorraine and a Chicken and Chorizo Pie (which me and Andrew shared for lunch yesterday), some hot chocolate stirrers (to go in my Bloggers Secret Santa package), a small pot of Lemon Cheese and a reduced loaf of bread. It probably doesn't seem like much but we've also got a list pinned to the noticeboard in our kitchen to go back nearer Christmas and buy some Ham Hock Terrine, Mince Pies and delicious Barbers 1833 Vintage Cheese.

 

 

Have you started planning your Christmas food yet?