A large red and white sign announces the presence of the Red Barn Farm Shop on the busy A359 between Yeovil and Marston Magna and invites you to turn off and pay it a visit (as well as the neighbouring Curious Cow Antiques and Reclamation yard, housed in the old dairy).
As you turn your back on the busy A road, the winding country lane suggests a slower pace of life and prepares you for the bucolic setting of Red Barn Farm. The farm shop is signed through a side door of the imposing red brick farmhouse, displaying old mill stones (hinting at the building’s history) and providing a sunny spot for chickens to warm themselves. There is a wonderful, laid-back charm to the place and as you step through the chain curtain across the doorway, it is like stepping into a French village farm shop.
A cobbled, stone floor keeps the room cool and rustic whilst vintage dressers provide a backdrop for wooden crates and wicker baskets bursting with enticing produce. The thick, old stone walls have been painted in a clotted-cream colour and the simple backdrop allows the fruit and vegetables to do the talking. And what a dazzling collection – if this veg could actually speak it would me shouting: “Eat me, eat me. I’m delicious.”
Knobbly, green cucumbers and juicy nectarines rub shoulders with fragrant, earthy mushrooms and verdant runner beans. Crunchy pears perch in their basket above a tray of courgettes, some yellow and shiny, others round and speckled with green and cream. Curling chillis in all colours and potency-rankings pack a visual punch and the overall effect is quite breath-taking in its simple beauty.
Here there are no shrivelling vegetables, slightly passed their best. This produce is sparkling with freshness. You can almost smell the vitamin C!
Arranged on dresser shelves and old drawers are the store cupboard goodies. There are vinegars and salad dressings, tins of organic chickpeas and butter beans, BBQ and chilli sauces and local honey. More baskets house fresh bread and cakes from local bakers and salad leaves from nearby Chilton Cantelo, plus plump tomatoes and earthy beetroot, bags of curly lettuce and delicate mange tout.
Observing the seasons is key to this farm shop. Bunches of asparagus are on offer for a few short weeks when they have just been picked from the farm’s nearby fields. Pumpkins of all shapes and sizes fill the space in Autumn and punnets of swollen strawberries in the Summer, as well as locally produced gelato. Eggs from the sun-worshipping hens are on offer all year round.
This is a charming farm shop and worth turning off the Yeovil road for, slowing down for a second and filling your basket with goodness. As one customer recently commented: “This is a proper farm shop.”
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