“Our mission is to produce, sell, and serve simple, good quality, ethically produced food that tastes wonderful. Through our traditional butchers’ counters and our fresh veg and grocery aisles, we aim to bring back the taste and quality of fresh food, traditional and otherwise, prepared from the best fresh ingredients. In our cafés and wine bar we use the same ingredients we sell in our shops. Much of what we sell and serve is certified organic, though we also offer spanking fresh, unsprayed, non-organic vegetables from growers just down the road. But what we like most is to produce foods ourselves from start to finish – from farm to table, our way. Food should tell a story and, because we know what it is, we can tell you.”

Mezze plates; soups; and our daily burger.

For thirty-odd years these were called Riverford Farm Shops, but the name changed recently (Ben Watson is the Watson who always ran the shops – the others are Guy, Rachel, Louise, and, Oliver) to avoid confusion with the Riverford Organic Farmers brand name, as they also wanted to support local, ethical, and interesting suppliers who aren’t organic. They are what we might now, call “post-organic” (my, haven’t we come a long way?), and they rock more than ever!