ON a bright Saturday morning, we headed for Weardale in search of breakfast, hoping that this most unfashionable of dales could come up with another winner on a par with Horsley Hall, so far this year’s stand-out scoff.

We were on our way to the hall near Eastgate in April when we passed the Bradley Burn Farm Shop and Cafe, registered that we had never paid it a visit hitherto and vowed to rectify the omission.

Bradley Burn’s beside the A689 just west of Wolsingham and easy to miss. We sailed past initially but having executed a deft U-turn (if I say so myself) found our way back to the single story timber structure which houses the shop and the cafe plus a good-sized car park and an attractive, decked terrace which overlooks the eponymous burn.

The Stephenson family have owned Bradley Burn since the 1930s and as farm diversification initiatives go this takes some beating. There is also a caravan site, holiday cottages, a farm trail and children’s play area. For all we know there may also be a crazy golf course, spa and equestrian centre tucked away somewhere.

Sadly, it wasn’t quite the weather for breakfasting on the terrace and having made our way through the attractively laid-out pine-panelled shop with all manner of foodie goodies on display, many produced locally, some from further afield, we found a table by a window where the sun was pouring through.

The Bradley Burn breakfast offer is basic. It’s either the full English, or Dales breakfast as stated on the menu, or a bacon butty.

We opted for the Dales breakfast (£5.95) but declined the offer of a portion of chips with it for just a £1. They may have been made with their very own Bradley Burn potatoes but chips for breakfast is just too much in the Warne household (a few sautéed potatoes is OK, strangely enough).

We certainly didn’t need the chips given that the breakfast includes a potato scone, which Sylvia didn’t touch (some ideological objection to mixing potato and flour) but I loved. So two for me.

The other components of the Dales breakfast more than passed muster. The bacon looked overcooked but was excellent dry-cured pork, similarly the pork sausage was firm textured and well flavoured. There were also fried mushrooms (I also received Sylvia’s) half a grilled tomato which in truth might have been cooked a bit more, a hefty spoonful of baked beans and a fried egg which was, well, a fried egg.

Sylvia thought it was better than that on account of the colour of the yolk.

The Quest for the Golden Yolk has been an obsession in the Warne household – one part of it at any rate - for a while now. Sylvia is convinced that the more deeply golden yellow the yolk of an egg is the better it tastes. I say there is no rational justification for this belief and that colour has no bearing on taste.

Someone, somewhere in some academic ivory tower must have done some research, or at very least a survey, on this issue but I’ve not been able to find it in order to demolish her argument.

So the quest continues, in supermarkets, at farm gates, farm shops, delis etc, you name the retail emporium we have bought eggs from it.

Let’s just say the Bradley Burn fried egg is a good egg and move on.

The pot of tea (£2.85) was good and strong with plenty of extra hot water supplied. Amazingly, the stainless steel pot poured without spilling (in our long experience stainless steel teapots in cafes nearly always dribble half their contents down the pot side however carefully one pours).

The toast, served with butter but no marmalade, was a disappointment. Ghastly white, sliced pap, it seemed a bizarre aberration in a place filled to the brim with excellent local produce. Can nobody bake around Wolsingham?

Service was quick, friendly and efficient although given the early hour the place wasn’t exactly heaving.

Settling our modest bill of £14.75, we made our way back out through the shop, not even stopping to purchase eggs with the golden yolks. Talk about iron will.

Bradley Burn Farm Shop

Wolsingham, Bishop Auckland, County Durham DL13 3JH
Tel: 01388 529488
Web: www.bradleyburn.co.uk
Open: 9am-5pm seven days
Vegetarian breakfast options: Zilch
Disabled access: Ok but tables a bit close together
Ratings (out of ten): Food quality: 7 Service: 7 Surroundings: 7 Value: 8