Eating Out: Stoneygate Farm Shop wears its heart on its sleeve

“I do. The place that just keeps on growing. Where you can now buy everything from a joint of beef and a china tea set to a reindeer hide.”

“No, not the Mainsgill retail extravaganza which makes most farm shops look like a penny bazaar in comparison, I’m talking about Stoneygate Farm Shop and Café on the other side of Ravensworth on the road to Richmond.”

“Never heard of it.”

This approximation of a conversation I relate here, between myself and a good friend, is what brought me to the other farm shop in Ravensworth – a community truly blessed for good places to get food, drink and more. Rumour has it the closed village pub, the Bay Horse, is to reopen too. There’s a very large skip outside which looked promising when we passed.

Before anybody gets too picky I’ll acknowledge that, strictly speaking, Mainsgill Farmshop, café, deli, butchers, home and country store etc, etc is not in Ravensworth but is in the neighbouring parish of East Layton. But most people will acknowledge its proximity to the first-named community.

Given the all-singing, all-dancing nature of its big boy near-neighbour, Stoneygate could be forgiven for having a bit of an inferiority complex.

Eating Out at Stoneygate Farm Shop, Deli and Café

But there’s no sign of that. Indeed the smart, timber-clad building which houses the farmshop deli and café wears its heart on its sleeve – proudly telling the story of its Tamworth pigs, its Mule and Herdwick sheep and its Beef Shorthorn cattle, native breeds which provide the meat for the shop and the café.

Inside, the café is an attractive eating area where the modest Christmas decs are deployed with restraint. If your taste is for plenty of Ho, Ho Ho, you might be disappointed.

It was also on the chilly side. We had called before the recent cold snap arrived but it was decidedly cool. I took off my coat (so as to feel the benefit when I went out outside again, of course) but nearly put it straight back on again. Sylvia decided to keep buttoned up.

It’s something we may just have to get used to this winter as business try to keep a cap on their energy bills.

So something hearty to eat was called for off a lunch menu – served between 11.30am and 3.30pm – which while featuring a number of salads (quiche, halloumi and bacon and black pudding) also had some winter warmers – mac ‘n cheese, soup, omelette, cheese on toast and a couple of burger options.

Eating Out at Stoneygate Farm Shop, Deli and Café

There were also some specials including a turkey sandwich (£7) which came with stuffing and a salad garnish. Sylvia supplemented that with a portion of chips (£2.75) and said that while the turkey and bread bun were fine the experience would have been immeasurably better had there been just a little gravy.

One of the burger options was the Big Malc Burger (£11.50) – which of course I had to have. It’s not often that a menu offers something which seems tailored made for me.

It turned out that the Big Malc in this instance is Stoneygate Farm owner Malcolm Tennant who I guess must be quite big. Whatever, his burger is a beaut. Fat, juicy, pink in the middle, nicely charred on the outside, it was served in a warm brioche bun and came with a good house relish, fried onions, crispy lettuce and twice-cooked beef dripping chips. Excellent.

In the interests of keeping out the cold and tempted by the prospect of buttermilk waffles and maple syrup (£7) I waded in again.

Eating Out at Stoneygate Farm Shop, Deli and Café

Now I know that, given the flannel above about the experience being a bit chilly, this might seem rather counter intuitive but these waffles would have been greatly improved by a scoop of vanilla ice cream. While there was a fairly generous serving of the syrup, it just needed something else to moisten each mouthful.

Entertainment during our visit was provided by an office party who were being served a humungous rib of beef on the bone – presumably from the farm’s Beef Shorthorns – which looked absolutely superb. We couldn’t help but keep glancing across as the glistening joint was carved at the table just a few feet from us.

Eating Out at Stoneygate Farm Shop, Deli and Café

For one moment I did think about sliding my plate over in case a slice of the rosy pink loveliness might somehow fall on to it. That would have rude and cheeky – if very tempting.

But it did mean that when we had finished our meal in the café we went straight next door to the deli/shop/butchers and spent a lot of money on meat, cheese and other stuff. Which is the problem with eating at farmshops. You have to have iron-willed discipline and we failed miserably.

Our bill in the café which included a couple of drinks was £35.70. We spent the same again in the shop.

Stoneygate Farm Shop, Deli and Café

Stoneygate Bank, Ravensworth DL11 7BT

Tel: 01748 897131 Web: stoneygatefarm.co.uk

Open: Monday to Saturday 9am-5pm, Friday and Saturday 5-10pm, Sunday noon-3pm

Ratings (out of ten): Food quality 8 Service 7 Surroundings 6 Value 7