When I think back to those long, worrying, boring months of captivity through successive lockdowns, the one thing that kept me going, and perhaps many of you too, was the thought of escaping for a bit of weekly excitement to do... the food shop. If you had a garden centre or farm shop nearby, well, heading out for your fix of consumer escapism couldn't have been more exciting than having a reservation at The Ritz could it?
Even now, with no restriction whatsoever on where we can go for entertainment, many of us are all still flocking to our local and regional farm shops for a little bit of extra retail thrill. That's certainly the case over at The Lambing Shed in Knutsford, where even on our mid-week early lunchtime visit, the place is packed.
This particular farm shop is also basking in its moment in the national spotlight having won the title of the " UK's Best Farm Shop Cafe/Restaurant " for 2022. Which is getting people flocking into its large and quite luxurious café space in what was once the farm's, yes, original lambing shed.
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What do you have to do to qualify for such an award? Well, in bestowing the honour on The Lambing Shed this year, the Farm Retail Association praised the establishment's high quality of food and service, while hailing it: "a superb example of a business which understands its customer profile and then delivers a range of food and service to meet their customer's needs".
We are in the midst of Cheshire 's Golden Triangle here, so when you talk about "customer profile" you are talking about some of the wealthiest farm shop customers in the north west. This is certainly no run-of-the-mill café either, tailored to a discerning clientele with a menu more akin to posh gastropub in style as well as in price, so is it worth it?
We headed down for a mid-week lunch and the place was already packed with young and old in the café, while throngs more were mooching about the large farm shop which has recently been extended with an extra room filled with gifts, wines and gins as well as the local produce for which it has become known.
Strangely, given the fact we're now in the school summer holidays, the one spot that was nice and quiet was the wood-chipped play area to the front of the farm shop site, where you can sit outside with takeaway food and drink and watch your children gambol about on mini tractors, swings and large tyres. I let my young 'un have a quick dash about, before persuading him indoors to sit down and have a nice meal with his mum and his grandma.
He had found 50p in the car on his way to the farm shop, and to his joy, I said he could spend it in the farm shop. Which was all well and good until I fast realised this is really not the sort of farm shop where you can buy anything for 50p. Anything at all. Even the lollipops, on prominent display as you walk in, are extra large "gourmet" lollipops costing 99p each.
Having dragged him away from the lollies as quickly as I possibly could, we were guided to a table inside the café, which also has a large conservatory area which was packed with diners on our lunchtime visit. The lunch menu (or "men-ewe" to keep with the lambing theme) is served from 11.45am - if you're earlier than that you can choose from the popular cooked breakfast range which is served from 9am daily (and from 10am on Sundays).
Everything is just that little bit fancier than your average café - so it's not just a chicken sandwich, it's a buttermilk chicken strip wrap with siracha mayo (£14.50); It's not just a burger, it's a home-reared lamb burger on brioche bun with chilli jam and garlic mayo (£14.95); It's not just fish and chips, it's beer-battered haddock with crushed minted peas and truffle parmesan fries (£15.95). You get the picture.
Even the coffee they use is that extra bit special - using ethically-farmed beans from the Cheshire-based Jaunty Goat Coffee - and delivering one of the finest flat whites (£3.40) I've had in a long time. The café is also fully licensed, and I noticed plenty of diners were taking advantage with glasses of wine from the full range on the menu starting from £4.95 a glass, as well as local beers and "gin of the month" for £7 a glass with tonic.
We decide to share some salt and pepper cauliflower bites as a starter (£6.95) which arrive as a huge portion that you could easily share between two or three. This turns out to be a great idea. I personally detest cauliflower, and yet the chefs here make it taste like the most delicious vegetable on earth, presumably thanks to the deep fat fryer, spicy seasoning and the wodge of sweet chilli sauce they come with.
There's a dedicated children's menu (with cute colourings in for the kids) offering the likes of chicken strips with fries, mac and cheese, roast dinner (on Sundays) or burger and chips - all for £7.50. My six-year-old opts for the sausage and chips and it's a hefty old portion with skin-on chips that he loved and a sausage so vast he could only manage half of it.
And it's the attention to detail that really stands out here - even his kids' apple juice that we ordered (£1.99) is delivered in a gorgeous glass bottle jar complete with a bee-themed straw poking out the top.
I decide to sample the pie for my main course, thrilled by the description of home-reared beef shin, mushroom and smoked bacon pie served with mash, baby carrots and leeks with red wine sauce (£15.95). My mum was happy to see there was a wild mushroom risotto on the menu, which arrived served with a healthy mount of roasted squash on top and with sorrel and black truffle (£14.95) which she absolutely loved.
The pie was an impressive proposition when it arrived. Although I couldn't help but wonder if the allium really were leeks on top, or spring onions. Which made me start to question whether I really actually know what the difference between a baby leek and a larger-looking spring onion really is in the grand scheme of things.
Either way, the veg added the perfect crunch to the devilishly moist innards of the huge crusty pie. Inside there were mounds of the tastiest shin beef in a rich gravy with the occasional pickled onion as well as lardons of bacon and mushrooms, while the smooth and buttery mash added a welcome swish of creaminess to proceedings.
The mains proved themselves to be of restaurant quality, justifying the sorts of price tags that we were paying here. Because I'm well aware these are not cheap prices for a lunch out.
But if you do one thing while you visit this farm shop café, let it be save some space, and some money, for a cake afterwards. There is a cabinet and shelf veritably heaving with giant home-made cakes here, the sort of display that everyone saunters over to look at in awe at some point during their visit.
There are scones, there are brownies, there are cupcakes, tarts and classic Victoria Sponge, carrot cakes and buns. According to the menu, the cakes here are all made by their dedicated pastry chef Carole, "who has over 30 years experience and makes all the cakes using traditional family recipes."
Carole is clearly a gem. On the advice of our waitress we plump for her "famous" coffee and walnut cake, as well as a slice of the carrot cake (both £3.50 for a hefty portion and money well and truly well spent).
Both cakes are rich, buttery, creamy slabs of joy. We polish it all off with more servings off the Jaunty Goat coffee.
Naturally, I don't manage to get away without buying junior something from the shop - and so even after the heavy fillings from the café, I had to stump up the extra 49p to buy him the posh lollipop after all.
And yep, it might have been expensive, but that too was just about the best lollipop my son said he'd ever polished off.
The Lambing Shed was opened as a farm shop in 2015 by the Mitchell Family, who have been farming on this site for decades. They decided to transform the shed into the shop to diversify and showcase what farmers were doing in the local area.
With the addition of the café they have taken that idea even further, creating something really worth venturing out of your way to go to visit. It was a couple hours of joy for our family to really relish and enjoy an abundance of the regional farming community's best produce in a tranquil setting.
The Lambing Shed, Chelford Road, Knutsford, WA16 8RB is open Monday to Saturday 9am to 5.30pm and on Sundays from 10am to 5.30pm.
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