A farm shop in Nottinghamshire is celebrating being named a champion in the Muddy Stilettos Awards 2022 celebrating "the most brilliant local businesses" across 28 counties across the UK. Winners in 27 categories, including best restaurant, family attraction and florist, were chosen out of 75,000 businesses nominated, with 765,000 votes cast.
Despite some tough competition, the urban guide to the countryside crowned Spring Lane Farm Shop in Mapperley Plains the best farm shop in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. The family-run shop, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, is located on a working arable and beef farm and prides itself on selling high quality and home-produced food.
Shoppers can buy from a butchery counter, bakery and cheese and deli counter and there's a focus on locally sourced products. A nomination out-of-the-blue led to the farm shop making it to the final five, which included Harker's at Clipston-on-the Wolds, in Nottinghamshire, and Chatsworth Estate Farm Shop in Derbyshire. Customers then had to vote for their favourite.
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Jessica Spencer, sales and marketing manager, said: "It was a surprise. We encouraged customers to vote for us but never in a million years did we think we'd win. For a little farm shop like us on the outskirts of Nottingham it's surreal really."
The farm has been operating since the Second World War but it wasn't until 1962 that Jessica's great grandparents Herbert and Edna started selling homegrown potatoes and eggs from the farmhouse door.
"It snowballed from there. I'm now the fourth generation in the family to join the business," said Jessica, whose mum Claire is a director and brother Charlie is farm manager. "We went away to university for a bit and learnt about food production and ways we can expand the business and brought that home so hopefully we can make some improvements," said Jessica.
All the beef sold in the shop is reared on the farm. The bread is baked on-site by bakers who arrive at work at 4am during the week and midnight Fridays. Carrots, parsnips and a selection of greens are grown just down the road by Hammond Produce and the strawberries are from Starkey's in Southwell.
There's speciality gin distilled in Ruddington and craft beers from Nottinghamshire's Blue Monkey, Lincoln Green and Magpie breweries. Shoppers can also find more unusual buys like sushi boxes from local company Uramaki.
The owners are hoping to build on events to attract more people onto the farm. "This year when we did the lamb feeding experience we saw a lot of younger families come to us - some of which didn't know the farm shop existed," said Jessica.
"It was really successful so hopefully we can do things like that again next year. We are all about getting people out onto the farm because it's so important nowadays we all know where our food is coming from. We shout about our home-produce and home-reared meat so people have the knowledge and security their food has been produced in a safe and sustainable way."
The farm shop has managed to hang on to some of the new faces who visited during the pandemic, when supermarket shelves were bare and farm-to-fork businesses prospered due to the short supply chains.
Further improvements are set to go ahead shortly. Planning permission has been granted to expand and resurface the car park, something they've wanted to do for a long time. Work should start towards the end of the summer.
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