Vegetables from the fields behind the shop and six farms in the Vale, our eggs, the dairy's milk and cheese, the bakery's bread, and the field written on the shelf
The farm shop
A converted barn with the vegetables on trestles down the middle as they come out of the field, our eggs, milk and cheese from the Llantrithyd dairy, bread from the Cowbridge bakery, honey from the hives in the orchard, jams and chutneys from the farmhouse kitchen, and a shelf of what six other Vale farms grow. The field number is on every ticket.
The shop is the barn the grain used to go in, with the vegetables down the middle on trestles the way they come out of the field: muddy, misshapen, in wooden crates with the field number chalked on the end. Most of what is on them was picked that morning in the fields you walked past from the car park. The rest came from six farms within twelve miles, named on the shelf.
What is on the trestles follows the calendar on this website: potatoes, carrots, onions and leeks most of the year from the barn; brassicas through the winter; asparagus for six weeks from late April; broad beans, peas and the first salad in June; tomatoes, courgettes and beans through the summer; squash, sweetcorn and the apples in the autumn. Around the walls: our eggs from the hens in the orchard, milk, butter and three cheeses from the Llantrithyd dairy, sourdough and rolls from the Cowbridge bakery delivered at eight, honey from the orchard hives, the farmhouse jams and chutneys, flour from a mill in Monmouthshire, and the shelf of the six farms: a goat's cheese, cider, rapeseed oil, a pork farm's bacon, a market garden's herbs, a soft-fruit farm's jam.
Prices are on the shelf and the same in the box as at the till. Misshapen vegetables sell at the same price as the straight ones because they taste the same, and the children choose the strangest carrot. Bring your own bags and boxes; we weigh loose. The shop is open seven days, from half past eight, and the trestles are fullest on Thursday and Friday after the box picking. A till at the back for the butchery, and a bell on the counter if nobody is there, because we are probably in the field.
What you get
- Vegetables from our fields, the field number on the ticket
- Six other Vale farms on the shelf, named
- Our eggs; Llantrithyd milk, butter and cheese; Cowbridge bread
- Honey from the orchard hives; farmhouse jams and chutneys
- Loose, weighed, in your own bags; misshapen at the same price
- Open seven days from 8:30am; the calendar says what is in
What it costs
Our potatoes £1.60 a kilo, carrots £1.80, a cauliflower £2.20, a dozen eggs £6.40, a litre of Llantrithyd milk £1.60, a sourdough £3.80. The seasonal calendar says what is on the trestles this month. The seasonal calendar says what is in the fields this month; the boxes page builds this week's box with the total.
Questions about the farm shop
Is everything organic?
Not certified. The fields are farmed without sprays on the vegetables and the hens and the flock are outside, and we will tell you exactly what we do and do not do if you ask. Certification costs more than it is worth on a farm this size.
Do you take cards?
Yes, and cash, and there is an honesty box at the gate for eggs and potatoes when the shop is closed, which works because this is Bonvilston.
This week's box, built in a minute, on the step on Thursday.
Small, medium or large with this week's contents listed, eggs, bread and milk if you want them, and the total before you order. By Tuesday noon; collected from Thursday or delivered Thursday and Friday within eight miles, £3.50, free over £30. No subscription.