From Daylesford to Diddly Squat, the Cotswolds farm shops that tourists can't resist

Independent

4 days ago

I've never been one for a queue. I hate waiting in line for a table at a restaurant. I've never queued up at a bookshop at midnight ahead of the latest release. And I have never bothered with the 7am wake-up call for the sales on Boxing Day.
And yet, on a Wednesday in mid-March, I'm queuing to get into a small shed that belongs to the TV presenter and motoring journalist-turned-farmer, Jeremy Clarkson. This is Diddly Squat Farm Shop, as seen in the hit Amazon Prime TV show, Clarkson's Farm, and it's chaotic even when the weekend crowds have gone home.
The reward at the end of the line is somewhat underwhelming. I shuffle in among a gaggle of tourists, sandwiched between a selfie stick and a GoPro on a tripod, and can barely see the produce through the crowds. There's local honey on offer for £12, jam for just short of a fiver, and candles that purport to smell like Clarkson's genitals. The whole experience is unappealing and, frankly, tacky. And yet, Diddly Squat has brought in thousands of visitors to the Cotswolds since it opened in 2020.
But this isn't the only farm in this National Landscape. This bucolic region is packed with arable fields and grazing pasture where you'll find lambs and sheep roaming throughout summer. And the farmers responsible, who were here long before Clarkson's crew arrived, have been producing and selling their wares in their own farm shops for decades.
You don't have to go far from Clarkson's digs to find them. Just a 10-minute drive south of Diddly Squat lies the greatly underrated FarmED, a 107-acre regenerative agriculture experiment and education centre headed by Ian and Celene Wilkinson. Regenerative farming has found its way into mainstream media and conversation thanks to Clarkson's Farm, but this pair have been doing it for decades on the farms they've managed. For visitors, FarmED is a fascinating place to see it in action on self-guided tours, and sample the delicious vegetables that grow in their nutrient-rich soil at the on-site cafe. Down the road, stop in at the tiny but enticing Bruern Farm Shop and Cafe for pasture-fed beef, local beers and handicrafts and gifts made by artisans in the Cotswolds.
And then you've got Daylesford – a farm shop on steroids with price tags to match. This organic farm and dairy is a vast place of 2,200 acres and is a gargantuan operation, with several hundred dairy and beef cows of varying breeds, Merino sheep for wool and Kerry Hill and Lleyn sheep for lamb. They raise hundreds of truly free-range chickens for eggs, grow a market garden with kale, lettuce, leeks and more, and even have a flower garden for fresh-cut flowers for the table.
The shop itself is more like an upper-class supermarket than a traditional farm shop. Their magnificent cheese room is the undisputed highlight, where the farm's own creamery, located just a few metres away behind the shop, stores their tangy cheddar, buttery Baywell and mellow Double Gloucester. There's a deli counter where much of the kitchen garden produce is put to use in salads, and a butcher where you can buy their lamb sausages or 35-day dry-aged steaks from the local herd.
It might all seem a little steep in price, but book a stay at one of their pubs with rooms and you'll be able to tour the farm to see just how much work goes into creating each bit of produce. And definitely don't leave without a meal in The Trough, where Michelin has awarded the chefs with its coveted Green Star for sustainability and quality cooking.
A far more understated affair is 13 miles south at Upton Smokery, just outside Burford on the A40 to Cheltenham. While it's not affiliated with any particular farm locally, this cavernous barn stocks local honey, eggs and cheeses alongside sumptuous produce from abroad – think voluptuous Spanish artichokes and fragrant Italian lemons – while at weekends the vast barbecues at the far end of the shop are fired up to cook brisket, chicken, ribs and more, all smoked on site, for diners in the know. It's a little-known spot for finding exciting food, and I can almost guarantee you won't have to queue to get in the door.
Of course, Clarkson isn't the only celebrity in the Cotswolds with their hand in farming, either. Countryfile 's Adam Henson has his own family farm just outside Cheltenham. I strike out from Diddly Squat to visit his Cotswold Farm Park, where you can meet rare breed sheep and cattle, and then sample some of them in the on-site Ox Shed shop and cafe. I take in the wildlife walk with the dog and spot a few goats poking their heads out from inside a barn, but I can't stick around for long, as I've got an important appointment with a world-famous sausage roll.
A five-minute drive takes me to the almost unbearably quaint village of Guiting Power, where The Cotswold Guy farm shop, deli and cafe draws visitors from as far as the USA. Former Auberge du Soleil chef Chris Davey tells me how his sausage rolls shot to fame after David Beckham posted on Instagram that they are the best he's ever eaten. Baked daily in his shop, which is packed with other local produce and home-cooked meals by Davey which you can take home to reheat – his ethos is 'I gather, you cook' – they're a regular sellout. I opt for a sausagemeat bap with eggs, bacon-dusted tater tots and a fresh grapefruit juice, which I devour in the sun-kissed garden behind the cafe, smug in the knowledge that while the hordes are piling into the Diddly Squat car park, I'll probably have this place to myself for the hour.