Malcolm Warne tries breakfast down on the farmshop... just off the A66

WE had lunch at Mainsgill Farmshop on the A66 west of Scotch Corner a good few years ago and, as I recall, I waxed lyrical about how it set the standard for farmshops in the range and quality of the produce for sale and how it was presented. The lunch was pretty good too.

Since then, the Henshaws who own the farm and the shop, have almost knocked it all down, rebuilt it and turned it into something beyond what most of us think of as farm shop ie something basic, rustic and perhaps a bit dog-eared.

What has taken the place of the old farm shop and tearoom is a 10,000 sq ft two-storey retail emporium, a cross between Fortnum and Mason and Waitrose but with one important difference – you can still wander round in your dirty wellies (you can also buy a pristine new pair upstairs in the gift department).

The extension also created a larger eating area to cater for the many folk who use it either as a superior trunk road stopping point for a quick cuppa and a pee, the families who bring the kids to see all the animals (camels, alpacas etc) or those who come to do their weekly shop. It is robustly furnished with no-nonsense sturdy tables and chairs; the views across Holmedale are stupendous.

We called on a Sunday morning for breakfast and at 9.30 the place was filling up quickly. Food is ordered at the counter, you are given a ticket and then the food is brought to the table. That ticket needs to be retained in order to pay the bill. A simple enough system, but we could imagine some being slightly confused by it, especially when it is not immediately obvious.

The standard menu lists a farmhouse breakfast of egg, two rashers of bacon, sausage, mushrooms and tomatoes plus toast for a very reasonable £5.50. Extras like black pudding, baked beans etc cost an additional 65p.

And it was certainly popular because on the table next to us, six bulky lads ordered six farmhouse breakfasts and cleared their plates almost in the time it took us to take our coats and sit down. Service was very quick. Nobody seemed to wait much more than five minutes for whatever they ordered.

Aside from the standard menu, there was also a list of breakfast specials which included eggs Benedict – now that’s posh for a roadside farmshop.

Sylvia chose the breakfast bun (£6.25 with a tea or coffee included) a stottie-sized white bread roll rammed with bacon, sausage, mushrooms and tomato. The bacon and sausage were Mainsgill’s own and peerlessly porky and lean. In truth, it was rather too much and Sylvia left much of the roll.

My smoked salmon and scrambled egg (£6.50) was served on some white toast. I would have preferred brown, but the thinly-sliced salmon was gently cured, plentiful, and the egg was well cooked. Too well cooked perhaps for my taste but then there’s probably some health and safety advice about undercooked egg and the dangers thereof.

I had also ordered some extra wholemeal toast and our waitress brought a selection of jams including Raydale Preserves’ chocolate orange marmalade(an acquired taste I decided) and an excellent sharply-sweet and fruity lemon and lime marmalade from the Bay Tree Food Company in Somerset.

The butter was a real disappointment. Not only was it the dreaded little catering packs, it was Irish too, all the way from County Cavan in its sweaty little foil parcel. Nothing against the Irish of course, except when they are selling their dairy produce over here when our dairy farmers are being paid a pittance for their milk and going out of business in droves.

I could hardly believe that the Henshaws, who have done so much to champion locally-sourced food and provide an excellent showcase for UK food producers in their shop, should score such an excruciating own-goal with something as simple as a pat of butter in the tea room. I almost went into the adjacent shop and bought some English butter for my toast to make a symbolic protest.

But easing myself off the soapbox, I can commend the Mainsgill breakfast in almost every other respect. Good food, prepared well, and served quickly, the best meal of the day as served on the A66 takes some beating for a shade over £14.

But be prepared. Unless you have an iron will you will probably spend twice that much in the shop on your way out.

Mainsgill Farmshop and Tearoom

Mainsgill Farm, East Layton, Richmond DL11 7PN

Tel: 01325-716680 Web: mainsgillfarm.co.uk

Open: 9am-5pm seven days

Vegetarian and gluten-free options

Ratings:

Food quality: 3/5

Service: 4/5

Surroundings: 3/5

Value: 4/5