PE Mead & Sons Tea Room and Farm Shop
The end of last week saw me visit a friend who is one of the trustees of People Not Borders. This is a brilliant charity which, amongst other things, collects clothes for Syrian Refugees.
Fortunately for me, Flip (pictured on the left) lives just round the corner from PE Mead & Sons Farm Shop and Tea Room. So, after dropping off some bags of clothes, I took the opportunity to drop into this inspirational farm shop to see what was new.
PE Mead & Sons is a family owned business which is packed with local produce and has even created space to support local artisan businesses. The family have been farming in the area since the mid-1800s and have grown both the farm and shop over the years.
Today, they have a lovely tea room set in the barn where they serve tea, cakes and sandwiches. There are benches outside too and it is a popular spot for dog walkers and cyclists stopping off for refreshments as it's set in lovely countryside next to Wilstone Reservoir.
What is particularly impressive about Meads is their commitment both to developing their own products and to providing a hub for other local and British producers. They started producing their own Chiltern Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil in 2008. It’s really delicious and is now available in a myriad of flavours and forms the base for other products like flavoured mayonnaises.
The farm shop also stocks locally produced meat and a range of British cheeses made by independent artisan producers. They have farm produced logs and hay and home pressed apple and pear juice. You can even take along your own apples and get them pressed for you!
The most recent addition to Meads is workshop spaces for Artisan Food producers. Meads say they wanted to create a hub to help support local producers and have invested in building workshop space next to the farm shop. So far, there is an artisan bread maker, a distillery, catering company and non-alcoholic drinks producer. You can book to visit the workshops for tastings and tours. Details are on the website.
A great place which is well worth a visit and I look forward to visiting again very soon. All round very Delectish!
PE Mead & Sons, The Moors, Lower Icknield Way, Tring, HP23 4NT
www.pemeadandsons.co.uk
