Island Life Magazine Ltd June/July 2009 | Page 114

FOOD & DRINK

Bluebells

life

Eating rural is the new
eating out craze...
By Roz Whistance

THE Farm Shop movement on the Island
has reached its logical conclusion – Farm
Shop cafés. Within the last month two such
cafés have opened, which use their own
produce and that of so many of their Island
neighbours.
Of course this isn’t just about opening
up an eatery. Both King’s Manor Farm
Café in Freshwater and Bluebells Café at
Briddlesford Lodge Farm in Wootton have
come from a broader desire to lead people
back to the idea of good home cooking
using the fresher than fresh ingredients
produced from the surrounding land.
“Our sheep are grazed on the salt

114

marshes,” says Susie Sheldon at King’s
Manor, “which is part of our high level
stewardship conservation project. They are
Hebridean sheep, which are particularly
suited to the environment, and they produce
a more gamey, less fatty meat.”
The beef too is grown on the rough
grassland which, as well as providing
fantastic grazing for their organic cattle,
is a haven for overwintering lapwings and
grey partridges. With the beef Susie and
her manager/cook Lucy, produce the café’s
speciality, gourmet burgers, which have
nothing added to detract from the taste of
the meat.

When you see the menu you can’t help
breathing a sigh of relief. At long last,
within spitting distance of Freshwater
village, you can get a superb light lunch
which has handmade written all over it. It
is worth saving a bit of room – or working
up an appetite by doing the circular walk
which goes through the King’s Manor Farm
land, linking Yarmouth to Freshwater –
so that you can try the cakes. “They’re
weightwatchers’ cakes,” quips Susie.
“Appetite suppressants.”
It was their meat which prompted Susie
and her husband Jamie to open the farm
shop and café. “It seemed an awful waste

The Island's most loved magazine