Welcome to Back to the Garden

Fresh local food, organic produce and cafe in North Norfolk

'BEST FARM SHOP' EDP awards 2009-2010

An alternative to strip-lighting and counterfeit food: a locally based choice of very good groceries.  At Barney, just off the A148, we raise organic beef, lamb and a flock of garrulous French chickens.  For Christmas, numbers swell with turkeys and geese.  We sow every kind of vegetable in our organic garden and have most fruits too.  Each morning Robert makes his way down the road to the store, piled mountainously with the day's crop.

At about the same time Kim and Louise will be warming the ovens in the kitchen and Paul will be inspecting and laying out the meat;  local and organic pork, bacon that he has cured himself, rabbit, wild game and venison from our woods, as well as steaks, ribs, joints of Aberdeen Angus-sired beef, and the lamb from our pastures.  Behind the delicatessen, Peter will be assessing the maturity of cheeses, something he has been doing for over twenty-five years;  running his eye over the organic charcuterie and ham.  Jean will be ready to take charge of the vegetables. Coffee will be on, the smell of fresh bread in the air.

Amongst our stock, you'll find the beers of hard-working local brewers, pickles, conserves, jam, a range of organic wine for all pockets, fresh bread and pastries, artisan and wild food.  Come first thing any day - we open all seven of them - for coffee and home-baked cake and the chances are you'll meet one of the local producers dropping off goods.

In the evening there could be a private party going on in the oak-beamed barn, a book launch or an exhibition.  Frances Kearney, a great photographer, whose work is exhibited internationally, has a show on at the moment.  We are delighted to be asked to cater for events, here, or just about anywhere you want us to go in Norfolk.

If you're in a hurry, ring through an order.  Use this site to pre-order, or choose a gift to be sent on your behalf.  If chopping and washing, grilling and baking are not what you want to do, buy one of our meals.  Embankment Beef with Yetman's Stout, for example, named after the long-gone railway line, now covered in vetches, harebells and grass, where the sheep and cattle roam.

Like other farm shop owners, Veronica and I wanted to get back to farming on a human scale.   Growing for friends and neighbours, knowing that the animals are not ending up under the lights of a supermarket shelf miles away, and that the vegetables are being tasted at their best, is a reward in itself.

None of this would be possible without a cheery and dedicated team, but particularly without William, who manages everybody and everything: rooted, reliable, incredibly hard-working and a very funny companion.

Delaval Astley