In my job I am mostly deskbound but last week I was lucky enough to go to Devon to help out on a photoshoot at Riverford Farm near Buckfastleigh. That’s Riverford as in the organic veg box people, of course.
At the amazing Riverford Farm Field Kitchen, chef Jane Baxter and her team come up with amazing, seasonal veg dishes and some spectacular puddings twice a day; there is meat to go with them if you want it but it’s not the main attraction. You eat at communal tables, and the first time I went I was worried there wouldn’t be enough food to go around. But of course there was. The Times restaurant critic Giles Coren reckons he had the lunch of his life there and I’d second that (although I wasn’t with Giles when I had mine, obviously).
At first glance the site looks like a farm, as you’d expect, but as you near the Field Kitchen and Riverford HQ there’s lots of nice, exhuberant planting on terraces – shown here.
If you’re holidaying in Devon this summer, you MUST go. Just don’t plan too much for afterwards, as you may need a lie-down.