Top 5 reasons to buy your Easter lunch from Gates Farm Shop

What are the benefits of buying British food?

Easter is a time for family and friends to come together and enjoy a delicious home-cooked meal. If you’re looking for a way to make your Easter lunch even more special, consider getting it from Gates Farm Shop at Gates Garden Centre. There are many benefits to getting your Easter lunch from our farm shop, which we’ll explore in more detail this post.

1. Supporting your community

First, you can be supporting local and UK businesses. Our farm shop and many of the farms, dairies and food suppliers we use are family-owned and operated, and they rely on the support of their community to stay in business. When you buy from our farm shop, you can help to keep your community strong.

Local food production creates jobs in the local food system. This includes jobs on farms, in artisan production, and in transportation, plus of course in our store. When you buy locally-sourced food, you are helping to preserve farmland too. This is because you are encouraging farmers to grow food locally, which helps to prevent the conversion of farmland to other uses.

2. The freshest food for your Easter table

Most importantly, by buying locally in this way, you’ll be getting fresh, delicious food. Our farm shop typically sells a good selection of food that has been grown or raised locally or in the UK. Fewer food miles means that your food will be fresher and more flavourful than food that has been shipped from far away, meaning great quality and traceability from farm to fork. You can find everything you’d want for a traditional Easter lunch in our farm shop, from beef and lamb that is reared right here on our own farm, to UK-grown vegetables such as leeks, carrots, onions, cabbages, parsnips or beetroot; as well as baking, red, white, salad and Jersey potatoes.

For afters, may we suggest a crumble using locally-milled Whissendine plain flour and British rolled oats, butter and sugar, whilst for the filling; British rhubarb, apples or plums, teamed with British cream or artisan ice-cream. Our bread arrives freshly-baked every morning from Hambleton Bakery in Exton, and if you’re looking for something to drink, we have delicious and refreshing Belvoir soft drinks and cordials, flavoursome local beers from the Grainstore, Round Corners and Langton breweries, as well as craft gin from no less than five local distilleries.

You could end your perfect Easter lunch with a freshly-brewed cup of the finest specialty coffee, hand-roasted in small batches just down the road in Oakham by Two Chimps. To put the finishing touch to the table we even have daffodils grown not far away in Lincolnshire!

3. Food of the finest-quality

UK-produced food can also be of higher quality than food imported from abroad. Many of our wonderful British suppliers have won multiple awards for the food they produce, whether it be the thick and creamy live yoghurt from local dairy Manor Farm, tangy sauces from Nottinghamshire’s Sauce Shop made with all-natural ingredients, British flours from Wessex Mill, or the vast array of awards picked up by the fabulous Cook range of frozen all-natural ready meals.

4. Delicious and nutritious produce

Local food can be more nutritious than food that has been shipped from far away, too. This is because it has not had to travel as far and has often been harvested more recently. Food that is produced near our store will take less time to travel from gate to plate and will be more nutritious and delicious for it.

5. Helping the environment

Local suppliers can also help the environment as there are fewer transport costs involved in delivering the product to you. As well as this, many UK businesses use sustainable practices in their food production, such as eco-friendly packaging or fewer additives, ingredients or pesticides. Take for instance, our PrOrganic milk which is produced on a Rutland farm just 1.2 miles away from our farm shop. Arriving fresh each day and sold from our in-store vending machine in environmentally-friendly refillable glass bottles, their organic milk has been certified pesticide-free by the Soil Association since 2005.

We have in-store fresh Orange Juice and Peanut Butter machines, which are both made before your very eyes to cut out manufacturing altogether. Also, our in-store loose fill dry goods and frozen fruit, vegetables and pastries do away with single-use packaging, so you can pick, pack, weigh and enjoy with a clear conscience.

Summary

If you’re looking for a way to make your Easter lunch even more special, consider getting it from the Gates Farm Shop. Whether you’re a committed “Locavore”, are interested in supporting British businesses, looking for the finest produce, wanting to reduce packaging or appreciate our good-value groceries; there are many good reasons why shopping with us is an easy way to get get fresh, delicious food, with an emphasis on sustainability. Our opening hours are 8:00am-5.30pm Monday – Saturday (including Good Friday), 10:00am – 4:00pm, closed on Easter Sunday and 9:00am – 5:00pm on Bank Holiday Monday. Alternatively, you can visit the farm shop website.