Bashall Barn Wins National Award

5th February 2010

Bashall Barn near Clitheroe has been awarded best on-farm restaurant award from the National Farmers’ Retail & Markets Association (FARMA) for its innovative and exciting food offer!

Diners can visit one of three distinct dining areas; the restaurant, offering the best of seasonal Lancashire fine dining, including an impressive self-service salad bar; the coffee shop, for homemade scones and teacakes to toast over the wood burning stoves, or the ‘Sundae School’, for a scoop of the farm’s award-winning ice-cream. Visitors can see the live animals at a viewing gallery, watch ice-cream being made, honey being harvested, sauces and chutneys bubbling away and beer brewing.

Simon Barnes, M. D. commented, "This isn’t food miles it's food feet… I think customers have the right to know the provenance of their food, ask the brewer how he makes his beer, the honey maker how he keeps his bees and watch the chefs in the kitchen cooking shepherd’s pie for the restaurant, as well as the ready meals that we are now famed for."

The new Bashall Barn experience has been a hit with customers since opening in March 2009. Under the eye of Henk Van Heumen, with 40 years of experience in the Lancashire food scene, there is more planned for 2010; laying hens, homegrown vegetables and herbs, and opportunities for customers to get their hands dirty in both field and kitchen. The successful themed nights will continue, and bookings are being taken for parties and weddings.

Cavan Scott, BBC writer and former editor of Countryfile magazine, was on this year’s panel of judges "What the team at Bashall Barn have created takes farm catering to a new level. Here is the kind of dining experience you would only expect to see on the highstreet. Slick, sophisticated and fantastic fun, Bashall Barn is a unique foodie destination and has raised the bar for farm retailer's everywhere. Pioneering work."

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