On and on people bang about Daylesford Organics in Gloucestershire; I called in last summer out of curiosity and found myself stumbling round in a trance, feeling like a farm hand, alienated by the extraordinary prices.
Who shops here? Well, judging by the private plates on the gas-guzzling SUVs in the car park, posh people. And on a midweek morning, they were here in droves. Manicured and Nicole Farhi’d to within an inch of their Stepford lives, wafting round buying the shop up. As Jay Rayner wrote ‘I was standing in Daylesford Orangics, trying to work out whether the kids could go without shoes so I could afford to buy an emergency hunk of Comte cheese ..’ Indeed. Plus candles at 70 quid. And wailing whale music throughout. So: expensive and irritating.
Last week I called in on Fodder by the Yorkshire Showground and guess what? We’ve got our very own version and it’s completely accessible (price-wise) to ornery folk like us, in a stunning building (all glass and wood and lofty ceilings) and the serving people are friendly and warm. (Unlike the southern experience where my chippy northerness was rewarded with cool glances down noses – hence the farm hand vibe. Well, that and the charity shop clobber I was and am always wearing.)
It’s just won a gong from The Observer (best independent local retailer) and rightly so. What a fabulous space, shop and caff. It was a gloomy, chilly February afternoon and my heart lifted as I walked in – you know that warm, welcoming thing you’re lucky if you get and when you do you totally appreciate? Well you get that here. And brilliant local produce – everything – eggs, meat, bread, veg and the cakes. Well, the cakes. You know what we’re like with cakes.
Don’t take our word for it. Have a bit of a Grand Day Out, trazz round Harrogate (morning coffee at Betty’s, obviously) but end up here. In another article on another day, JR said ‘it’s a welcome and thrilling venture’. Amen to that.
Fodder, Great Yorkshire Showground, Harrogate, HG2 8NZ T: 01423 546111 www.fodderweb.co.uk