A new food and travel guide from Printslinger, the independent publisher behind The Extra Mile (Delicious Alternatives to Motorway Services) and The Coastal Café Guide, both Amazon bestsellers in 2024, launched in October.

Promoting Britain’s homegrown food networks, The Farm Shop Guide features 165 independent (and often smaller and family-run) farm shops across England, Scotland, and Wales – along with their first-rate cafés and restaurants.

The guide has everything from shops that drip with awards to muddier, down-to-earth places where the person at the till has just come in from the fields. The guide also promotes 15 food and farming charities to raise awareness of their vital work, and 1% of its sales will go to the Sustainable Food Trust.

Book highlights include:

  • 165 farm shops and their cafés and restaurants
  • Seasonal farm events including Easter, Halloween, and Christmas activities
  • Info on pick-your-own (PYO) crops, food festivals, and farmers markets
  • Icons to help trip-planners, i.e. dog friendly, family friendly, EV charging, parking
  • Eight geographic sections, with chapters on Scotland and Wales
  • Nine striking maps
  • 264 full-colour pages with beautiful photography and maps throughout

The go-to guide for those seeking deliciously fresh local food when on their day trips, holidays and commutes, The Farm Shop Guide will also make everyday eating and food shopping more enjoyable and locally beneficial.

Guy Singh-Watson, veg box pioneer and founder of Riverford Organic, said, “Proper farm shops – ones that actually grow, rear, or make most of their own produce with love, attention to detail, and a genuine connection to the land – are a beautiful thing. This book will help you find them.”

Helen Browning OBE is an organic farmer, farm shop owner, and CEO of the Soil Association. Helen said, “Nothing beats a good farm shop as a way of getting the freshest food possible, while directly supporting fantastic farmers.”

Printslinger is an independent publishing company owned by travel publisher Alastair Sawday, an environmental activist and longstanding campaigner for local food, low food miles, and sustainable travel.

Alastair said, “The farm shops, cafés, and restaurants in this book deserve our support and this comprehensive guide will give them a genuine boost. Some of the places are rackety and delightfully chaotic; some are tiny places right on the farm; others have become huge.

"But they are all fun to shop in – with real human beings on hand to help – and provide an unusual connection with the local land (and my goodness, we need our farms and farmers). Buying and using this book is a great way to support them.”

The Farm Shop Guide is available on Amazon or direct from Printslinger.