All natural: Britain's best farm shops Photo: MARTIN POPE  Each time I walk into a farm shop it is with a feeling of gratitude that this concept is becoming more and more successful, although "concept" is probably the wrong word for a shopping movement that has saved supermarket sceptics like me from the Stepford sterility of pushing trolleys in superstores.  Farm shops were an idea straight from the heart of farmers who had an urgent need to reconnect with those who ate the food they grew and reared. Where once we had marketing boards that gobbled all British farmers' milk, cereal and meat then regurgitated it in ubiquitous packaging, we once again have diversity.  Every county is peppered with farm buildings that have been converted into food halls packed imaginatively with honest foods. Beef, pork and lamb from home-reared animals, artisan cheeses, slow-made bread, vegetables that have just been pulled from the ground and properly, fully ripened strawberries whose tender cores come out with the stalk. Remember those?  Amid a recession these shops have even more relevance. Many of the farmers I spoke to when rounding up this nationwide list claimed that their prices compete well with like-for-like in supermarkets. I would go further than that and say they are frequently cheaper. There is a greater abundance of cheap cuts and offal, and farm shops have a decent understanding of gluts, bringing prices down as the season for each food reaches its peak. May the farm shop culture grow and grow, and hats off to the creativity, acumen and courage of the British farmers who bought them to us.  Here's my top 50 farm shops for the bank holiday weekend [see related articles]
As asparagus and other homegrown delicacies come into season, Rose Prince    picks her 50 favourite local food halls.