To mark the end of my time with the family for new year we went to Claremont farm on the Wirral before hitting the road back to Glasgow.

This is a lovely farm with a farm shop and cafe. The building is quite small but the decor was lovely and a bright, clean and modern take on homely. I stocked up on some very reasonably priced veggies and smoked chicken beast for my empty fridge back in Glasgow. Everything they stock in the shop and serve in the cafe is as locally sourced as possible and you can see clearly where everything comes from.

It was busy but we got one of the long tables by the kitchen right away but fortunately a table became vacant by the window and we moved. There were 6 of us, my parents, my sister, her husband, my two year old nephew and myself.

We got a mixture of coffees and lemonade between us and ordered some food. While all of this was going on my nephew was very, erm, boisterous and went running around the shop being followed by his parents. He happily ran back to the table only for us to discover the source of his pride and happiness on returning to the table was his theft of a carrot. Very cute that he thought it was such a good score. He was distraught when this was removed from his possession and put back where it came from. But he soon calmed down and tucked into his children’s meal of chips, sausage and beans. He did really well polishing off about 2/3 of it. Kids meals are generally too big for him as, well, he is two and they also need to be big enough to feed a nine year old. He was a happy customer looking forward to getting some ice-cream for pudding which he told the waitress when she asked if he was finished to take his plate. “No! I’m having ice-cream.”

Now us grown up’s. I wanted the game pie but it was off as there was a special.  My brother-in-law Thom and I had this instead, the game ragu (£8.95). I asked what was in it; pheasant, rabbit and venison. It was nice. I added a little salt but I think thats just my taste. The meat was tender, not at all tough and the tomato sauce was yummy although it could have been a little richer. But thats me nit picking.  My dad had the other special, the lamb tagine. Apologies I didn’t get a note of the price but I think it was similar to the ragu. I love a good tagine. Brings back memories of a lovely foodie holiday in Marrakech a good few years ago now. This was good, lots of spice, by which I mean the flavour rather than the level of heat. A hint of sweetness as there should be in North African cuisine and rich. Lovely. The couscous was perfectly cooked but was plain and I personally prefer when it had its own seasoning and flavour.

My mum and my sister Mhairi both went for the Welsh rarebit with two salad sides (£7.95 with my mum adding ham for an extra £1). This incited some serious food envy from Thom and I as their plates looked so enticing. I had a bit of both the rarebit, potato salad and beetroot salad and they were all delicious. This was a real winner.

The portion sizes were all very good. We were all stuffed. Sadly my mothers food didn’t arrive until quite some time after the rest of the table and she was a bit grumpy about this, which was a shame.

I love places that think about where their food has been sourced and want to cut down on food miles. I am all for anything that is more socially or environmentally responsible and Claremont farm really promotes that. I look forward to coming here again when I am back both for the food and for the produce. Therefore I would recommend. They also run a variety of foodie classes from beekeeping to chocolate making. Exactly the kind of things I always wish I had time to do. One day, when I can afford to work part time. And off I drove back to Glasgow for yet another run of night shifts.

So I will probably be a little quiet again for a while. Christmas has taken it’s toll and I don’t have any pennies for eating out. Maybe someone will entice me out on a date or something tho….

Foodie xx

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