Lotmead Farm Pick Your Own has been shortlisted by The Farm Retail Association (formerly FARMA) in their annual awards celebrating the best farm shops, farm cafés and restaurants, farmers’ markets, Pick Your Own farms and trade suppliers.
Lotmead Farm currently holds the title of the Best Pick Your Own in the UK and is looking to defend this title in the forthcoming awards, to be announced in February.
Norman Parry, owner of Lotmead Farm, said: “The Farm Retail Association Awards are important to us as they are the only awards that are judged by fellow farm retailers and look at what we offer to the public in terms of the quality of our fruit and vegetables, as well as the extra fun we provide such as our play area and cafe.
“Each year we have around 70,000 visitors and we always talk to them to find out what they like at Lotmead and what else they like to see and this helps us decide how we improve each year. We are now working up plans for our summer 2019 season and we hope to extend our play area even more.
“Very soon, on 1 December, we will also be re-opening our doors for people who want to come and buy a top quality Christmas tree, as well as Christmas wreaths and tree stands. Every year we have hundreds of trees of all shapes and sizes for people to come and choose from and our non-drop trees will look great all through the Christmas period.”
David Leon, from the Farm Retail Association said: “The range and standard of award entries demonstrates the exceptional quality of the produce and customer service customers can expect from our members. Savvy shoppers know that by buying directly from their local farm shop, farmers’ market and Pick Your Own farm they are getting the very best of local food and service.
“The judges had a difficult job and Lotmead Farm should be justly proud to be named as one of the finalists. They will now go forward to the second round which includes a secret shopper visit and a further round of judging to determine the overall winner in each category.”
The winners will be announced at the Awards dinner as part of the Farm Retail Association’s Annual Conference and Trade Show on Tuesday 26th February in Oxford.
