We all have our favourite places to eat out across Derbyshire.
However there are also some fantastic and wide-ranging local businesses offering amazing, locally-sourced food, drink and ingredients - many of which can be taken home and enjoyed.
Here are just a few of them.
Aqua Garden Organics
A favourite with Derbyshire chefs, home cooks don’t have to miss out with the freshest, picked-that-day micro-greens from the expert growers at Chesterfield’s Aqua Garden Organics.
Choose from almost 40 microgreens – think lemon balm, Thai basil and pal choi alongside those herb staples – to elevate your dishes while delivering a booster shot of goodness.
Even better? If you don’t want to do the cooking, they also run super supper clubs in indie venues around the county - their latest was the beautiful Barlow Woodseats Hall.
If staying in is more your thing, they also deliver that same supper club menu to your home through their popular dine at home boxes. Want herbs on tap – they have a weekly subscription. weareaquagarden.co.uk.
Dale Cottage Farm
The Gritstone sheep and Galloway herd who live at the 70-acre Dale Cottage Farm in Wessington spend their days grazing on species rich meadows full of wildflowers and hedgerow plants.
Run by Rob Evans and his family – a complete authority on the breeding of pure pedigree Derbyshire Gritstone Sheep and Galloway cattle – the beef sold for food at the farm has been matured slowly allowing for depth of flavour, lots of beneficial Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids and a taste you’ll struggle to beat. dalecottage-farm.co.uk.
Farm shops
There is a special kind of joy of taking a trip to your local farm shop and coming home with arms full of goodies.
We have an abundance of brilliant places to shop local food in the county including Croots Farm Shop in Duffield (croots.co.uk), Chatsworth Estate Farm Shop (chatsworth.org/shop-dine/farm-shop) and Marsh Green Farm Shop and Café (facebook.com/marshgreenfarmshop) in Chesterfield. Stock up on veg, meat and some of the finest deli goods, perfect for some gourmet grazing or garden gatherings in the sun.
Local gin
And aren’t there plenty of them to keep us in high spirits. Choose from artisans including White Peak (whitepeakdistillery.co.uk), Derbyshire Distillery (derbyshiredistillery.com), and Derwent Gin (derwentgin.uk) and many more.
For everything from classic dry gins crafted with beautiful botanicals to fruity distillations packed with flavour – they are all a reflection of our county and perfect for those summer sundowners.
Ice cream
We all scream for Derbyshire ice cream. And our countryside and farms make sure we have some of the very best.
Try Tagg Lane Dairy, a farm shop and multi award winning producer of artisan gelatos at Monyash, near Buxton. Their chocolate and dulce de leche varieties were awarded two stars from the Great Taste Awards – no easy feat. Tagglanedairy.com.
Hope Valley Ice Cream in Hathersage uses milk from the family farm which is churned by the Marsden family into ice creams named after their cows – try Holly’s Honeycomb and Gertrude’s Whisky and Ginger. You can see the cows being milked and the ice cream being made too. hope-valley.co.uk.
Other Great Taste Award winners are Wootton-based Dalton’s Dairy. All of the ice creams are handmade at this family run business on the edge of the Peak District. daltonsdairy.co.uk.
No meat options
For Derbyshire vegans, Sound Bites in Derby is a dreamland. This independent, ethical wholefood shop, run by a not-for-profit workers cooperative, is packed with vegetarian, vegan and free from foods as well as organic fruit and vegetables, organic flakes, grains, nuts and fruits, snacks and treats. Soundbitesderby.org.uk.
You’ll want to try Croots Farm Shop in Duffield whose increasing range of vegan products – think Lincolnshire, Cumberland and tomato and basil sausages, vegan burgers and a plant-based homity pie – have people queueing up for a taste. There is a lovely café on site too. croots.co.uk.
Original Bakewell Pudding Shop
A Derbyshire institution, the queues that snake out of the door of the Old Original Bakewell Pudding Shop, are proof of the delicious delights that lay within.
Not just a place to eat Bakewell Tart and Bakewell Pudding – still made to a secret recipe created in the 1860s - this historic building in the centre of Bakewell is also home to a restaurant, gift shop and bakery counter selling tasty delights including handmade goodies from the award-winning Bakewell Bakery. Bakewellpuddingshop.co.uk.
Oakfield Farm
Café, butchers, farm shops and stables? Is there anything Oakfield farm at Stanley Common doesn’t do? What started as a milk round is now a business who could teach a masterclass in farm diversification.
Grab a bite to eat in the café but don’t forget to take a taste home with you from their delicatessen that groans with local produce.
The chef’s homemade savouries – their quiches should be high on your list – are difficult to beat as are the pies and their great selection of cheeses – Derby Sage Green a must eat. Struggling for time? You can order online for next day collection. Oakfieldfarm.co.uk.
Rhubarb Farm
A community interest company, Rhubarb Farm in Langwith, offers work placements, training and volunteering opportunity to people with long term issue or those who want to grow fruit and vegetables.
Support is offered to people struggling with physical or mental health, a disability, ex-offenders or drug or alcohol misusers where they spend time learning about and growing food – everything from kale to quinces – which is then supplied to Derbyshire farm shops and cookery schools as well as weekly vegetable bags bought by local customers.
Rhubarbfarm.wixsite.com/rhubarbfarm.
Local vineyards
Derbyshire may not be your first thought when picturing sun-soaked vineyards but the grapes grown in our county make for award winning wines.
Take Renishaw Hall and Gardens Vineyard whose wines have won from of the most competitive awards and recognition across the globe. Vineyards were first planted by the late Sir Reresby in 1972 and now winemaker, Kieron Atkinson, oversees the operation taking tours around the vineyard.
Choose from a classic red, their Walled Garden white, Walled Garden rose and a white sparkling. Englishwineproject.co.uk.
Over in Wessington, the brilliant family-run Amber Valley Vineyards produce the international award-winning Lindway Brook sparkling wine as well as a white and rose wine.
Their wines are described as a Derbyshire summer in a glass and can be bought from the Cellar Door shop, online, clock and collect or at their now reopened Orchard Farmers Market.
They also host tours which finish with the opportunity to sit and sip wine in the lovely orchard. Ambervalleywines.co.uk.
