Five verified places to buy farm grown food in the city, and what to ask when you get there

Bristol is a city, not a county of farms, so farm shops in Bristol look different. The best places to buy farm food in Bristol are two city farms with shops (Windmill Hill in Bedminster and Elm Tree Farm in Stapleton), a member owned veg share at Sims Hill in Frenchay, the Saturday farmers’ market on Whiteladies Road, and Leigh Court Farm’s organic veg boxes from just over the boundary in North Somerset. Bristol was named a Gold Sustainable Food City in 2021, only the second UK city after Brighton and Hove to get there.

Under my post about Apeel, the coating sprayed on supermarket fruit, one of you summed up the whole movement in one line:

Just go to your local farmers market and avoid all this mass produced supermarket crap

A reader in my comments

Agreed. But go where? That is the part nobody answers. So this guide names the places, with addresses, hours and the questions to ask. (If you missed it, here is what Apeel is and whether you can wash it off.)

I am London born, and I know most of you are not living on a farm. You do not need to. You need one or two stops you can actually get to, and a habit you keep.

Which Bristol farm shop should you choose?

Start with where you live. South of the river, Windmill Hill City Farm in Bedminster has a shop and café and is the easiest stop with children. In the north east, Elm Tree Farm at Stapleton sells vegetables and seasonal meat from its own 37 acres. Sims Hill Shared Harvest, out at Frenchay, is not a shop at all. You join, and a share of the harvest comes to you each week.

For a weekly shop direct from growers, the Saturday market on Whiteladies Road in Clifton is the one. For organic veg boxes delivered across the city, Leigh Court Farm at Abbots Leigh is the pick, and it is certified by the Soil Association. It sits at Abbots Leigh in North Somerset, just west of the Clifton Suspension Bridge, so strictly it is not a Bristol farm.

• Windmill Hill City Farm, Fifty year old city farm with a shop selling farm and local produce
• Elm Tree Farm, Care farm shop with organic vegetables and grass fed meat from its own 37 acres
• Sims Hill Shared Harvest, Member owned vegetable farm delivering weekly shares across the city
• Whiteladies Road Farmers’ Market, Volunteer run Saturday producer market, twenty years old in 2026
• Leigh Court Farm, Soil Association organic grower just over the boundary, with a veg box scheme

Windmill Hill City Farm

Map and location

Philip Street, Bedminster, Bristol BS3 4EA. View Windmill Hill City Farm on the map.

Contact: 0117 963 3252.

Fifty years on inner city wasteland in Bedminster

Windmill Hill City Farm was started by local volunteers in 1976 on a piece of inner city wasteland that the council had earmarked as a lorry park. Residents cleared the site themselves in the late 1970s, and by 1979 a small working farm was in place. The farm marks its fiftieth anniversary in 2026. Today it keeps goats, pigs, sheep and cows, which the farm says are kept for education, therapy and food, alongside gardens where it runs growing and cooking workshops for local families.

The farm shop stocks food from the farm and from local producers, with seasonal fruit and vegetables and eggs, chosen for seasonality and low impact. The café cooks with farm produce through the year, and a bar called The Farm Tap opens at weekends. A seasonal Windmill Hill Market brings more than fifty local makers, artisan producers and street food traders onto the site. The farm runs volunteering and membership schemes alongside the shop.

Visiting and buying

The website gives opening hours for the farm and gardens of 9am to 5pm, seven days a week, with the café open 9am to 4.30pm daily and reception staffed Monday to Friday. Entry to the farm is free. It sits in south Bristol between Bedminster and Windmill Hill. Market dates change through the year, so check the events calendar before you plan a trip around one. Stock in the shop mixes farm and bought in produce, so ask which items that week came from the farm itself.

Windmill Hill City Farm: website and opening hours.

Elm Tree Farm

Map and location

Park Road, Stapleton, Bristol BS16 1AA. View Elm Tree Farm on the map.

Contact: 0117 958 6206.

A 37 acre care farm on the old Stoke Park estate

Elm Tree Farm is a 37 acre working care farm and smallholding run by the charity Brandon Trust, which took it over in 2000. The land was once part of Stoke Park Hospital, founded in 1909, and part of the farm lies within the Grade II listed Stoke Park Estate beside the M32. More than sixty adults with learning disabilities or autism work here as co farmers. The farm grows organic seasonal fruit and vegetables and keeps horses, hens, pigs, cows, lambs and rabbits, many of them rare or heritage breeds.

The farm shop sells produce from the market garden, plants and cut flowers from the nursery, and freedom reared, grass fed meat from the farm in season. Unsold fruit and vegetables are turned into chutneys and jams, and the autumn brings apple juice. Veg boxes are offered in season, and the shop also carries food and gifts from local suppliers. The farm’s Splinters woodwork team makes bird boxes, planters and kindling from recycled timber, which are sold on site.

Visiting and buying

Brandon Trust gives shop opening hours of 10am to 5pm Monday to Wednesday and 10am to 4pm Thursday to Saturday; the shop is closed on Sundays. The farm is in Stapleton on the north east side of the city, close to the M32. Parking is available for shop customers, and there is a coffee machine in the shop rather than a full café. Meat is seasonal, so ring ahead if you are coming for it, and ask which vegetables were picked on the farm that week.

Elm Tree Farm: website and opening hours.

Sims Hill Shared Harvest

Map and location

Growing base at Grow Wilder, 181 Frenchay Park Road, Bristol BS16 1EL. View Sims Hill Shared Harvest on the map.

A member owned vegetable farm four miles from the centre

Sims Hill Shared Harvest is a community supported agriculture scheme run as a member owned cooperative in Frenchay, north Bristol. It farms its own field and rents part of the Avon Wildlife Trust’s Grow Wilder site, including a greenhouse and sheltered small fields. The growers describe their approach as natural growing methods and permaculture principles. In September 2026 it was recruiting a co head grower for a contract running from November 2026 to January 2028.

Members pay monthly and receive a weekly share of vegetables grown on the farm. Each share holds at least six different vegetables, always including roots such as potatoes and some salad or greens, with the rest changing through the season. The website lists a full share at £69.80 a month and a half share at £39.50 a month, paid by standing order with a one month minimum. Shares arrive 50 to 51 weeks a year, with a double share the week before Christmas.

Visiting and buying

This is a membership scheme rather than a shop, so you join online and choose a pick up point. Shares are delivered by 5pm on Thursdays to points in St Werburgh’s, Easton, Bishopston, Fishponds, Windmill Hill, Frenchay and St George, and can be collected until Sunday morning. The website says space for new members is available, and a work share option is offered. Grow Wilder itself is open Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm, with limited parking. Ask the growers which crops are coming up next before you sign up, so you know what the season will bring.

Sims Hill Shared Harvest: website and membership details.

Whiteladies Road Farmers’ Market

Map and location

Corner of Whiteladies Road and Apsley Road, Clifton, Bristol. No postcode is published for the market. View Whiteladies Road Farmers’ Market on the map.

Twenty years of Saturday stalls run by volunteers

The Whiteladies Road Farmers’ Market sets up every Saturday at the junction of Whiteladies Road and Apsley Road, by the bus stop near Clifton Down. Bristol24/7 reported in June 2026 that the market was marking its twentieth birthday. It is organised by local volunteers who promote the market and help on the day. Avon and Somerset Police held bike marking sessions at the market in March and April 2026, which confirms it is still trading.

Stalls sell seasonal produce from local food and drink traders. Leigh Court Farm, the certified organic grower at Abbots Leigh, runs a regular vegetable stall here. Student newspaper Epigram has listed organic vegetables, cheeses, Farro Bakery pastries and bacon rolls among what is on offer. No official stallholder list is published, so it is hard to know in advance who will be trading.

Visiting and buying

Leigh Court Farm gives the market’s hours as 8.30am to 1pm on Saturdays, while Visit Bristol lists 8.30am to 2pm, so arrive early for the full range. It is on the main road through Clifton, close to Clifton Down station. Bring a bag and some cash in case a stall does not take cards, and ask each trader whether they grew, reared or made what they are selling.

Whiteladies Road Farmers’ Market: Visit Bristol listing and opening hours.

Leigh Court Farm

Map and location

Pill Road, Abbots Leigh, Bristol BS8 3RA. Abbots Leigh is just over the city boundary in North Somerset. View Leigh Court Farm on the map.

Organic vegetables from a walled garden over the Avon

Leigh Court Farm is a family run organic vegetable and fruit grower based in the historic walled garden of the Leigh Court estate at Abbots Leigh. It has been fully organic since 1999 and is certified by the Soil Association, which inspects the farm every year. The farm works more than 25 acres across Abbots Leigh, Portbury and Failand, all within five miles of Bristol. Polytunnels and the walled garden stretch the season, and the estate’s old orchard supplies apples.

The farm has run a weekly veg box scheme and a Bristol farmers’ market stall for over 25 years, and now delivers more than 400 boxes a week. Most of the vegetables in the boxes are grown on the farm, and boxes are topped up out of season with organic produce from Hereford growers it has worked with for 19 years. Free range eggs come from Red House Farm at Winford, about six miles from Bristol; the farm notes they are not organic. Local dairy, sourdough and kitchen staples can be added to an order.

Visiting and buying

There is no farm shop with set opening hours; you order a box online for home delivery across Bristol, Pill and Portishead at £1 per delivery. Boxes can also be collected on Thursdays from 4.30pm at the farm’s packing shed, or from Easton Community Centre, Windmill Hill Community Association and Southville Community Centre. The farm’s own stall is at the Whiteladies Road Farmers’ Market on Saturday mornings. Contents and their origins are posted each week on the website, so check there to see which items came from the farm itself.

Leigh Court Farm: website and ordering.

Do Bristol farm shops spray their crops?

Some do. A farm shop sign is not an organic label, and a farmers’ market stall is not a promise either. One of you went and asked a broccoli grower at your local market whether it had been sprayed. The answer, in your words, was “Sprayed? Ofc. Butterfly poison”. Then the strawberry sellers either side joined in to defend it.

So ask. Every time. Certification is the only thing that is checked: in the UK the best known body is the Soil Association, and Leigh Court Farm carries it. Where there is no certificate, ask what is sprayed, when and why. A grower who is proud of the answer will tell you.

Why a farm shop is part of being ready

The UK Government’s own Be Ready campaign asks every household to be ready to manage for three days if services are disrupted, from severe weather to cyber attacks. Tins help. A farm you already know helps more. Supermarket shelves empty fast; a city farm or veg share you are already part of does not vanish overnight.

Read The Be Ready Campaign: a UK guide to stocking your home with healthy, local food, then our emergency preparedness guide for the kit itself.

Plan your visit, what to buy and how much

Choose one or two stops that fit your route. Write down what you want, how much you need and what you will cook with it when you get home. If one crop is not in, change the meal, not the plan.

• Confirm opening days and any booking for the café or events.
• Ask what was grown or reared on the farm, and what was bought in.
• Check payment methods, and bring your own bags and boxes.
• Ask about parking and the right entrance for visitors.

Plan your farm shopping with My Shopping List and Harvest Checker

Open My Shopping List to record produce, quantities and estimated costs. Mark items as bought when you collect them and keep the plan for your next trip.

Use Harvest Checker once a grower gives you a picking window. Enter those dates and compare them with your visit. The tool uses your entries; it does not fetch live availability from farms.

My Shopping List

Keep the produce you actually need in one place before you set off.

Use My Shopping List

Harvest Checker

Compare your visit with dates confirmed by the grower. This does not check live stock.

Use Harvest Checker

Use the tools with your My Ideal World account. Guest and free-account limits apply; paid members have unlimited tool access.

Further afield, see the farm shops in Wiltshire, across the Severn in Gwent and South Glamorgan, or browse every region on the Be Ready Map. For picking your own fruit, start with the UK pick your own guide. Also new in the Be Ready Map: the guides to West Glamorgan.

Sources

• Windmill Hill City Farm, farm shop and more
• Windmill Hill City Farm, home page
• Windmill Hill City Farm, turns 50 in 2026
• Visit Bristol, the story of Windmill Hill City Farm
• Brandon Trust, Elm Tree Farm
• Brandon Trust, shop locations
• Sims Hill Shared Harvest, home page
• Sims Hill Shared Harvest, membership information
• Avon Wildlife Trust, Grow Wilder
• Visit Bristol, markets
• Bristol24/7, beloved street market celebrates 20 years
• Epigram, best of Bristol’s food markets
• Avon and Somerset Police, Clifton events
• Leigh Court Farm, about us
• Leigh Court Farm, FAQs
• Bristol City Council, going for gold sustainable food cities awards
• Be Ready , UK Government emergency preparedness campaign
• Soil Association , organic certification

Research reviewed 28 October 2026. Farm websites, council listings and official sources support the descriptions above. No firsthand visit, current stock check or certification is claimed.

A whole city cannot feed itself from five growers. But every box you take from Sims Hill or Leigh Court is one less coated, flown, shrink wrapped thing in your basket. Start with one. Tell me in the comments which Bristol grower you already buy from, and I will add the good ones.