Hertfordshire still has working farms selling direct, even with London so close. This guide compares five farm shops spread across the county: Smallford Farm Shop on the Hatfield Road outside St Albans, Foxholes Farm at Hertford Heath, Pearce’s Farm Shop beside the A10 at Buntingford, Church Farm at Ardeley east of Stevenage, and P E Mead & Sons at Wilstone near Tring. Each is different in size and style, so the useful question is which shop has the food you need and where it was grown.
As a Londoner, I know it is not realistic for everyone to live on a farm. A farm shop, farmers' market or community garden can be part of a more direct food routine. Start with a reachable stop and a short list, rather than expecting to change everything at once.
Which farm shop or picking farm should you choose?
Where you live in Hertfordshire will narrow the choice quickly. Smallford sits on the Hatfield Road between St Albans and Hatfield and suits a quick stop for salad vegetables, deli goods and brunch. Foxholes, just south of Hertford, is the one to pick for home-reared beef and lamb from a butchery counter. Pearce’s on the A10 at Buntingford is the easiest for east Herts and the Bishop’s Stortford side, with its own fruit, a fishmonger and a café. Church Farm at Ardeley serves Stevenage, Hitchin and the north of the county, and Mead’s at Wilstone covers Tring, Berkhamsted and the Dacorum villages.
If you want to see the farm as well as shop, Church Farm and Foxholes both have animals to look at and space to walk. For a single big weekly shop with meat, fish and vegetables under one roof, Pearce’s and Smallford are the most complete. Whichever you choose, ask staff which items come from the farm itself and which are bought in from other local producers.
Check the farm’s current crops, opening times and prices before travelling. Picking seasons vary, and a farm shop may sell produce without offering pick-your-own visits.
- Smallford Farm Shop , Home-grown salad crops outside St Albans
- Foxholes Farm , Home-reared beef and lamb near Hertford
- Pearce’s Farm Shop , Own strawberries and asparagus since 1978
- Church Farm, Ardeley , A not-for-profit mixed farm near Stevenage
- P E Mead & Sons Farm Shop , A Chilterns farming family near Tring
Smallford Farm Shop
Map and location
Smallford Farm Shop, Hatfield Rd, St Albans, AL4 0HE. View Smallford Farm Shop on the map.
Contact: 01727 747340.
A farm shop on a family glasshouse nursery
Smallford Farm Shop stands on the site of a family-owned fresh produce nursery on the Hatfield Road, between St Albans and Hatfield. The shop says it grew out of the old market-style way of selling to local people straight from pallets, and it still sells produce grown on the site. The nursery’s own crops are glasshouse ones: aubergines, peppers, cucumbers and a range of tomatoes. That makes it a good place for salad vegetables at their freshest, particularly through the summer, when the nursery is in full production and the tomatoes are picked close to the time they reach the shelves.
Alongside the home-grown produce the shop sells fruit and vegetables, cheese and a deli counter, fresh bread and milk, condiments, oils, store-cupboard essentials, wine, spirits and gifts. Its butchery is Bridget B’s Butchers, run in-house, and the site names Cobble Lane, a British charcuterie maker, among the producers it stocks. HATCH runs the café on site, serving brunch, coffee and cakes, and says some of its dishes use produce from Glinwell next door.
Visiting and buying
Opening hours published on the shop’s website are Monday to Wednesday 9am to 4pm, Thursday to Saturday 9am to 5pm, and Sunday 10am to 4pm. The café is walk-in only and HATCH lists free parking and space for more than 70 people. Glasshouse crops are best from late spring into autumn, so ask which vegetables on the day were grown on the nursery and which have come in from elsewhere. It is a short drive from St Albans city centre.
Smallford Farm Shop: website and opening hours.
Foxholes Farm
Map and location
London Road, Hertford, Hertfordshire, SG13 7NT. View Foxholes Farm on the map.
Contact: 01992 552 900.
Suckler cattle and sheep at Hertford Heath
Foxholes Farm is run by a farming family who say they have farmed in rural Hertfordshire for almost 100 years. Their farms are at Hertford Heath, and the cattle graze pasture there as well as the King’s Meads and Roydon nature reserves. The beef comes from a single-suckler herd crossing Aberdeen Angus and Simmental, with selective breeding carried on since the 1980s, and the farm also keeps sheep that lamb in spring, plus chickens, ducks, guinea fowl and geese. The family grows grass silage, forage maize and clover for feed, and uses straw from its own arable land for bedding.
The shop’s butchery counter sells the farm’s grass-fed beef and lamb along with other meat and fish, and the butchery team will give cooking advice. There is a cheese and deli counter, home-baked bread, homemade cakes, local fruit and vegetables, ready meals, and beers, wines and spirits including some from a local micro-brewery. Keloglan Dairy works on site, making feta, halloumi, yoghurt and butter from the milk of a Jersey herd at Hertford Heath.
Visiting and buying
The farm’s website gives shop hours of Monday to Saturday 9.00am to 5.00pm and Sunday and bank holidays 10.00am to 4.00pm. There is also a farm park with animals, which has its own opening times, so check the website if you are bringing children. You can order online and collect from the shop. Foxholes is on the London Road just south of Hertford, so it is easy to reach from Hertford, Ware and Hoddesdon. Ask which cuts on the counter are from the farm’s own herd and flock.
Foxholes Farm: website and opening hours.
Pearce’s Farm Shop
Map and location
Hamels Mead, Buntingford, Herts, SG9 9ND. View Pearce’s Farm Shop on the map.
Contact: 01920 821246.
From a field shed to a farm shop and café
Pearce’s is an established family-run business on the A10 near Buntingford. It has grown strawberries and raspberries since 1978, and in 1982 began selling its own fruit and vegetables from a shed in the field. The farm still harvests its own asparagus in May and June, grows summer flowers such as delphiniums, cosmos, larkspur and cornflowers for the shop, and has pumpkins, squash and gourds in October. Strawberries are grown for pick your own in summer, though the website says the field closed early for the 2026 season after a poor crop in hot weather.
Today the shop sells fresh produce and fine foods for the weekly shop as well as treats, with wines, spirits, local beers, seasonal plants, flowers and gifts. Bridget B’s runs an on-site butchery offering steaks and speciality cuts, and there is a separate fishmonger, each with its own phone line. The café, added in 2010, serves home-cooked breakfasts, lunches and afternoon tea with views over the meadows, and hampers can be made to order.
Visiting and buying
Opening hours on the shop’s website are Monday to Saturday 8.30am to 5.00pm and Sunday 9.00am to 4.00pm, and the butchery and fishmonger keep the same hours. Pick-your-own dates are announced each summer on the shop’s social media, so check before you go. Pearce’s is on the A10 between Ware and Buntingford, a reasonable drive from Bishop’s Stortford. Asparagus in late spring and strawberries in early summer are the farm’s own, so ask what else has come from its fields that week.
Pearce’s Farm Shop: website and opening hours.
Church Farm, Ardeley
Map and location
Church Farm, Ardeley, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, SG2 7AH. View Church Farm, Ardeley on the map.
Contact: 01438 861 447.
Traditional breeds and vegetables at the Waygoods’ farm
William and Roger Waygood bought Church Farm in 1957 and moved there from Suffolk the following year. For decades it was an arable, pig and poultry farm, until the agricultural recession of the 1980s and a run of setbacks led to the stock being sold. The farm’s website describes a farming renaissance from 2008, and Church Farm now runs as a not-for-profit with farming, food, care and education at its centre. It keeps small herds and flocks of older, slower-growing traditional breeds for meat, grows vegetables and clover in rotation, and says it does not use pesticides on food crops.
The farm shop and butchery sell fresh local produce, everyday essentials and store-cupboard treats. Seasonal fruit and vegetables are grown on the farm, eggs come from its own free-range hens, and free-range meat is sold through Church Farm Butchery. Bread comes from a local bakery. The café serves coffee, breakfast and lunch every day, with many dishes made from farm produce, and the farm also runs the Jolly Waggoners pub in the village.
Visiting and buying
The farm’s website says the farm, shop and café are open seven days a week from 9am to 4pm, with the café closing at 3.30pm on weekdays. You can also order eggs, meat, vegetables and fruit online for delivery through the farm’s online shop. Ardeley is a small village east of Stevenage, reached along country lanes, and it is a good choice for Hitchin, Stevenage and north Herts. Allow time to see the animals, and ask which meat and vegetables that week are from the farm itself.
Church Farm, Ardeley: website and opening hours.
P E Mead & Sons Farm Shop
Map and location
Lower Icknield Way, Tring, HP23 4NT. View P E Mead & Sons Farm Shop on the map.
Contact: 01442 828478.
Beef, lamb and rapeseed oil from Wilstone Great Farm
The Mead family have farmed in the Chilterns for more than 160 years, with roots in the area going back before 1860. Their farm at Wilstone, just outside Tring, grows arable crops, raises beef cattle and keeps a small flock of sheep. The family’s best-known diversification is Chiltern Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil, which is grown, pressed and bottled at Wilstone Great Farm and has won awards. The farm shop and tearoom are the other main part of the business, and the farm advertises home-produced beef and lamb.
The shop sells a mix of the farm’s own food and locally sourced goods for the weekly shop, including local sausages, cured bacon, pickles and preserves, fresh fruit and vegetables and the farm’s rapeseed oil. It also sells seasoned logs and kindling prepared on the farm, along with coal, gas, pet food and animal feed. The tearoom serves tea, coffee and light lunches.
Visiting and buying
Opening hours given on the Chilterns National Landscape listing are Monday to Saturday 8.30am to 5.00pm and Sunday 9.30am to 4.00pm. The farm’s own website does not appear to have been updated recently and does not list hours, so phone to confirm before a special trip. The farm is on the Lower Icknield Way near Wilstone, a short drive from Tring and handy for Berkhamsted and the Dacorum villages. Ask which beef and lamb is from the farm’s own animals.
P E Mead & Sons Farm Shop: opening hours and details (Chilterns listing).
Knowing a farm shop you can return to is also one of the most practical ways to be ready for disruption. Read The Be Ready Campaign: A UK Guide to Stocking Your Home With Healthy, Local Food, and use the Be Ready Map to find more local food across the UK.
Plan your farm visit, produce, quantities and picking dates
Choose one or two farms or farm shops that fit your route. Write down what you want, how much you need and what you will do with it when you get home. If one crop is unavailable, decide whether to choose a different farm, change the meal or return another day.
- Confirm the crop, public opening and any booking requirement.
- Ask whether you can pick yourself or buy already picked.
- Check the price unit, payment method and containers.
- Ask about access, parking and the correct visitor entrance.
Farm shop and fruit-picking questions
Where can I buy local food in Hertfordshire?
Good choices are Smallford Farm Shop near St Albans, Foxholes Farm at Hertford, Pearce’s Farm Shop at Buntingford, Church Farm at Ardeley near Stevenage and P E Mead & Sons near Tring. Between them they cover the south, east, north and west of Hertfordshire, and each sells some food from its own farm.
Are all these farms in the same town?
No. Hertfordshire covers a wide area, and this guide spreads its choices across the county. Each farm section gives its location so you can compare the journey before you set off.
Can I pick at every farm or market?
No. Farm shops and markets may sell ready-picked food without opening fields to visitors. Ask the individual business about picking access, the crop and any booking requirement.
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 after a grower gives you a picking window. Enter those dates and compare them with your visit date. 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 ListHarvest Checker
Compare your visit with dates confirmed by the grower. This does not check live stock.
Use Harvest CheckerUse the tools with your My Ideal World account. Guest and free-account limits apply; paid members have unlimited tool access.
Explore more farm shops and picking farms in My Ideal World. Browse the Farm Shops app below or beside this article, then check the grower’s current crop and opening before visiting.
Sources
- Smallford Farm Shop , official website
- Smallford Farm Shop , HATCH café page
- Foxholes Farm , official website
- Foxholes Farm , the farm
- Pearce’s Farm Shop , official website
- Pearce’s Farm Shop , about us
- Church Farm, Ardeley , official website
- Church Farm, Ardeley , history
- P E Mead & Sons , Chilterns National Landscape
- P E Mead & Sons , official website
- East Herts farm shops , East Herts Council
Research reviewed 25 October 2026. Farm and visitor sources support the descriptions above. Historical information is identified where relevant; no firsthand visit, current stock check or certification is claimed.