A Weekend of Food & Farm Shops ~ Uncle Henry's

I guess most people know that I like food. I like food very much. I like cooking, I like eating, I like discovering new foods. I like food!

I'm really lucky to live in rural Lincolnshire, surrounded by wonderful local ingredients and people who love to produce them, and sell them, and feed me!
Over the past few years, there have been lots of new farm shops appear around the countryside, some small, some large, some who win awards and some with cafes attached.

Uncle Henry’s is an award winning Farm Shop, Butchery and Café based in the Lincolnshire countryside.  Uncle Henry’s showcases the best in local and regional food and drink and are able to offer a wide range of products from Lincolnshire producers and their own farm, providing a real farm to fork experience.

Winners of over 100 awards, including Non Multiple Retailer of the Year 2011 and Contribution to the Community 2011 and winner of Select Lincolnshire ‘Producer of the Year 2013′. They have also just been awarded “Retailer of the Year 2014″.

Uncle Henry’s award winning café is run by Julie and her team. The café serves homemade dishes freshly cooked on site by chefs Nicki, Linda, Heidi and Tracey. As Select Lincolnshire members they source and use a wide range of Lincolnshire products in their dishes. Many of the products they sell in the cafe are grown in their walled garden or produced from their own pigs in the Butchery.

If you like what you have tried in the café, many of the products they use in the meals can be found in the Farm Shop for you to buy.

The café runs a daily menu including breakfasts (served 9.30am – 11.30am.) A popluar option  is Uncle Henry’s “The Works” breakfast. This includes their award winning Lincolnshire Sausage; so tasty it is something they have become known for!

The daily menu includes jacket potatoes, hot and cold baguettes, and homemade soups. The cafe is fully licensed and they run a specials board daily 12 – 2.30pm. The specials change every month and include delicious dishes such as Lincoln Red beef with Tom Woods Ale Pie or home reared gammon with Lincolnshire seasonal veg.

Food is served all day (9.30am – 4pm) with tea, coffee and cakes available until 4:30 pm.

In the winter you can enjoy tea, coffee and cakes by the log fire in Uncle Henry’s lounge and in the summer relax on the decking by the water fountain.

In the outside courtyard there is a small playhouse for young children to enjoy or a farm trail for older energetic children to explore.

It had been a couple of months since we had been to Uncle Henry's, it's just 20 minutes away from us in the car and I'd had a Twitter conversation with them last week, so we decided that Saturday would be a good day for a treat! It would be our "First week back to work after Christmas completed successfully" treat - good excuse eh?

We arrived just before lunchtime and were able to get a set in the cafe quickly, we timed it just perfectly as within 20 minutes the place had really filled up and people were waiting for tables. We were both hungry, but the menu has such lovely tempting dishes, it took a while to decide. In the end, we both went for something from the daily specials board.

I choose the warm home-made Quiche Lorraine, with salad, coleslaw and wedges and Martin opted for the Pulled Pork Roll, again served with salad, coleslaw and wedges. We also ordered hot drinks which arrived really quickly.

 Our meals arrived, and oh my, they looked and smelled delicious. I'm really fussy about Quiche, I can't stand those supermarket quiches, and I hate it served cold, but this one was just perfect. Flaky short pastry and a beautifully creamy centre - it really was so good. Oh, those wedges - they are a thing of beauty - they really are. Large, chunky, fried to a deep brown, with crispy bits on the outside and then soft on the inside - they are just how I like my chips and wedges. The salad was fresh and crisp and the coleslaw was creamy and delicious.  Martin's Pulled Pork roll was full to bursting of tender, steaming, falling-to-bits pulled pork and came with a little jug of barbecue sauce - he was in his element.  We were absolutely stuffed by the end of our lunch, and couldn't fit another mouthful in, but it was so so good!

We then dragged our bodies around the deli and farm shop and I treated myself to a few goodies from their shelves. There was no way I could go home without a couple of their home-made fruit scones and of course I had to buy a jar of clotted cream to go with them. I also treated myself to a slice of Brie with Truffle - yes, it's fairly expensive, but one small slice is just enough - it's creamy, and cheesy with that mushroomy taste of truffle - delicious.

Oh, and I noticed that the butchery counter had pig's cheeks. The last time I bought pig's cheeks, from a local butcher, they came attached to the pig's face!  Yes, honestly! And, although they were delicious, I swore that I wouldn't buy them again as it took me so long to get the meat from the skin. Uncle Henry's sell them ready prepared, I'm certainly going to go back and get some - that pig's cheek recipe was delicious - I can't wait to make it again.

Uncle Henry's

Phone: 01652 640308

Email: info@unclehenrys.co.uk

Grayingham Grange Farm,

Grayingham,

Gainsborough,

Lincolnshire.

DN21 4JD.

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