Ron & Sheila presented with Best Meat Award

The Lagan Farm Shop at Orchard Park, just outside Gillingham on the B3081 Shaftesbury Road, is a real destination for people who value the meat they put on their table. The shop has a team of skilled butchers who are passionate about the produce and only too pleased to share their expertise and advice with the customer.

It didn’t stop there because Orchard Park have also been spreading the word about the value of producing your own vegetables; the allotments at Orchard Park were runners up in the ‘Grow your Own’ category of the Taste of Dorset Awards.

Ron & Sheila presenting the Best Pub Award

Orchard Park Press Release 6th September 2011
All photographs courtesy of Blackmore Vale Magazine/Ian Sumner

At last the fine weather is here and with it a cornucopia of Dorsetshire delights. From Child Okeford we have the most delicious young spinach, fresh garlic, baby cucumbers, mange-tout peas, broad beans, beetroot and lettuces. With Wimbledon comes strawberries and we have the privilege of bringing you the freshest fruit from the Ansty PYO and Farm Shop – strawberries and gooseberries are now in stock. We also have the last of the English asparagus from the New Forest. True to our motto of “fresh, seasonal and local” we hope you like what you see.

From slightly further afield we have new season’s English salad potatoes, carrots and tomatoes, and from even further afield are bananas and pineapples, Royal Gala and Braeburn Apples and seedless grapes.

In the spirit of encouraging more people to try more local brands, we also have offers on Keystone Brewery’s Very Pale Ale (VPA), down from £1:95 to £1:00 a bottle, and The Seed Company’s dressings and marinades are reduced from £3:99 to £1:99 before the introduction of the replacement products from the new Mr. Filbert brand, based in Milton Abbas. These are dressings made in Dorset, based on Dorset-grown rapeseed oil.

Over the new few months you will see an increasing number of price promotions on local foods. We want to increase awareness of all the good things that are made round and about us – you may have seen some of these at our family day in early June. Earlier today we had a visit from Claire of Purbeck Ice Cream who was giving out samples of their absolutely fabulous sorbets and ice creams. Quite apart from the joy of eating ice cream on such a sunny day, the sheer quality of their range (including the fascinating flavour of ChiliRed) encouraged many to pick up a tub on their way home.

Meat of the month in June was going to be lamb, but prices are still going up as I write this. As a result I’m simply going to recommend our range of barbecue meats – burgers, sausages and chicken. If you tried the pork and venison sausages on the Members’ Day you won’t be surprised that I’m recommending them – meaty but not to heavy or dry, they are a treat indeed. We are also now making larger 6oz. and 8oz. burgers to order, in addition to the regular 4oz. Pork & Apple, Lamb & Mint and beefburgers.

Have a look at the chicken portions – Chinese, Kentucky, Mediterranean flavours are all there.

Come and see us soon and enjoy our Tastes of Dorset.