Farm Shops and more (#16)

Before leaving California for this trip, I had been researching things to do in the Cotswolds, and Diddly Squat Farm and Daylesford Farm Shop kept popping up.  My interest was piqued... exactly what is a farm shop?  Apparently farm shops in the Cotswolds are a destination in their own right; part farm, part vegetable stand, part homeware boutique, part tea shop and bar...and more.  We wanted to go visit the town of Bourton On The Water and saw that Diddly Squat was quite close...so off we headed, taking small back roads.

As usual, the vistas did not disappoint, this really is the most beautiful area to drive around it...green fields as far as the eye can see...immense lengths of perfect stone walls

This photo above doesn't really do the green scenery justice, but the dry rock wall was amazing! It seemed to stretch for miles! Suddenly, with no prior marking, we saw this sign to another farm park that I had not heard of, so we pulled in.

What an operation it was; they had an area for camping that was hidden, little cabins to rent, a large open parking area, a very large home goods shop, a large tea room with indoor and outdoor seating, a brewery, and an animal farm (which we did not pay to go visit).  Apparently the owner, Adam Henson, has been instrumental in rare breed conservation (pigs, sheep and cattle).  He has written several books (which were for sale of course in the gift shop).  There were not a lot of people there at 11am when we were there, but I imagine it fills up in the summer.  Spotlessly clean, a great place to stop if you were driving through.  It did not feel commercial or gimmicky at all - there was something very wholesome and refreshing about the place.  If I were traveling with children, I would definitely plan a day here.  They have all sorts of animal related activities throughout the day (bottle feeding baby animals...yes please!!) But keep in mind, this is not on a big highway...it was off a 2 land highway with very little signage.  Aside from the books for sale in the shop, it did not feel commercial at all (the way something like this at home would be).

And of course I must comment on the cake options in the tea room...

7 home baked cake options...the entire top row was gluten free! (and not any more expensive than the gluten-FULL options as is always  the case in the US!)

But it was time to move on to our destination of Bourton on the Water, which is described as the "Venice of the Cotswolds".  We have learned that most of the most popular villages in this beautiful have parking lots on the edge of town and it is much easier to pay a few pounds to park there and then walk into town...each lot seems to have a different payment machine, and this one required the license plate to be entered.  By the time I got out of line, walked to the car to take a photo of the license plate and walk back to the payment machine, the skys open up and it POURED!  We have encountered drizzly, sprinkle weather over here, but nothing like this downpour.  After paying, we quickly headed back to the car to sit it out for 5 minutes.  Sure enough, the rain stopped and it was instantly blue sunny skies!  We headed into town and boy, we were NOT disappointed!  What a beautiful little town.  It has a little stream running right through the center of town with 8 or 10 little stone bridges so you can cross from one side to the other...some are pedestrian only, a few allow cars.

One of the few drive-across bridges.

The water is crystal clear and maybe only 10"-12" deep.  It is quickly moving and ducks were happily paddling along.

We are by no means the only tourists here, but it is not crowded at all.  I have read that in the summer you should get here early in the morning as the crowds are crazy.  I'm so thankful we have the luxury of traveling when the Cotswolds are not overrun with tourists.   It really is picture-postcard-pretty!  And if I don't come home, it may be because I have moved into this beautiful home right the canal

We had lunch at a cute, totally local/no tourists (other than us) little cafe; home made tomato soup and bread (gluten-full for me and GF for Gare).  The woman at the table next to us cracked me up.  She looked like Mrs. Doubtfire and she ate her sandwich and chips (or crisps as they say), then had a pot of tea, followed by an ice cream cone, which was followed by another ice cream cone...all while reading the newspaper.  All the waitresses seemed to know her, and I have the feeling that she is there every day for lunch!  After lunch, we poked around in the shops for a bit, the sun was still out, and as we headed back to the car, the heavens opened up and instantly and without warning, the hardest hail storm I've ever been in just let loose!  The hail stones don't show in any of the photos...but I was laughing all the way to the car because they were just crunching under our footsteps! 

We headed off to Diddly Squat Farm but on the way saw another farm shop, Bruern Farm Shop so we quickly pulled in.  This one was much more simple - just a tea shop and a small farm shop.  We ordered tea and sweets and sat down to enjoy them.

I loved the interior...light and bright, country casual vibe!

You know the drill by now...the top row is all gluten free!

Seating outside for warmer weather.

Back view of the tea shop. (the farm shop is the stone building on the left).

And this is the simple, un-pretentious front.

I had the feeling that they don't get a lot of tourists here...much more of a "local" spot.  I mean, it was off the 2 lane road...down a very long narrow drive way.  The 4 young employees were very curious where we were from.  One of them is heading in a few weeks to be a camp counselor in North Carolina at "Camp America".  She asked if that was near California when she heard that's where we are from!!

After we finished our yummy baked treats as we were heading into the little farm shop, the couple at the table behind us asked where we were from...and so began a long (maybe 45 minutes), very interesting conversation!  Joode  and Rich...he is American and actually went to UC Berkeley and knew where Walnut Creek is.  She is as English as they come.  They met in 1998 on a trip to Brazil and have been a couple ever since then.  They were perhaps a few years older than Gary and me.  He has a home in Florence, Oregon (near Bandon Dunes), and her home is in Leafield in the Cotswolds.  They seem to spend more time here in the Cotswolds, but go back to Florence twice a year for 7 weeks (and boy did he wax poetic about the ice cream shop in Florence!!).  They had some great ideas for places for us to visit in our last few days here, had lots to say about politics in both the UK and the US.  She was a traveling district nurse in her working days so she also had lots to say about our pathetic medical system in the US.  We mentioned we were heading to Diddly Squat and she was not shy at all about her disgust with the owner (friend of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk) which turned me off from going there, but she said we should see it anyway.  She was surprised that we had found ourselves in Bruern's Farm Shop...as it is usually just locals. (This made me happy!) We had an interesting conversation about driving in both countries and also about linguistic differences.  Among many words we discussed, I learned that the word "homely" has a totally different meaning in the UK...it means warm, cozy, not posh or pretentious, simple and very pleasant...based on the word "home"...it does NOT mean ugly or unattractive as we would use the word!  Joode says as much as they go back and forth between the 2 countries, she ALWAYS has to be in the Cotswolds in May, which made me so glad we chose this month to visit.  Rich said his favorite thing in May in the Cotswolds were all the buttercups growing...and honestly, I hadn't noticed any. He was more reserved, while she was a sassy outspoken woman (who I instantly liked...actually I liked both of them, they really intrigued me!). I am so bummed that I didn't take a photo of them.  He was tall and slim with beautiful curly white hair (but a beard that needed trimming!), she was short and kind of squat with short spiky hair and funky glasses and jewelry.  After Gary and I said our good byes and popped into the little shop, when we exited and passed their table, she had written all their contact info on a napkin for me and told me to "pop in anytime for tea, or call if you need any help".  Now, this is the kind of "magic moment" I live for when we travel!  And if you ever find yourself in Leafield, I'm sure you can call Joode and Rich and tell them you know the Californians from the Farm Shop, and they will invite you over for tea!

And by the way, I love their address..."Windy Ridge, The Green, Leafield"...not just a boring number and street name!

Moving on, we made it to Diddly Squat and were sorely disappointed.  I don't know if Joode cursed it or what, but it was super commercial with uniformed parking lot attendants directing traffic in the parking lot (and there were very few cars...not directing was necessary).  The farm shop was small and very contrived; the milk is bottled and called "cow juice", the honey is bottled and called "bee juice", etc.  Everything is very commercially marketed.  As it turns out, the owner, Jeremy Clarkson has a tv series on Amazon about geared vehicles called Top Gear, he is the host of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, and is now starring in the farming documentary called Clarkson's Farm (which sounds like it is fully subsidized by Amazon).  We watched one of his shows when we got back to our cottage and he was so pretentious buying (and bragging) about his Lamborghini tractor - he is the epitome of the kind of person that turns me off.  Anyway, I guess his shows are very popular here and this spot has become kind of an Instagram Mecca with people lining up to even get in.  Luckily for us there was no line to get in.  We walked in, looked around and headed right out..See you later, Jeremy Clarkson and Diddly Squat...not impressed!  This is the only photo I took there!

Gary has been doing such a great job driving on the "wrong" side of the road...but I swear Diddly Squat put a curse on us, because we had 3 close calls driving as soon as we left his farm shop!  This further cemented my displeasure with both Jeremy Clarkson and his farm shop!! 

Back home for a quiet night of left over pizza (yummy!)