This month we champion the great Lincolnshire sausage with a visit to one of the area\u2019s most successful farm shops, an ideal place to visit for brunch, lunch or to stock up before your barbecue<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of all the things for which Lincolnshire is renowned, our commitment to growing and producing food is its most obvious and enduring gift to the rest of Britain. Last month in our sister magazine (covering Rutland and Stamford) we visited the world\u2019s largest producer of Stilton cheese, a product that enjoys both Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The former provides a higher level of protection and is granted to just 32 UK foods. In addition to geographical protection it also specifies a method of production or some degree of control over which ingredients are permitted to be used in their creation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Against our 32 PGO and 94 PGI products, France and Italy have 758 and 882 products that enjoy such protection. It\u2019s a shame that among those, the Lincolnshire Sausage doesn\u2019t enjoy a degree of protection, because it\u2019s a thing of beauty and versatility. A heavenly constituent of Saturday morning\u2019s cooked breakfast; smashing with mash and brilliant barbecued, served in a baguette with caramelised onions; essential too on Christmas Day, as pigs in blankets with slimmer chipolatas snuggled up in thick, floppy smoked bacon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Walk into any supermarket, and you\u2019ll see pale imitations (pale both in appearance and in terms of quality), as all British supermarkets are allowed to sell ostensibly \u2018Lincolnshire\u2019 sausages that have never set a trotter in the county. It\u2019s a sin before god that the Lincolnshire sausage isn\u2019t better protected, but all is not lost, for it does have its champions, not least Mountain\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Boston butchers shop was established in 1852, but 40 years ago, the company supplemented its name with Boston Sausage, in recognition of the product for which is is justifiably most well-recognised. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2015 the company moved into an additional premises on the A17 at East Heckington, establishing a butchery there and eventually changing its name from Abbey Parks to Mountain\u2019s Farm Shop where it stands out as a bistro, butchery, farm shop, and more generally, as a champion for good local food with most of Lincolnshire\u2019s top food producers and our best examples represented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company\u2019s ethos is underwritten by the presence of the fourth generation of the Mountain family, brothers Dan and Sam, alongside Scott Palmer who is a director in the business and has been with Mountain\u2019s so long he\u2019s practically family too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business currently makes a whopping 70,000 Boston Sausages each week, with over 100 wholesale customers as well as retail customers shopping in Boston and at the Farm Shop. In addition to their flagship product, which only uses pork reared in Lincolnshire, the company provides minimum 28-day dry-aged beef, local spring lamb and a host of other products from traditional hand-raised pork pies and haslets to chine, bacon and sausage rolls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The team is gearing up for a busy few months. For a start there\u2019s nowhere better during barbecue season to stock up on staples like bangers and burgers as well as marinated or stuffed products from the company\u2019s gourmet range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition though, the traffic streaming past Mountain\u2019s Farm Shop on their way to the Lincolnshire Coast or to Norfolk has come to recognise that the place is the ideal stop for a stretch of the legs, something to eat and somewhere to exercise the kids and dogs \u2013 there are two respective play areas for them. Holidaymakers often pick up a few provisions for their break and continue on their way well-rested and with full tummies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To satisfy this demand, the farm shop has a 50-seater bistro serving food from 8am to 5pm, as well as its outdoor terrace. As Pride goes to press, work is also anticipated to begin on a new garden room which will provide more space for both the bistro and retail. There\u2019s also an outdoor kiosk, Feast, for those who want to grab and go, which is useful as it helps to mitigate how busy the bistro is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And it is busy, thanks to a great daytime menu including a plus brunch menu whose flagship offering is a phenomenal full English, with other recommendations including Eggs Benedict. There are sandwiches too, plus eight main courses and a few specials on the blackboard which allow head chef Scott Brackenbury and the team to trial new dishes and offer diners dishes based on their suppliers\u2019 daily recommendations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The place itself is timber-clad and rustic from the outside, with a comfortable and well-designed bistro which, when the Garden Room has been completed, will overlook some of Britain\u2019s best farmland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That very same farmland, too, yields some rather spectacular ingredients, and suppliers to Mountain\u2019s Farm Shop include various local farms, plus A Wright & Son who have been rearing their livestock since 1870.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fresh free-range eggs are sourced from Spalding\u2019s Rowbottom whilst fruit and veg is from Sutterton\u2019s Jonathan Hull, who source produce from Lincolnshire\u2019s fields whenever it\u2019s practical to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just over the border, Southwell\u2019s Gadsby Bakers provide bread and fish is delivered fresh each day via Grimsby by Moorcroft. Other local suppliers represented both on the menus of the bistro and with a permanent presence within the farm shop include Lincolnshire\u2019s trio of cheesemakers, FW Read (Lincolnshire Poacher), Cote Hill Cheese and Lymn Bank, among 40 or so other artisan cheese varieties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A mention too for Mountain\u2019s Farm Shop\u2019s Sunday Lunch offering, roast sirloin of beef (\u00a316.95), lamb, chicken or pork loin \u00a314.95), the former served pink with roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings and the usual trimmings, booking for Sunday lunch is very much recommended because, for obvious reasons, the place is rather busy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And speaking of busy, the team will also be out and about this summer at the usual big outdoor events from the Lincolnshire Show to Heckington and Spilsby\u2019s country shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t wait until then though… get the barbecue out, or visit the butchery for some Lincolnshire sausages and a really decent joint of meat for a great Sunday lunch… whether your preference is spring lamb, aged-sirloin of beef, or pork with crackling, it all comes highly recommended!<\/p>\n\n\n\n