Mighty Meat and Super Sausages (Whitegate Farm Shop)

Member Name: josarah

Product:	Whitegate Farm Shop
Date:	29/08/06 (524 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Locally produced and reared meat, taste, quality

Disadvantages: none

It is probably fair to say that people are becoming more and more concerned about what they are eating. I for one was getting really annoyed at supermarkets and their light pink meat and greying chicken. Not only was I (and I’m sure other people) concerned about the quality of food I was becoming more and more conscious of the ‘food miles’ associated with my purchasing. For those of you who don’t know, food miles are the measure of the distance food travels from its field to your plate, quite a simple concept really but one that is becoming more and more important with our congested roads and the environmental impact of all that travelling. Ideally we should buy our food so that as few miles are used as possible. This includes the distance you travel to shop which again should be a small as possible.

Of course this all goes out of the window if the only shops you have anywhere near you sell dodgy goods, or the quality of their produce is not quite what you were looking for. Quality versus cost of produce is, for me, the most important factor when considering where to buy things from and that’s why I’m so glad to live near enough to Whitegate Farm Shop to use it all the time for buying meat.

Whitegate Farm Shop can be found on the A5 in between Weston Park and Gailey in South Staffordshire. For those of you who know the road, the farm shop is identifiable by a number of white geese signs on the road side (and plenty of white geese in a field nearest the road!). There is enough room for about 5 cars in the yard at the front of Whitegate’s and although the shop is on one of the county’s main fast roads access is easy enough. For those of you who do not have the use of a car, access would be pretty difficult as I’m not aware of any public transport that stops nearby with any regularity.

On entering the shop (through the green chain door) you may be slightly disappointed, it’s not a glamorous looking place. There are a few veggies to the left of the door and filling the back and right hand walls is the main serving counter, and loads of MEAT! You will also find a chiller cabinet with a whole host of delights in it, such as rhubarb crumble or steak pie, with cheese and cooked meats also found here. What I come to Whitegate’s for however is meat, loads of it.

I used to shop for meat at TESCO’s, I found the quality to be, well, what you would expect from any major supermarket. It was what I was used to, but better than ASDA in my opinion. Nevertheless I wasn’t a massive fan of their steaks as I found them tough and gristly on the odd occasion. I wasn’t all that keen on the mince either as it seemed to contain a lot of fat and water which came out during cooking. The bacon always seemed to be mostly water too and a joint of beef would shrink to half its uncooked size when it came out of the oven. I started to get a bit disheartened and knew that the meat wasn’t the best quality and that I was probably paying over the odds for what we were getting.

My first visit to Whitegate’s was because I knew people that had shopped there and they were delighted with both the quality of meat and service they had received. On arrival I was a bit nervous as I don’t know all the different cuts of meat and thought I would be presented with a choice of meat that I didn’t understand. That wasn’t the case however and I made my way straight to the counter and was greeted by one of the chaps who work in the shop area.

Whitegate’s is a family owned and run farm and shop. All of the family are trained and qualified butchers and they seem to really know what they are doing. There is always work to be done in the meat prep area so if there is no-one at the counter when you go in you will probably be able to see them preparing meat in the back and a friendly shout will bring them to serve you.

The range of MEAT on offer is just right. I normally by steaks, mince beef, chicken breast, sausages, maybe a roasting joint of beef, some burgers and whatever else takes my fancy on the day. Other things available for sale include bacon (smoked and unsmoked), lamb products, pork and poultry (including geese and ducks). I can honestly say that the quality of meat available has never let me down.

All of the meat on sale at Whitegate’s is home reared, bizarrely if you catch the butcher on a good day he’ll chat to you about the cows or chickens and what they were called etc. Although the MEAT is not organically produced there are signs in the shop stating that the food they are given is GM free and of a certain quality. I must say that the steaks from Whitegates are truly the best I have ever had. The rump is cut to your desired thickness from a large joint and needs to be cut in half (at least) before it could fit into any kind of griddle pan. The colour of the steak is a lovely dark reddy brown, none of this bright red meat that you find in supermarkets. That’s because the Whitegate meat is hung for 2 weeks prior to it being packed, this also means that as well as the richer colour, the meat will not bleed as much when cooked rarely, but rather remain pink inside.

The Minced beef doesn’t sweat when cooked and cooks down to a very fine texture, much more appetising than the TESCO alternative and the bacon is cut thickly and again doesn’t ooze water into the pan during cooking. A roasting joint actually stays the same size after it has been in the oven as well!

Sausages are available in a variety of flavours and if you go I can recommend the pork and tomato and pork and leek varieties although I am yet to try the black pudding flavour ones! They are all made on site, along with burger so what they have in stock depends on what has sold well the day before if you go first thing in the morning.

Chicken is one of the main reasons that I wanted to try a farm shop as the quality of supermarket chicken has just plummeted in my opinion. Having heard that one of the major chain supermarkets gets its chicken from Brazil I really thought it was about time to make a change. Happily Whitegate’s chicken is all reared on site and they can be seen strutting round in the field with the geese when you go. Chicken breasts are huge in comparison to supermarket varieties and they just taste much better. You can easily cut the fillets away from the breast and save them for a different meal which is what I do to cut down on wastage (or waistage, either will do here!) and make the food stretch a bit further.

If you can’t wait to try something may I suggest a sausage roll for the journey home – often still warm from the oven they are delicious.

Farm shops have a reputation for being slightly more expensive than supermarkets for their produce and I’m delighted to say that I actually see no price difference between the two. I pay around £6 for 2 rump steaks (probably larger than 6” square) and about £6 for 4 large chicken breasts. Minced beef costs around £1.90 for 500g and sausages will set you back about £2 for 8. A joint of beef to serve 3 cost me just over a fiver and enough stewing steak for 2 meals was around £2 – I think that’s relatively cheap for what you actually are getting.

One of the major plus points to Whitegate’s is the obvious care they take in butchering their meat and selecting bits for you. They are very gentle with the meat and don’t slam it around onto the chopping board. Each meat is cut to the thickness that you want, and not some predetermined supermarket standard thickness and you are always greeted with a smile and some conversation, well worth defecting from the major chains if you ask me.

Whitegate’s is open all day Monday to Saturday and on Sunday Mornings, they also appear at some of the local farmers markets. You can currently vote for them as one of UKTV Food’s Local Food Heroes.

Summary: Fabby Farm Shop