Moorhouse Farm Shop, near Stannington

I made the mistake a few weekends ago of trying to pop to our local shopping centre on Saturday lunch time to buy a few bits and bobs from M&S Food hall. OMG it was chaos! We spent 30 minutes trying to find a parking space before abandoning all hope and returning home empty handed. How annoying. We try to do most of our shopping at the Grainger Market and top up with Aldi/M&S/Waitrose however there are times when we can't get into town as often as we would like and sometimes I do have to pick up some groceries over the weekend and begrudgingly take the kids along.

I vowed not to brave my local shopping centre again last weekend and wracked my brains to find a solution. It was then I remembered Moorhouse Farm Shop. We used to be very regular customers however recently seemed to have forgotten about this gem so on Saturday afternoon we all piled in the car and headed a few miles down the A1. You will find Moorhouse Farm Shop just off the A1 near Stannington, Morpeth. Follow the signs for Stannington services and you will see brown signposts for the farm shop.

Moorhouse Farm for kids

We arrived at around 12:30pm and managed to park without any difficulty. Winning!! We decided to let the kids explore a little before heading inside to do our shopping. Moorhouse Farm is very child-friendly - there is a free outdoor play area, toy tractors to ride on, an outdoor sandpit and an indoor play barn.

You can also take a stroll around the animals and say hello. On one of our previous visits the friendly farmer has even invited the kids into the chicken coop to help him hunt for eggs. 

All of the above is completely FREE and beats walking around a supermarket with 3 kids in tow any day of the week!

Moorhouse Farm Shop

The farm shop was fairly busy so I didn't take many photos but there is so much local produce for sale from veg grown in Northumberland to home baked farmhouse cakes, fresh bread, a butchers counter, preserves, local and speciality drinks, fruit, chocolates, proper gravy.....the list is endless. I defy anyone to leave the shop empty handed. 

The kids loved picking out their own veg for our Sunday lunch. For the 5 of us we bought:-

*1kg Shoulder of Pork from the butcher's counter
*Carrots
*Broccoli
*Leeks
*Green beans
*Mushrooms
*Homemade farmhouse Yorkshire puddings
*Homemade Pork Gravy
*Local apple sauce
*Home baked Lemon drizzle cake

All for £26 which I think is a fantastic deal for a 2 course Sunday lunch for 5 using local ingredients. 

The Moorhouse Farm Coffee Shop

It wasn't long before the kids were moaning they were hungry which I swear is their favourite thing to do so we scouted out the farm's coffee shop to see if there were any free tables. We were in luck and grabbed a spot. I was super impressed with the prices - kids lunch boxes were £3.10 which included a sandwich (cheese, 'proper' ham or jam), a piece of fruit, a homemade biscuit and a carton of juice. 

Jack's face when his lunch arrived! 

Jack decided he would like fish fingers and chips for the bargain price of £2.50. The chips were homemade and I am gutted Jack wouldn't share! Children's meals are for children aged up to 12 however I do feel the portions would be on the small side for kids with a large appetite. For that price though you could order 2 if your kids were extra hungry. The portion was perfect for Jack's lunch. 

I can never pop into the coffee shop without admiring the cake counter and choosing a slice to share with Steve - they are huge and always light and fluffy. Todays choice was a Battenberg (£2.95) which was washed down with a Pumphreys coffee and pot of Rington's tea. 

In the summer you can sit on the terrace and there's a little play house for the kids too. Perfect.

We left thinking why oh why had we forgotten about this place? Shopping here for the weekend was sooooo much less stressful than trying to walk around a busy supermarket. We vowed to not leave it as long before we visit again. The shop is open 7 days a week too. 

http://www.moorhousefarmshop.co.uk/