12 of the Best Farm Shops in Scotland.

There’s a farm kiosk my family and I buy vegetables from every week. It’s little more than a blue-painted three-sided shed on the roadside, at the top of the lane that leads to the farm, with geese grazing nearby. My heart always leaps when it comes into sight: outside, old buckets display a forest of kale and cavolo nero, sprouts are the size of small cakes and misshapen cabbages are rowed up in trays.

This is the core appeal of a farm shop – food so fresh you sometimes have to pick slugs off it – but at the other end of the scale, there is an immersive rural experience that allows us to reconnect with the countryside. There are farms serving home-cooked, own-produce lunches in beautifully renovated outbuildings, others with additional shops selling small-batch preserves and artisanal treasures, as well as playgrounds, scenic trails and opportunities for children to help feed the animals. Some champion organic farming with their wide ranges of produce, and some have their own butcheries and florists. All of them give us the chance to support local.