About our organic farm shop
'Best Farm Shop 2014'
Western Gazette Taste Awards
Our small family-run shop is nestled at the heart of the bustling farm courtyard, stocked with all our lovely fresh vegetables from the surrounding fields. Picked straight from the soil each morning, the vegetables are bursting with the flavour and nutrients that only super-fresh food can provide.
The farm shop also sells a wide range of local and organic products including meat, dairy, fresh bread, grocery items, and ice cream. We sell award winning cheeses made by our on-site cheese maker James's Cheese. The farm shop sells a range of gluten free products and we also have a small range of locally produced crafts and gardening books.
We sell fruit, vegetables, and dried goods in bulk sizes at bargain values, so if you'd like anything on a larger scale, let us know and we'll see what we can do for you.
The shop is open all year round, on Thursdays and Fridays from 10am to 6pm, and Saturdays from 10am to 4pm.
About Gold Hill Organic Farm
Andrew and Sara Cross have managed the farm, sales and all the growing since 1987, and have been organic from the start. Gold Hill was one of the very first farms in the south west to gain organic status from the Soil Association.
The vegetable growing area covers about eight acres, made up of an acre of 'minimum tillage' raised beds for early and late season crops; eight polytunnels for sun-loving plants and winter salads; and six acres of 'field scale' vegetables where we grow crops like sweetcorn, summer lettuces and leeks.
Andrew grew up at Gold Hill which was then operating as a dairy, helping with the daily milking at 4am. He wanted to take the farm on from his father but didn't want to keep the cows. It was through a chance meeting with famous organic vegetable grower Charles Dowding that Andrew was inspired to turn the conventional dairy farm in to an organic vegetable farm.
Sara worked on livestock farms all over the country, and with VSO in Asia. Her first love was livestock, but when she came for a job at Gold Hill, not only did she fall in love with her boss Andrew, but also with growing vegetables.
Andrew, Sara and their family have worked extremely hard to make Gold Hill Organic Farm what it is today. The quality of their organic vegetables is outstanding and you would be hard pushed to find better grown organic vegetables in Dorset.