It's Cheshire oldest and "poshest" of farm shops - and The Hollies is always absolutely packed out with shoppers at this time of year. The shelves are positively heaving with Christmas goodies and it has an entire Christmas house dedicated to festive decorations on the sprawling site at Little Budworth in Cheshire.
The farm shop has an army of fans, including Love Island star Molly-Mae Hague who posted a series of Instagram moments enjoying all its cakey and foodie treats in the summer saying: "farm shops have my heart". And come weekends in the run up to Christmas, the queues snake right around the shop with customers packing their baskets with festive fayre.
At the heart of it all is the fresh food and drink section, with an array of artisan produce and fresh local meats and vegetables. But many people think of farm shops as an expensive way to get full meals on the table for all the family.
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So just how much would it cost to pick up your entire Christmas turkey dinner with all the trimmings at an award-winning farm shop like this? And, more importantly, would the taste of it all make it worth the extra money for goods than the prices you would pay at a supermarket?
I headed over to The Hollies in the village of Little Budworth, near Tarporlery, to find out. Arriving on a Sunday afternoon I thought I'd have missed the main crowds but I was wrong - at 3pm the place was absolutely packed.
I had to park in the overflow car park as all the main car park spaces were gone and I could see queues outside the newly-reopened cafe area. But I was not to be distracted by cake and coffee (and their ultimate Christmas sandwich sign that was very tempting) so instead headed towards the main entrance.
Except, it turns out, on weekends they don't allow you through the front entrance anymore to ease congestion - they instead ask you to trot all the way around the back to the shiny new conservatory bit to get in instead.
This is not altogether a bad thing as you get to see all the gorgeous Christmas displays and present ideas as you attempt to get through to the main farm shop food area, although does increase the temptation to spend. It did, however, allow me to get my hands on the first item for my Christmas dinner - the Christmas pudding.
There was a big tower of them in the conservatory in small, medium and large, although I couldn't find a price on any of them. I plumped for the medium one and hoped for the best.
"Hoping for the best" is not entirely the best financial idea in a farm shop it turns out as when I got to the till it turned out it was priced at £8.99. Gulp, I dread to think how much the large one cost.
The main foodie farm shop itself is really a sight to behold. It's got a dazzling display of fresh fruit and vegetables, a full butchery counter and a delicatessen that includes a gorgeous looking cabinet of fresh cream cakes.
I try to stay focussed on the plan though, to pick up all of my Christmas dinner essentials in here. I head straight to the meat fridges where I'm told fresh turkey is available.
On my visit there were large, very large turkey breasts available (one priced at a massive £75) but if you're after a whole turkey (Kelly Bronze and Gressingham) these need to be pre-ordered ahead of Crimbo. There were pamphlets all around on how to do this.
However, as I was needing to feed three adults this week for my test Christmas dinner, I browsed the options that were available in the fridge. I wasn't sure quite how big to go, but ended up with a 2.44kg turkey breast which was my biggest investment on the shop, weighing in at £31.48.
As it's still November there were no pigs-in-blankets in the fridges here as yet, but loads and loads of sausages. So I picked up a pack of the Hollies Farm Shop sausages and thought I could try and make my own pigs-in-blankets with them. Although this turned out to be an expensive endeavour with the sausages priced at £5.03 and the streaky bacon at £3.55.
Staff are super-friendly in the shop and they helped me to find their range of stuffing which is from a Shropshire-based company and I selected a traditional sage and onion (£2.25), while cranberry sauce was from Cheshire's very own Mrs Darlington's (£2.85). Although both of these items were significantly more than I would usually pay for my Paxo stuffing and Ocean Spray cranberry sauce it has to be said.
The vegetable selection is huge here - and it looks so good that it actually makes you excited to buy carrots and parnsnips and I mean how often can you say that? I collect a bag of sprouts, potatoes and a bunch of "dirty carrots" and again am "hoping for the best" as I wasn't entirely clear on what the prices were for everything here.
I also plump for Cheshire potatoes and pick up goose fat to roast them in, not that I've ever tried this method before. I'm rather shocked at the price for the goose fat (£3.95) but think I'd best give it a whirl to see if it really is worth it.
It was then on into the fun section - the piles and piles of cakes, chocolates and biscuity treats close to the tills. Indeed, when I joined the massive queue for the tills it meant walking slowly past these sweet treats and makes it hard to resist them.
I limited it to a packet of mince pies though as I loved the star design. They were pricey though - really pricey - at £3.99 and I hope that they will be worth basically a pound each in the taste test.
When I got to the tills I started to worry about how much it would all tot up to. The total shop came in at just over £75 which was a little bit eye-watering given that's roughly how much I normally pay for a full weekly shop at my local supermarket - and this is essentially just for one Christmas meal.
As a comparison, you can expect to pay around £20 - £30 for the cheapest supermarket full turkey dinners this year - and one supermarket, Heron, has even just announced it has created a £15 frozen Christmas dinner for 2022.
The full basket prices
Turkey breast - £31.48
Sprouts (0.648kg) - £1.43
Dirty carrots (1.064kg) - 69p
Parsnips (0.538kg) - £1.48
Cheshire potatoes (1.328kg) - £1.31
Cauliflower - £1.80
Streaky bacon - £3.55
Hollies sausages - £5.03
Dine turkey gravy - £2.99
Mrs Darlington cranberry sauce with port - £2.85
Goose fat - £3.95
Shropshire Sage & Onion stuffing - £2.25
Ultimate Hollies Chrismas pudding - £8.99
Star mince pies - £3.99
Brandy butter - £3.99
TOTAL: £75.78
Is the proof in the pudding?
There was only one way to see if it was all worth that £75 investment, and that was to cook it all up for an early festive dinner for my family. I needed to feed three adults and two children with it all and here's how I got on.
So the turkey was a dream to cook, it was ready bound with a little twig of herbs on top and was in a metal dish that I stuck straight into the oven. It didn't have any cooking instructions though so I trusted good old google which suggested the size of my turkey would require 2 hours and 30 minutes.
It came out looking golden and juicy and it was so big that even slicing just half of it we had more than enough for first and seconds for the five of us. Everything else was reasonably straightforward to cook and it made for a pretty splendid spread when I served it all up if I do say so myself.
Here's my verdict on all the items and whether I'd buy them again.
Turkey - delicious, and probably about the market price you'd pay for fresh local turkey at this time of year, so yes would buy again. I could also have probably gone for a much smaller breast - as this 2.44kg beast served five of us for the turkey dinner, and there was enough for leftover sandwiches the next day for two and even a massive (obligatory) turkey curry the day after that as well.
Stuffing - seemed to be very dry when I mixed it all up and it didn't fare much better after the cooking. Tasted no better than my usual Paxo, so at twice the price I'll stick with my supermarket version.
Sausages - I made half as "pigs in blankets" with the bacon wrapped around but this was an unnecessary expense, and the sausages tasted much better without the bacon. They were delightfully meaty with a hint of spice, I'd defo go back for more of these bangers.
Vegetables - the sprouts, dirty carrots (which yes, naturally, I cleaned) and parsnips were all really, really tasty so I'd definitely go for them again and were all in large portions. There was so much left that I've frozen the rest for actual Christmas Day.
Cranberry sauce - this was ok, but a bit on the watery side for me. You'd probably like it if you're a fan of port, but I prefer my bog standard jar of cranberry sauce from the supermarket which is half the price.
Goose fat potatoes - this was the BIG disappointment for me. The goose fat was so expensive (£3.95 for a small jar!) although I'd heard it was the superior way to make roasties - but I just found them really bland. I've made them better with olive oil at home in the past. Naturally, nothing is a patch on your mum's roasties, and so I asked for her secret ingredient which she said was "lard". A much cheaper option!
Gravy - When I poured this out into a saucepan I thought this looked very thin and not at all like the usual thick gloopy Bisto I usually make. But it actually really won me over when served on the plate. It gave a delightful, rich, meaty juice to the assortment of meat and veg on my plate, although one packet was definitely not enough between three adults who wanted it. Having said that, when we made ourselves some more instant gravy to pad out the second portions on the plates, it could not have tasted more cheap and nasty if it had tried. So I'd definitely consider buying the posh gravy again and just hogging it all for myself next time. The very spirit of Christmas there I think you'll find.
Mince pies - now these were definitely on the expensive side so they'd have to be good to win me over. And yes, honestly, they really were with a gorgeous moist pastry and tangy mincemeat. Not sure I'd be going every weekend to get them at this price, but as an occasional treat these were scrumptious.
Christmas pudding - this was undboutedly a tasty and rich Christmas pudding, but did it taste all that different to your regular supermarket pud once stuck in the microwave and slathered with brandy putter or custard? I don't think so. It would look nice as a gift though as the packaging was beautiful.
READ MORE ON FARM SHOPS IN THE REGION :-
- Village farm shop with lovely views next to river walk in Greater Manchester
- Greater Manchester farm shop with massive farmer's breakfast and views of the moors
- The cute Cheshire farm shop in a picturesque village with animals and tractor rides
- Inside the farm shop cafe named best in the UK
- The "fantastic" farm shop with massive indoor and outdoor play areas near Manchester Airport
