Occombe Farm

I love going home to Devon. Forget that I come from Torquay, ‘The English Riviera’ (thank you Peter Kay) as frankly it’s not very pretty, it’s the surrounding area that is stunning, with sweeping hills and craggy coastline perfect for weekend exploring. But finding somewhere fab to eat in Torbay is still a bit of a struggle, people tend to have a few old favourites that they keep going back to, and that’s fine when they’re good, but I like to be kept on my toes by experiencing new places whenever possible.
Occombe Farm in Paignton, Devon is a new and very successful venture by Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust. It’s a real-​life working farm with Occombe cows that you can watch chewing the cud (or whatever cows do in their spare time) from the windows of a well stocked food shop and café. The eco-​friendly farm is free to get in and has brilliant educational events reflecting the seasonal workings of the farm, the benefits of ‘eating local, not global’ (a phrase painted on the wall of the café) and a beautiful community garden.
Last Sunday morning Me and my brother ended up with hangovers (unsurprising after we decided to meet up for a whisky night cap at 1am the night before) and were in seriously need of bacon and some relaxing surroundings. So we scooted off to Occombe in search for exactly that, and we weren’t disappointed.
Freshly squeezed orange juice followed by a strong black filter coffee improved both of us enough to ‘enjoy’ a chat about an article on Anna Nicole Smith that my brother was reading from the great selection of Sunday papers… Thrilling stuff. From the comfort of the huge sofas, we ‘built our own breakfasts’, my brother choosing mainly meat based goods and mine a varied girlier but surprisingly bigger version of sausages, bacon, tomatoes, beans, huge crispy fried potatoes and a poached egg, with as much as it could coming from the farm itself, the rest from local suppliers. Whilst we waited, I read all of the locally produced leaflets that promoted eco-​ways of living and appreciated the beautiful rural inspired artwork painted on the walls.
The yellowy yolk of the egg was huge and there was an intense creamy flavour to the white. The sausages were fat and full of herbs (I went and bought some in the shop afterwards to take home for tea) and the bacon was crispy, salty and meaty. The tomatoes were fine if not a little bland and the beans were, well beans. Guzzled down with some homemade bread whilst looking out onto the nature reserve and I was momentarily transported away from my headache.
There’s a lot to learn here about the social responsibility of food, and I encourage anyone who takes a trip to the South West to pop in, even if just to learn about their fantastic community led initiatives or eat one of their indulgent cakes. It’s incredible to see that places like at Hackney City Farm in London adopt similar principles, I for one cannot wait to visit and compare my experiences.

This comment is about the café, I have not done any of the walks or activities there are to do at Occombe Farm.
Whilst the menu is limited, this is a great place for lunch or a really gorgeous slice of cake and a coffee. With views out across the farmland and a rustic canteen feel about the place you imagine Hugh Fearlessly-​eats-​it-​all will pop in at any moment! There’s a feel good factor about the café — I hope they build on this. Nothing pretentious, just local produce cooked well. I would like to see more on thier specials board.
The large full English was great, especially the White pudding. More expensive than anywhere else, but value for money becuase it was really quality meat. Only dissapointment was the breakfast comes with a hot drink and when we asked to swap it for a glass of juice, we had to pay about 80p extra… Hate it when places do that!
Would certainly reccomend this café to everyone.