A medieval barn that lay in ruins five years ago has been transformed into a stylish farm shop destined to become the hub of the small village of Farthinghoe, which lies midway between between Banbury and Brackley.

For many years, the Dorward family from Limes Farm dreamed of restoring this crumbling building and bringing it back to life. Now their dream has come true. Not only have they created space to sell farm produce, home-baked bread and cakes, but they have built a space where tea and snacks can be served throughout the day, and so turn it into a real meeting place.

The new shop stands in the centre of the 200-acre Limes Farm, which has been in the hands of the Dorward family for more than 200 years. It is a mixed farm, with 80 per cent devoted to livestock and the rest put down to cereals, vegetables and orchards. This means that the farm shop can be stocked with meat, fruit and vegetables grown on the farm.

However, they decided to go further than that and bake their own bread, cakes and savoury tarts created from produce they have grown themselves. Only the flour has to be bought in — they use Wessex Flour milled in Wantage which, as those who use flour from this mill will be aware, has the name of the farm that supplied the wheat stamped on every bag.

When the barn’s restoration began, they discovered an old bread oven built into its massive walls, which means that by baking their own bread, the Dorwards are restoring a tradition that goes back centuries.

The inspiration for their farm shop venture owes much to the hot school meal service that Ian and Nicky Dorward took on a couple of years ago. They began with their local primary school. Now they cook meals for several local schools.

All the meals they produce for the children are cooked from scratch. There are no instant powder mixes in their kitchen. The meals are prepared from home-grown vegetables, farm-reared or locally-sourced meat, and eggs from their chickens. This means that they don’t just meet the standards set by the School Food Trust — they have exceeded them.

Nicky said: “No meal ever goes to the schoolchildren that we would not happily eat ourselves — and often do.”

The couple have even introduced a Clean Plate Award. This takes the form of a handy booklet that the children get a stamp in when they eat their meal.

As Nicky explained, this helps parents to know whether their child has eaten all their lunch. This attention to detail and the sourcing of local products to cook the children’s meals contributed to Limes Farm winning the Northamptonshire award for Local Food Hero last month.

“Our mushroom, bacon and thyme tart, which we now sell in the shop, had been shortlisted as the Best Local Product, which we considered a real honour, particularly as we had only been trading for such a short time. We couldn’t believe it when we won that category, followed by the Local Food Hero award the very same night. It came as a complete shock and an absolute joy,” said Ian, who feels that the award confirms that their farming philosophy is right.

As all traditional farmers know, you can’t hurry nature. Raw ingredients take time to grow and ripen. You have to wait for nature to tell you when everything is ready. When this moment comes and nature declares it is time to gather in its riches, Ian and Nicky work flat out to cook the raw products they have harvested.

They also let nature tell them what product each crop should become.

“If the onions have grown large and sweet they are perfect for onion jam, but if they are small with a bit more zing, then they will be pickled,” said Ian.

They also keep a keen eye on their hedgerows. These not only provide a wonderful habitat for birds and insects, but also produce blackberries and all manner of berries to be used in jams and chutneys.

Ian and Nicky are confident that this makes their products special, as they waste nothing that grows on the farm that can be turned into a product others will enjoy.

In keeping with their deep-seated desire to keep everything as green as possible, the couple give a ten per cent discount to all customers who have walked to the shop, or arrived by bus or even on a horse.

You will discover Limes Farm Shop in Main Road, which runs through Farthinghoe. It opens from 9am to 5pm every day, except Monday.

For further information you can go to the website (www.limes-farm.com).