These are Scotland's 17 best rural pitstops, as featured in The Farm Shop Guide

However, farm shops are just as appealing in the harvest time and later into autumn.

The publisher of a new book, The Farm Shop Guide, Kerry O’Neill, aims to direct us towards the very best of this genre, in Scotland and throughout the UK.

O’Neill has also put together previous releases, The Coastal Cafe Guide, as well as The Extra Mile, which features the best alternatives to motorway services.

We asked her about the newest launch, which features Gairloch, House Hill, Upper Dysart Larder, Westerton Farm and the others mentioned below.

Why farm shops?

Everyone loves a farm shop for their farm-fresh local flavours, chatty staff, and often interesting and family-friendly surrounds, so we’ve brought a haul of our favourites into the first edition of The Farm Shop Guide. As a publishing company, we at Printslinger seek out and celebrate smaller, independent, non-chain places to eat and drink: farm shops are about as authentic and locally focused as you can get. By choosing to shop or eat in farm shops and their cafés, you’re choosing to support local people, farms, food networks, communities, jobs, and economies.

We want people to be more connected to their food supply, and to know where things come from and their impact on the planet. Last month, the Farmers against Farmwashing campaign (led by Riverford Organic vegetable box company founder Guy Singh-Watson), contacted the ‘big six’ supermarkets asking them to end ‘farmwashing’: i.e. leading customers to think that their products are from quaint, family-run farms. The Farm Shop Guide will help people find real farm shops, often on family farms, selling genuine local and regional produce.

Is 165 in the UK a particularly exhaustive list, or did you have to edit the selection down?

While researching our flagship title,The Extra Mile: Delicious Alternatives to Motorway Services, we noticed how many wonderful farm shops there were, often with fab cafés and restaurants alongside. We dug deeper and within weeks had unearthed well over 1300 places. We quickly realised that farm shops needed their own guide. This first edition of The Farm Shop Guide has 165 farm shops in it. We didn’t want it to become unwieldy so have chosen to save some for future editions.

Do we do them especially well in Scotland?

Yes! Scotland's Highlands and Islands and more rural areas are so different to the rest of Britain. There can be significant space and distance between people and places, so farm shops can act as real community hubs. These are places where growers, makers, and producers bring their foods and crafts to be sold, and where people come to meet, shop, and catch up on the latest neighbourhood news.

How did you find them all?

We did an extensive on-the-ground tour of Scotland while researching The Extra Mile, which introduced us to places like Rothiemurchus (Strathspey), Smiddy Farm Shop (Blair Drummond), Blairmains Farm Shop and Coffee Bothy (Blairlogie), Loch Leven’s Larder (Kinross), Cairn Lodge Services Farm Shop (Lanark), and the café and farm shop at the Loch Arthur Camphill Community (Beeswing). Our farm shop research then uncovered a myriad more, with some farms finding us and requesting to join the book, and us discovering others through trusted word-of-mouth recommendations.

Are any in especially picturesque locations?

Isle of Mull Cheese, at Sgriob-ruadh Dairy Farm and Distillery on the Isle of Skye, has an incredible location. The views from its Glass Barn café are staggering and any visit promises to be a memorable experience, from a tasty café meal to the cheese, home-distilled spirits, and farm shop treats. Loch Leven’s Larder in Kinross too is not shy of views: panoramic ones over Loch Leven itself and the surrounding countryside. For views of the Inner Hebrides, head to Gairloch, whose lovely Farm Shop and Garden Store stocks a ‘little bit of everything’. You can also get a real feel for rural life at the 140-acre Whitmuir Farm in West Linton, where kids love seeking out fairy houses up in the trees, while roaming the woodland walks. Haddington’s Carfrae Farm Shop has views of heather-clad hills at the foot of the Lammermuir Hills.

If you could go back to one of the Scottish ones this weekend, which would it be?

I once spent a summer working in St Andrews so, for me, it would be Balgove Larder, in a low-slung stone barn on the town’s edge. In its shop, some of the finest food in Fife is displayed next to farm-reared meat, and this atmospheric spot runs night markets in summer, with live music, fire pits, producer pop-ups, and more. It’s an experience in itself – the steak barn is epic – plus is a handy spot to stock the fridge if staying in St Andrews or for picnics if visiting one of the colourful coastal spots nearby, like Crail, Elie, or Pittenweem.

Are any of them doing anything innovative that the others aren't?

Puffin Croft at John O’Groats runs a cute petting farm. Stylish haunts like Fenton Barns Farm Shop in North Berwick and Househill Farm Shop in Nairn blend homewares and gifts with farm-fresh and local artisanal products... Upper Dysart Larder in Montrose has a futuristic touch-screen, farm-to-table vending machine. Westerton Farm in Laurencekirk offers extensive PYO fruit, veg, and flowers as well as having goats and alpacas to visit. Makers at the Isle of Mull cheese use their whey to create a fiery Scottish spirit (plus they have peacocks) and Castleton Farm in Laurencekirk has more products crafted from strawberries than you can shake a fruity stick at. There really is no end to the inventiveness that farm shop owners in Scotland show in order to thrive in an increasingly difficult climate for farming.

Is autumn a good time to visit a farm shop?

Most times are good times to visit farm shops, for whenever you go, you’re likely to find the best of that season’s fruit and vegetable harvests. Autumn is the season for late-harvest pick-your-own (PYO) opportunities, plus PYO pumpkins and Halloween and other festive events. Check ahead to see if your farm shop of choice is running any special events, in case you have to reserve a spot or buy a ticket.

Why are you donating one per cent of sales proceeds to The Sustainable Food Trust?

We want our books – which are carbon-neutral certified print products – to do as much good and leave as small a footprint as possible. The Sustainable Food Trust works to accelerate the transition to more sustainable food and farming systems that nourish the health of both people and the planet. If the planet isn’t healthy, food systems and humans will suffer so we are proud to support their work through this book’s sales. The Farm Shop Guide also highlights the vital work of 14 other food and farming-related organisations, including the Soil Association, the Permaculture Association, the Biodynamic Association, the Wildlife Trusts, Pasture for Life, Community Supported Agriculture, and the RSPB’s Fair to Nature, to help readers better understand more about British food and farming.

The Farm Shop Guide is out on October 12, see https://theextramile.guide/shop/- for 10 per cent off any of their books, use the code scot10 at the online checkout