Higher Farm

*Higher Farm is closed for the winter season and will reopen for service on 30th April*

When the sun is shining, this simple but artfully decorated barn on a working regenerative farm feels a bit like heaven. The small dining room is flooded with light from a large picture window, while stone walls and a rough concrete floor are given character by earthenware jugs of dried flowers, blackboards listing the month’s harvest, and shelving made out of wine crates. It feels a bit like a pop-up, and the staff greet you like an old friend.

A regularly changing menus showcase the farm’s produce alongside the best of what’s grown or foraged in this particularly bountiful corner of Somerset. Meat and fish in the form of, say, a glistening hunk of ham with smooth buttery mash and a vibrant parsley sauce or trout fillets on a neat plinth of potato salad, share equal billing with vegetable dishes – maybe leeks smothered in a rich rarebit topping and dressed with shards of pickled onion and rye croûtons. You would be a fool to leave without ordering a side of ‘chips’, fat bricks of compressed potato slices, slow-cooked in butter overnight and then deep-fried to crunchy perfection. To conclude, perhaps opt for a light dessert – a quenelle of refreshing rhubarb sorbet, say, or some homemade Neapolitan ice cream. 

The short drinks menu highlights Somerset ciders and English wine alongside inventive cocktails, while a longer list of low-intervention Italian wines chosen by the farm’s owners Matteo and Giacomo Grasso is also worth considering – although by-the-glass options are thin on the ground.