While we’re great fans of a traditional turkey at Christmas, there’s definitely something about a whole roast goose that feels special and out of the ordinary – we think it’s perfect for a celebratory meal with friends and family.

We all have our favourite tried-and-tested ways to roast a Christmas turkey – this guide is intended as a starting point, to be adjusted to suit your personal preferences.

If you’ve gone to the trouble of roasting your own turkey and cooking all the trimmings, it seems a shame not to make your own gravy, too. It’s fairly straightforward (just be careful when straining off hot fat from the roasting tin); to get ahead, you can make the stock in advance and keep it in the fridge until needed. Makes just over 1L (about 2 pints).

There’s nothing quite like a traditional beef roast with all the trimmings, and here at Greendale we offer a great selection of beef roasting joints in a range of weights and sizes. If you’re cooking roast beef for the first time, it can be tricky to know what to buy; if you’re local to Greendale, why not pop in and ask our friendly butchers (they’re brilliant on all things beef-related!). If you live a little farther afield, don’t worry - this quick guide is a great place to get started!

The humble potato actually does a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to Christmas dinner – however your guests might feel about sprouts, peas, carrots or other veg, we’re pretty sure they’ll all be happy to see roast potatoes on the table! While everyone has their own special way of making roasties (and we wouldn’t dream of messing with much-loved family methods), we thought it might be handy to offer a basic guide to cooking them, for anyone who’s looking to refresh their skills or having their first go at cooking Christmas dinner this year.

Not keen on sprouts? Let us change your mind! Available loose or still on their stalks, ours are fresh and full of flavour. For the best-dressed Brussels Sprouts this Christmas, our delicious recipe ideas include pairing sprouts with double cream and chestnuts, port and pancetta and buttery almonds and hazelnuts. View our top 5 Brussels Sprout recipes below.

Did you know that an estimated 20 to 40% of UK fruit and vegetables are rejected before they even reach the shops! At Greendale Farm Shop we don't believe there is anything wrong with wonky fruit and vegetables and stock all shapes and sizes. So take some imperfectly perfect fruit and veggies home (in one of our reusable organic net bags) and simply peel or chop the parts you don't want to eat but use the rest and keep food waste to a minimum.

In the UK, bread tops the list of most-wasted household food items; we waste nearly 900,000 tonnes of bread each year (about 24 million slices every single day). Trying to act in the face of such huge numbers might seem futile, but by starting in your own kitchen you can play a part in reducing this waste. Click here to read our suggestions on using up stale bread. 

The ultimate ‘convenience food’, sandwiches were supposedly invented in the eighteenth century when the fourth Earl of Sandwich – too involved in a game of cards to leave his gaming table – ordered servants to bring him a meal of cooked meat between slices of bread. Whether the story is true or not, sandwiches have been hugely popular ever since, and no wonder; made with fresh bread and a perfectly-judged filling, there’s nothing quite like a sarnie! Just for fun, we’ve taken our cue from the Earl and compiled our own ‘Top Five’ meat-filled sandwiches:

Lobster – there’s nothing quite like it, especially when it’s freshly caught by our boats off the Devon coastline. Supplied cooked and whole, so no flavour is lost, it’s ready to be cracked, picked and dressed. Delicious! Watch an extract from our recent Facebook live event where Ethan, our fishmonger, shows you how we crack a Greendale lobster.

Here's our guide to our favourite vegetarian-friendly cheeses sold at the Greendale Farm Shop deli. 

Wherever you stand on the heat-tolerance scale, there’s no denying that spicy food from sunnier climes just seems to make sense at this time of year. As well as new chilli beef burgers and sweet chilli sausages for your barbecue, Cajun-seasoned fresh fish and even spicy cheese scones, we also offer a great selection of hot sauces, rubs and marinades (many of them produced locally) at our shop and on our website, plus plenty of recipe ideas to help you bring the heat without compromising on flavour.

We may be biased, but we believe our hand-made burgers are a cut above the competition – for a quick and easy meal or a reliably tasty BBQ, it’s hard to go wrong with a Greendale burger. That said, adding a slice or two of your favourite cheese during cooking will take any burger to the next level; for research purposes (obviously!) we decided to try out a few different cheese-pairing choices for our burgers, with the result that several beautiful new partnerships have now been born!

At Greendale we sell fresh locally grown cauliflowers. Full of flavour, our Cauliflowers are deliciously versatile and ready to shine in all manner of recipes, whether served raw as cruditées, paired with cheese as a hearty main dish or tossed in oil and oven-roast as a splendid side. Here are our top five recipes.

Devon is known for its green rolling hills, hidden valleys and lush pastureland; quite unlike anywhere else, it’s a landscape that has long lent itself to dairy farming, with a rich tradition of county-wide milk, cream and cheese production spanning several centuries.

We stock award-winning Salmon from Loch Duart, an RSPCA animal welfare-accredited company which follows rigorous, internationally-accepted standards for environmental management.

A whole Turkey is the perfect centrepiece for a traditional Christmas dinner. We offer a variety of different whole Turkeys; free-range or barn-reared, Bronze or White, each sold with the Rosamondford Farm guarantee of quality. We can supply whole Turkeys in a range of sizes, from 4.5kg up to 10kg in weight (enough to feed 17 hungry dinner guests).

With so much planning and prep for Christmas day itself, it can be tricky to come up with ideas for a Christmas Eve meal. We think fish pie is the perfect answer; with a few, good-quality ‘cheats’ it’s simple enough to put together fairly quickly, but special enough to mark the celebration. Best of all, fish pie can be made in advance (or bought, frozen and defrosted), giving you one less thing to worry about.

As summer turns to autumn, many crave a shake-up when it comes to the weekly menu. Light & airy salads and BBQ fare give way to more comforting classics as we make the best of the abundant produce that autumn provides. As we embrace the peak of cider season, the comfort of a hearty roast, and the indulgence of a rich dessert, we've gathered five of our all-time favourite autumn recipes for you to enjoy.

Humans have been cultivating and eating cabbage for thousands of years (cabbage was already in use as both food and medicine by the early Roman period), and in all likelihood we were eating its wild-growing ancestors long before that! It’s hardly surprising; this brilliant brassica is a good source of vitamin K, fibre, potassium and folic acid, and contains useful amounts of calcium, iron, vitamin A and vitamin C, too. These days, a huge variety of cabbage types are available and – because different varieties mature at different times – it’s possible to enjoy fresh cabbage nearly all year round. Drum-headed or loose-leaved, savoy, red or white (confusingly, green cabbage is often referred to as ‘white’), cabbage is a valuable and versatile vegetable. Raw, cooked, pickled and fermented, we’ve always found it to be a great friend in the kitchen.

One of the best-selling vegetables here at Greendale Farm Shop, brilliant broccoli is more popular than ever! Much loved for its nutritional value (it’s a good source of vitamins C and K, as well as folate, thiamine and riboflavin), it’s easy to cook and makes a tasty, versatile ingredient in loads of different recipes. We source ours from local Devon growers whenever we can – we’re convinced you’ll be able to taste the difference between our locally-grown lovelies and the tired, mass-produced broccoli offered by supermarkets.

Steak grilled over charcoal is an unbeatable summertime treat; seasoned simply and cooked to perfection, it’s a classic, and deservedly so. Here are a few tips for successful barbecued steak.

At this time of year, we tend to seek out fresher, lighter wines – zesty, fruity whites and rosés, rather than full-bodied reds – and, while it’s tempting to reach for continental and new-world favourites, it might surprise you to learn that there are plenty of wines being produced right here in Devon that’ll fit the bill perfectly. Read our guide of the best wines from Devon.

It’s hard to beat chicken hot from the BBQ – lean, tasty and full of flavour, it’s a family favourite for good reason, and guaranteed to be popular at summer get-togethers. With so many chicken joints and cuts to choose from, it can be hard to know where to begin, so here are a few ideas to get you started.

While sausages and burgers will always have a place in our hearts, we like to change things up a bit in summer and make space on the grill for a succulent fish steak or two! Firm and flavourful, our responsibly-fished steaks are ideal BBQ candidates – they stand up well to the heat, and will quickly take on a delicious ‘cooked outdoors’ taste that’s truly hard to beat. Not sure which fish steaks to try? Check out our easy recipes to help you get started.

Here at Greendale Farm Shop, we offer a great selection of beef, pork, lamb and poultry – and, with BBQ season in full swing, we’re busier than ever! As usual, our hand-made sausages and beefburgers are flying off the shelves, and while they are undeniably delicious, we thought it might be fun to highlight a few alternatives for anyone who feels like trying something different the next time they light the grill. So, with this in mind, we asked our butchers to come up with some fresh BBQ ideas, with the proviso that everything must be as simple to cook as a burger or banger, and just as crowd-pleasing! 

‘Strawberry season’ is now in full swing (tennis-based pun fully intended) here in the UK, and Greendale customers have been enjoying strawberries by the punnet-load from our growers. And while we’re not saying there’s anything wrong with classic strawberries and cream, there are lots of other, deliciously different ways to eat these wonderful summer jewels; read our blog for a few new recipe suggestions and ideas, including a BBQ option!

While pizza toppings are definitely a matter of personal choice (prawn and banana, anyone?), there’s no denying that certain flavour combos are favourites for good reason!