Drive carefully as you approach, the lane is narrow and often muddy. The sat nav will tell you you’re in Loddiswell, an off-the-beaten track village, and this is Devon’s most unusual breakfast destination, a chilli farm. So, park up and tuck in to a hearty meal of chilli scrambled eggs, huevos rancheros, or bacon butty with chipotle ketchup. Welcome to the South Devon Chilli Farm.

It has some of the country’s best beaches and pretty, timeless villages. And, with a nation that is sitting by its fireside impatiently longing for a release from lockdown, could Devon’s vibrant food scene be set to lift seasonal spirits this summer? Whenever it happens, Devon’s food producers are already on their starting blocks.  

Home to three Michelin starred restaurants – Michael Caines’ estuary-side  Lympstone Manor, The Elephant in Torquay, and The Mason’s Arms in South Molton – Devon isn’t just for foodies with deep pockets. In 2021 it’s about the diversity of food experience: cooking classes, wine tastings, brewery tours, a producer visit or market experience.

What can gastronome staycationers look forward to in Devon this summer?

Across three lockdowns cheese became a food essential, sales increasing by almost 25% as households turned to cooking with, as well as eating, cheese. All good news for the region’s cheese producers and its cheese shops alike. And if cheese became a dietary essential it’s to be assumed that distillery products too rose up the list. Add in locally caught fish, farmers’ markets and curated food and drink tours, summer 2021 looks promising.

So, top up your glass, here is what to put on your plate this season:

Wine tasting:

Probably the most well-known of the county’s vineyards is Sharpham, on the outskirts of the riverside town of Totnes. As well as producing an award-winning range of wines, it is also a producer of seven local cheeses including a brie and a goat’s cheese. It offers wine and cheese tasting tours, as well as a lovely restaurant with sweeping views across the River Dart.

Cookery schools:

With a number of respected cookery schools, including Ashburton and Exeter, the standout for originality, and not just in name, is Manna from Devon. From its home at Kingswear, looking across the river to Dartmouth, the cookery school delivers classes to master the versatility of the wood fired oven, bread making and cooking fish fresh from the nearby port of Brixham.

Devon distilleries:

In recent years Devon has seen a tsunami of innovation in the production of gin and whisky. Most celebrated are the gins from Salcombe, a distillery based in the coastal town which offers residential gin making courses, and rivalled only by producer of nationally stocked Plymouth Gin which also runs tours, and upstart Dartmoor Distillery which produces a range of gins and a whisky.

Artisan cheese shops:

Named Best British Cheesemonger in the Great British Taste Awards, Country Cheeses caters for a clientele with an insatiable appetite, with cheeses ranging from washed rinds to semi-softs. It concentrates on special products from the local area and now has shops in Tavistock, Topsham and Totnes. And no-one leaves without a taster.

Fabulous fish:

Brixham, with a 600-year history of trawling, is a year-round fishing port – landing over 40 species of fish and Britain’s biggest fish market. It offers fish market tours that give a behind-the-scenes view of how this remarkable port delivers its fish from sea to plate, made even more desirable by a fish breakfast at Mitch Tonks’ neighbouring Rockfish restaurant.    

Chillies:

Finally, and back to where we started, a chilli farm. Since 2001 in this rather unusual location, the the South Devon Chilli Farm has been nurturing its chillies and now produces not just chilli sauces and preserves but a range of chilli chocolates. In addition to regular dark and milk, today the range includes orange, fruit and spice, honeycomb and sea salt varieties.

So, as the country unlocks, the artisan producers of Devon are readying themselves for a bumper summer – of course, with everything crossed.