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The food has been tasted, the tea drunk. The atmosphere has been sampled, the customers interviewed. Yes, after searching long and hard, we've found Britain's Best Market Café 2004. Tim Relf and Jeremy Hunt report
WINNER
THERE'S STEAK pie and there's steak pie. But then there's the steak pie served in the café at Longtown Auction Mart in Cumbria. Succulent, flavoursome chunks of lean beef bathed in rich gravy and cooked under a light and tasty pastry crust - it's simply superb.
This scrumptious meal is just part of the hearty menu of home-cooked food that sustains the hundreds of farmers who trade here every week.
At the helm are business partners Jane Batey (left) and Ruth Little. Jane, whose family were local farmers and butchers, has been working here for almost 20 years and now runs the place with Ruth who joined 12 years ago.
They've come through a lot in recent years. Longtown Auction Mart found itself at the centre of the footand-mouth epidemic in 2001, one of the darkest times in Cumbrian farming history. As experienced caterers it presented them with new challenges as thek skills were called upon to feed the vast corps of staff involved in the F&M operation.
MILLIONSHEEP
But now it's back to business as usual at this, the UK's busiest sheep market, where annual throughput heads towards one million sheep.
The café is certainly at the heart of the market - which trades as Cumberland and Dumfriesshire Farmers Mart. And, although some of the more "colourful" characters were under strict orders to be on thek best behaviour when Farmlife called, it was clear it's the real Cumbria "craik" that gives this place its special atmosphere.
The café is open on weekly market days on Tuesdays and Thursdays and also provides sustenance on all special sale days especially in the hectic autumn season. Ruth and Jane also undertake the catering at the company's market at Dumfries.
The café's kitchen is up and running by 6.30am on market days to provide breakfasts and on the day Varmlife visited we were told that you've never eaten a breakfast until you've tried one at Longtown! For £3.80, drovers and wagon drivers can get themselves well setup for the day with...