Beyond producer groups of farmers, some people have taken the community spirit even further, gathering together local fishermen, cheesemakers, cake and chutney makers, giving artisan producers an outlet for their goods, and customers the chance to order virtually everything for Christmas in one go.

Anne Petch of Heal Farm was a pioneer of the farm that supplies everything, growing her business from one pig given to her as a present, to a cornucopia of hampers and produce from Bronze turkeys, hams, pork, Devon Red Ruby beef and game birds, to multi-bird roasts (a small five-bird roast is £87.68) There are sausages, stuffings, sauces, stocks and gravies, hand-raised pies, pâtés and ready-made dishes, a new range of hot smoked meats, every kind of pudding and cake, farmhouse cheeses from Montgomery’s Cheddar to Colston Bassett, local trout, farmhouse butter, preserves, chocolates and clotted cream (01769 574341; www.healfarm.co.uk).

It is three years since Gillian Bell founded Caledonian Connoisseur, known colloquially by its web-name of Caleyco, based in Kelso and dedicated to sourcing foods from over 100 farmers, fishermen, cooks, smokehouses, cheesemakers and artisan producers around Scotland.

After leaving university, Bell, who grew up steeped in her parent’s food business, Scottish Gourmet, felt she had “fallen out of love with Scotland”, so she set off traveling the world. She was planning to emigrate to New Zealand – “Scotland without the baggage and a much better climate” – until she returned home for a family wedding and was offered a job cooking aboard a yacht taking part in the Classic Malts Cruise.

“The trip was the magical spark that changed my life”, she says, “it was truly inspirational. We sailed to the distilleries in the Western Isles, and I had to cook three meals a day for the guests, including whisky and travel writers. Being back in Scotland and having such wonderful, simple local ingredients to work with re-ignited my love affair with Scotland. I cooked with wild venison, local lamb and beef, live langoustines, bought straight from fishermen and delivered to the boat in a sheep feed bag, which I steamed with three different malts, and found wonderful Scottish Cheeses”.

The experience sowed the seeds for Caleyco, which she launched with operations director, Vikki Banks and chef Nick Nairn on the end of the phone in an advisory role, with the criteria that the food they offered must be exceptional, be it grass fed beef, turkey or geese, Summer Isles smoked salmon, Arbroath smokies, wild game, free range rare breed pork, Christmas pudding, Cheviot fruit cake or Selkirk bannock (01573 227310; www.caleyco.com)

For a hundred years H.Forman and Son supplied some of the finest restaurants in the UK with their own smoked salmon. Then in 2002 they took over the struggling mail-order food company Marchents, which had tried to bring together some of the finest food in Britain, endorsed by food lovers’ champion, Henrietta Green. So Forman & Field was born, expanding and developing to take in more and more producers who shared the Forman values, develop their own recipes with ex-Roux brothers chef, Lloyd Hardwick, and open up a whole new world of one-stop shopping for fabulous food.

Their seductive list of goodies reads like a foodie’s address book, with everything you could possibly want for Christmas from the famous Kelly Bronze turkeys, geese from Seldom Seen Farm; porchetta (boned, rolled young pig) from Pugh’s Piglets of Garstang in Lancashire to venison from the Denham Estate. There are Christmas pies from another ex-Roux chef, Stuart Oetzman and fruity puddings from George Hollywood of Georgie Porgie’s puddings in Devon, to complement the luscious, matured traditional Christmas puddings made by Lloyd Hardwick. Add in sumptuous cakes from Mrs Gill, fruit liqueurs from Bramley and Gage, biscuits from Popina and chocolates from Gerard Coleman of L’Artisan du Chocolat, and you have the makings of a feast. (0208 5252 352; www.formanandfield.com).

For the best local produce in your area visit the Times Real Food Directory

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