One such newcomer is Farm Direct, which set up shop in Islington in the Autumn. The company delivers fresh produce to several North London postcodes, working with around 20 different farms no further than 125 miles outside London. It has a small depot open to passing customers near Highbury Fields, but most orders are taken online  and delivered directly to people’s homes.

Although only five months old, there’s been a great response from local shoppers so far, revealing a healthy appetite for locally sourced food. Farm Direct founder Robert Barker attributes this to the difficulty that Londoners have in accessing local produce, which is certainly a tricky task if you’re not keen on paying above the odds in supermarkets or getting up at the crack of dawn to visit farmers’ markets. The box scheme makes it far easier to fit local food into daily life, and low overhead and transport costs keep prices very reasonable.

Another attraction of Barkers’ products is their freshness, which also compares favourably with supermarkets. “I must have had at least a dozen Mums who delight that their children love our Chegworth apples”, he told us. “food that has not travelled a long way will have a better chance of tasting delicious.” He added that “people want to be able to connect with their food a bit more: intuitively it makes sense to know not only where your food comes from, but who actually produced it — in the age of the internet, that should be possible.”

Farm Direct offers more than just veggies, with a selection of meat and game, seasonal fruit and veg, eggs, pies, bakery,  juices and a selection of cheeses; most products are either organic or unsprayed. As with all locally-produced food, the weather has a massive impact on what’s good to eat when, and this year’s unusually hard winter has certainly had an impact on some crops.

However, local sourcing brings some real surprises, and as Barker explained, a ‘bad’ winter does not have to mean a bad haul: Jerusalem artichoke and beetroot are thriving at the moment, producing some beautiful crops, and on the meat side, mutton is at its best.  For many customers, it’s this unpredictable nature of local food shopping that makes it so addictive.

Image: Dichohecho