By buying locally sourced produce, everyone, not just farmers and landowners, can contribute to ensuring that a well-managed countryside benefits wildlife and the environment.

Local produce includes everything from fresh fruit and vegetables to charcoal for the barbecue and even the garden bench!

Our directory of local produce gives you useful contact details, and even some inspiration about products you may not even have been aware of.

As well as trying to buy local produce, buying food when it is in season really adds to the benefits. What’s in season can change regularly, and to help you, have a look at our guide to seasonal produce.

It may not be possible to always buy directly from the local producer, but it should be possible to buy from that producer’s stockist, such as the village or farm shop.

Support your local economy

• Small scale producers are often struggling to compete with large supermarket chains
• Local produce can directly support local businesses, local employment and keep money in the local economy by cutting out the middleman, through direct selling, which in turn increases financial returns.
• Personal contact with a local producer can give you a real understanding of how something is grown or processed

Reducing food miles

• ‘Food miles’ means the distance food has travelled from where it is produced to where it is purchased, and onto where it is consumed.
• Food distribution by road freight is the fastest growing transport sector here in the UK and is a major contributor to air pollution - it takes 68 calories of air fuel to transport one calorie of carrot into the UK!
• 13% of the UK’s total fuel consumption goes on packaging and transporting food

Environmental Benefits

• Local food production ensures that local land is put to good use.
• Local land is maintained to a high standard, which in turn increases environmental quality and attracts visitors to the countryside.

Reducing packaging

• Vast quantities of packaging are used to protect produce when it is being transported around the country and even the world
• Local produce generally has a minimal amount of packaging which cuts down on the use of valuable natural resources

Supporting traditional crafts

• Woodland activities have helped shape the landscape of south east England for generations
• Buying locally produced timber such as fence materials ensures you help maintain our landscape and don’t destroy some one else’s!

Social Importance

• Buying locally encourages links between local land owners and the communities they are in
• And increases social connections between urban and rural communities

Health Benefits

• Local food comes with the re-assurance that local food is ‘good-home produced’ food that has not adversely harmed the environment
• Local food gives an assurance of where the food comes from and how produced
• Local food is fresh, nutritious food

	Spring	Summer	Autumn	Winter
Vegetables	Asparagus Carrots Cauliflower Celeriac Cucumbers Curly Kale Purple sprouting broccoli Savoy cabbage Sorrel Spinach Spring greens Spring onions Watercress	Beetroot Broadbeans Carrots Cauliflower Courgette Cucumbers Fennel Peas Garlic Green beans Lettuce New potatoes Radishes Rocket Runner beans Salad leaves Salad onions Tomatoes Watercress	Field mushrooms Lettuce Marrow Potatoes Pumpkin Rocket Squashes Sweetcorn Watercress	Brussel sprouts Cabbage Carrots Cauliflower Celeriac Curly Kale Fennel Leeks Parsnips Potatoes Red cabbage Swede Turnips
Fruit	Gooseberries Rhubarb	Blueberries Currants – Black, Red and White Greengages Loganberries Plums Raspberries Strawberries Tayberries	Apples Blackberries Damsons Pears Plums Sloes
Fish	Crab Haddock John Dory Lobster Mackerel Monkfish Prawns Sea Bass Sea Salmon Trout Turbot	Crab Pilchards Wild Salmon	Brill Dabs Dover Sole Flounders Oysters Skate
Meat (Most meats are available all year round – those listed are only season when specified)	Spring lamb	Saltmarsh lamb	Pheasant Partridge Wild Duck Venison	Pheasant Partridge Wild Duck Venison