British Food Fortnight runs from 24 September with a series of food festivals, promotions in restaurants and stores to celebrate the range and diversity of great food this country has to offer. So it seems a great opportunity to flag up some of the things that have impressed me over the past few months.
Let's start by checking your chooks. If you are worried your eggs may not have come from a happy hen, I urge you to visit Harrods' food halls and check out the Hencam. Passing tourists can't quite believe the live film of the Clarence Court flock strutting round the fields and pecking corn. Their free-range eggs from rare breeds are utterly beautiful too, particularly the blue ones (£1.85 for half a dozen); they've also just started supplying ducks' eggs (£1.85 Waitrose) and I really hope a Duckcam follows. Check for yourselves at Harrods' Truly British promotion (until 15 October), which features over 300 new products.
Pioneer of the organic movement with his wonderful Duchy range, Prince Charles has long been a champion of small farmers and is now behind the North Highland Initiative in Scotland, particularly the Mey Selections brand to market beef, lamb and mutton. Although often not flagged up as organic, there is little to beat good, responsibly reared Scottish beef and Donald Russell's mail-order meat is consistently good. It is by appointment to the Queen and does a huge mail-order range, from calves' liver to French Loue chicken. Details: Donaldrussell.co.uk; 01467 622601.
I love the smoked venison from Scotland's Rannoch Smokery - run from a little village in Perthshire. The company was started by accident when, due to severe weather one winter, the owner was unable to get the game collected so put it in a bath of brine and built a home smoker. The mail-order range has now been extended to include beef, duck, lamb, chicken, pheasant and goose. Rannochsmokery; 0870 160 1558.
From the herbs grown by Scotherbs in the Carse of Gowrie area of Scotland comes some good fresh pesto marketed under the Ariba name. I particularly liked their Basil and Pine Nut and Rocket and Cashew Nut pestos - now stocked in Tesco.
I've long been a fan of the smoked salmon and trout that comes from the Hebridean Smokehouse based on the tiny and very beautiful island of North Uist, and this month they have added scallops to their range. Caught wild off North Uist and Harris, the smokehouse has found the flavour is hugely enhanced the faster the product gets from boat to base. Briefly brined, the scallops are then peat-smoked with no additional marinades, although people still comment on their sweetness; the smokehouse conclude this comes from the local peat. A large December order guarantees a good Christmas in our house. Scallops are £6.90 for 100g pack; email: sales@hebrideansmokehouse.com; Hebrideansmokehouse.
Simple Simon Pies are also from Scotland. Organic fillings range from smoked haddock to sausages in onion gravy or simply traditional pork encased in good crumbly shortcrust pastry. Meat is sourced from owner Bernard Alessi's organic meat company, Blackmount. Details: www.simplesimonspies.co.uk; 01899 220 118. Blackmountfoods; 01899 221 747.
Versatile mail-order food company Cornucopia is supplying delicious new-season partridge shot on the Scottish borders, raised free of Emtryl and antibiotics. OFM readers can buy four and get four free (list price £14). Details: Cornucopiafoods; 08450 633 699.
My favourite fish pie and fishcakes of the year came from Two Fishwives, a new company (one old Rick Stein employee) that has already won a gold medal in the Great Taste awards. They supply fish shops and farmers' markets all over London and Essex. Details: Twofishwives.
Hats off to Sainsbury's for launching new biodegradable packaging. The cream-coloured trays are made from a combination of sugar-cane waste and wheat-straw waste, and the covering film is made from maize starch - all fully compostable.
When the builders leave at the end of next year, Fortnum & Mason will probably have the best food hall in London. Great changes are afoot, including repackaging many historic lines. I love their beef extract £6.50, originally sent to Florence Nightingale in the Crimea and now relabelled with a little bird drawing. They've also launched two delicious marmalades (£5.90) to celebrate the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar using Pusser's British navy rum (also in their Christmas puddings). The flavour is lovely, dense and orangey and not overlaid with booze like those horrible whisky marmalades you get given at Christmas. Another unsung British tipple with naval links is the smooth and mild Plymouth gin (use it in an English Garden with apple juice, elderflower cordial and cucumber) available at Waitrose and Sainsbury's.
If you want to eat the vegetables served at the Fat Duck, Ivy and the Ritz, it's time we let you in on Secretts Direct, which has been supplying them from a farm in Surrey for some time and has now launched a nationwide next-day service (Homegrowndirect). Were you to make them into a curry, the perfect accompaniment would be some of St John and Dolly Smith's pickles, made by Chris Smith in his kitchen. The Scotch Bonnets comes with a heat warning and has just won a Great Taste award. Stockists: 07973 687376.
There is nothing remotely healthy about the crumbly fudge from the Burnt Sugar Sweet Company but it is simply the best around and my secret vice. Available from Waitrose and Borough Market at £3.95 for 225g or Burntsugar.
