It’s been almost five months since I pledged to eat only local or British food during 2009.

While I admit my new food regime took a little getting used to during the first few weeks, it’s going really well now. It was lemons, bananas, curry spices and avocados I missed most when I first began shunning imported foods. I missed cucumbers and tomatoes too.

The Tomato Stall, on the Isle of Wight, came to my rescue as far as tomatoes were concerned during the darkdays of winter. They supplied me with samples of their Pure Tomato Sauce, Pure Tomato Juice and a bottle of the most glorious cherry tomatoes oven dried and oak roasted for an intense tomato flavour. The tomato sauce proved invaluable when cooking casseroles and stews that needed a tomato base and I added the cherry tomatoes to my stir-frys. As the ingredients listed on their sauce and juice bottles boasts 100 per cent tomatoes grown on the Isle of Wight, and no added salt, I could use these products with a clear conscience – and I did as even the variety of tomatoes used in these products was listed.

If you want to know more about the Tomato Stallgo to www.thetomatostall.co.uk Charles Gee, from Medley Manor pick-your-own in Binsey, came up trumps when last year’s crop of British onions became difficult to find. He had carefully stored his extra onions from his harvest in a cool, dark place, so that they lasted weeks longer than anyone else’s. He successfully stored garlic this way too. I am now using his spring onions, which add a subtle, but tasty flavour to every savoury dish I cook. For extra crunch, I often add them at the end of the cooking process, just minutes before serving.

For bacon that’s guaranteed to turn a golden crispy brown when grilled or fried, and doesn’t weep white liquid while cooking I go to Dews Meadow farm, East Hanney, near Wantage, run by Andrew and Jane Bowler and select some of their delicious home-cured products. As Jane takes her van to many of the Oxfordshire farmers’ markets, I can often top up on my bacon stock without travelling to the farm.

Buying goods from Jane is a real pleasure, as those who have met her will know. Her happy disposition is infectious; besides, although she and Andrew have a full-time professional butcher working for them, she has a hand in producing almost everything she sells. You can check out Dews Meadow Farm Shop on www.dewsmeadowfarm.co.uk Another treat that has made my diet so amazing was the package that arrived unexpectedly from Hebridean Smokehouse Ltd, on the Isle of North Uist, Scotland. The same deliveryman, who had handed me a box of beers from the Wychwood Brewery, Witney last year brought it to my cottage.

“It’s not beer this time,” he remarked with a grin. “But I reckon you will like it. It’s fish from Scotland – Hebridean Smokehouse, actually,” he added. His knowledge of the parcel’s contents left me wondering if he would tell me what my postcards said if he’d been my postman.

He was right, of course; the box contained peat-smoked roasted sea trout with horseradish and dill. It was a gift from Rupert Ponsonby, the friend who had challenged me to eat only local or British produce this year.

It was his way of saying congratulations for keeping to the regime. I had admitted to him that I did crack one night when visiting friends who were serving curry for dinner, and munched my way through a delicious salad that contained chopped avocado when dining with other friends (all of which I have recorded in my food diary). Otherwise I have been very good.

Rupert accepted that when eating with friends who have taken a great deal of trouble to produce a shared meal, personal food preferences have to be set aside.

The peat-smoked roasted sea trout, which is unique to Hebridean Smokehouse, was superb. The sea trout comes from the wild stock that spawns in the fresh waters of North Uist.

The fillets are prepared by hand and crusted with a special horseradish and dill preparation before given a gentle peat smoking and kiln roasting. (See picture above.) The result is a succulent fish with a depth of flavour second to none.

The parcel also contained several vacuum-packed bags of sliced sides of peat-smoked sea trout too.

We enjoyed them during that balmy period of early summer when we were able to eat al fresco and sip glasses of chilled homemade elderflower wine.

For more details about these amazing products go to www.hebrideansmokehouse.com. You won’t be disappointed.

For my vinaigrette dressing and all dishes that call for oil, I have been using cold pressed R-Oil, produced in the Cotswolds from rapeseed.

This oil has a light nutty flavour and is very low in saturated fats. Go to www.

r-oil.co.uk if you want to discover more about the way this oil is produced. Somerset cider vinegar, which is produced entirely from whole Somerset cider apples has provided me with a vinegar that I can use for all dishes that call for call for acidity.

As it is traditionally fermented for at least two years before it is bottled, it has a quite remarkable flavour, which I have now become very fond of. You will find more details of this product on www.somersetcidervinegarco.co.uk Now I can obtain fruits of the summer, freshly dug new potatoes, gooseberries, strawberries and bunches of freshly pulled carrots, any problems encountered in the winter as I searched for local and British products that would whet my appetite are over.