A good chef will go to considerable lengths to get hold of top quality ingredients, but why should anyone settle for second rate?

Mass produced food might be convenient but it will undermine the most skilled cook, so it pays not to cut corners, at least when it comes to key ingredients.

Still, not everybody has the time or inclination to hare about all over the countryside chasing after food. Luckily for us, we have the country's largest farmers' market every month in Winchester.

This has to be the easiest way yet invented to meet all those local producers whose efforts provide us with such excellent seasonal goodies.

If you can't make the next market, or you forgot the name of the lady selling those unforgettable cheeses, there may be a solution.

If you have Web access, you can find out who's growing, or rearing what, and where they are based, by pointing your browser at www.hants.gov.uk/ farmersmarkets.

It's worth the effort, believe me. I have seldom eaten better carrots than the ones I bought from Charles Secrett of Hurst Farm, just over the border in Surrey (www.secretts.co.uk and 01483 520500).

Ditto the beguiling mix of peppery and delicately sweet organic baby leaf salad I spotted at the same time. B. A. Winter's leeks were also very fine (01794 322527), and hailed, I think, from somewhere around Salisbury.

Closer to home, in Sherfield English to be precise, you'll find Manor Farm (01794 322497), which specialises in pork, bacon and gammon, from its own pigs (Middlewhite and Landrace crosses, since you ask).

Proving that supermarkets aren't the only places for convenient shopping, the other half of Manor Farm is devoted to growing watercress.