How can it be sustainable to order your fish all the way from Grimsby? Simple – take a 500 mile round trip, make 80 or so drops in the day and you’ve done just over 6 miles per delivery. Not much more than a trip to the supermarket. When you compare that to air freighting food from New Zealand it seems quite sensible.

But direct delivery and courier-based services are growing, whatever the eco preacher view might be,  because people are busy, because the produce is fresh and because ordering is easy. Specialists operating through the internet fill the gap left by specialist local shops that couldn’t compete with the supermarkets. Supporting your local shop is all very well, but if it involves paying Fortnum and Mason prices for ropey produce forget it! The best small shops, like Garlands Organic at Pangbourne (www.garlandsorganic.co.uk), now have excellent websites and delivery services of their own (though for reasons best known to themselves ‘local delivery’ includes Reading postcodes, not others).

Having your shopping delivered by the local supermarket has its place, but Internet food shopping and home delivery give us the chance to get something special, something that the supermarkets can’t do so well. It only takes bit of organisation and a reasonable amount of freezer space to make shopping in bulk worthwhile.

Here are five that don’t disappoint.

Regal Fish

Regal have been delivering direct for 18 years – long before shopping on the web was a practical proposition – they will still take your order over the phone if you’re a technophobe. Based in Barton on Humber, near Grimsby, they deliver free direct to 500 areas on an 8-10 week cycle. Once you are on their list they will call you to remind you to order. There is also a courier service for same week orders place through their website.

The quality of Regal’s fish is as good as you will get anywhere and better value than anything you’ll find locally. Eat some the day it arrives before you freeze the rest.

Minimum order for free delivery £13.50

Abel and Cole

Getting a veg box delivered gets you out of the rut of buying the same things every week. When golden beetroot turn up it makes you think about how to use them. Something of a sceptic on organic vegetables, I’ve been converted by Abel & Cole. Their weekly vegetable boxes arrive reliably in excellent condition and taste great. You get what’s in season, but Abel & Cole win over similar services because they enable you to specify likes and dislikes. They also do many other mainly ‘organic’ foods – their soups are highly recommended. (* see below)

Essential Veg Box £11.95 including delivery and recipe suggestions.

Aubrey Allen

Never mind animal welfare, free-range meat tastes better. Yes it is more expensive than mass produced meat, but it need not cost the earth – at least if you are prepared not to have the strictly ‘organic’ tag. Aubrey Allen carry a full range of award winning, ethically produced meat, poultry and game. They narrowly pip Farmer’s Choice (www.farmerschoice.net – minimum order for free direct delivery £25) to this list because their list includes free-range veal – the best meat of the lot.

Courier Delivery – £9.99 all orders.

Betty’s

Harrogate is a dull, gloomy, overrated destination. But Betty’s Tea Room was, for some, enough to justify a visit. Now the archetypal Victorian tearooms have joined the global village with a site providing all manner of sweet things by post – now there is no good reason ever to go Harrogate! Hazelnut and Chocolate or Stem Ginger Cake go well with Test Match Special.

Courier delivery £7 up to 20Kg – that’s a lot of cake.

Cave Direct

As decent off licences become harder and harder to find the web comes into its own. Cave Direct stock 120 Belgian and 40 or so other special beers along with associated wacky glasswear. Aficionados can also order from an extensive ‘reserve list’ on a four week turnaround. Buy by the case, by the bottle, or choose one of the ‘sampling’ cases. Among this excellent selection Früli Strawberry beer comes highly recommended – the ultimate summer drink.

£30 minimum order.  £5.95 delivery (any quantity – excellent value).

* As of May 2009 I have moved from Abel and Cole to another supplier because of concerns about the freshness of the produce I’ve received. It has to be said that when complaints are raised they deal with them very well, however, recurrences of the problem meant it was time to give another supplier a try.