CROSSING the threshold of Setley Ridge Farm Shop is like taking a step back in time.

The friendly staff greet all their customers, not only knowing many of them by name but also knowing what their favourite items are.

The shelves are crowded with hundreds of different products, from jams and chutneys through frozen ready meals to wine and beer – the vast majority of which come from the local area.

Jane Overall who, with her business partner Andrew Alvis, runs Mange Tout catering, Mange-To Go ready meals and a month ago took over the farm shop, says that around 75 per cent of the produce on the shelves is local, and they’ve already set about increasing that figure.

“We have the largest range of New Forest Marque products (which contain at least 25 per cent of ingredients grown or reared in the Forest) under one roof,” says Jane, also known as Mrs O.

“I think it’s really important and people are definitely more conscious of supporting local food, even more than organic. You can buy organic food that’s come from the other side of the world. I think if it’s local and people know how it’s grown, even if it isn’t certified organic, a lot of people prefer that.

“I also think people are concerned about losing small retailers and they want to go back to having that personal service. We have a lot of customers who say ‘I want such and such’ next week and we make it for them.”

Jane and Andrew make a large number of the products in the farm shop themselves, including cakes, meringues, fudge, soup, quiches and, of course, their Mange-To Go ready meals, made in their purpose-built kitchen in Lymington.

These also carry the New Forest Marque and are a far cry from the additive-heavy junk food many people associate with frozen ready meals.

“These are home cooked meals – they’re just as good as if you cook for yourself,” says Jane.

Andrew adds: “People have this idea that frozen food is inferior but in fact it’s fresher, more stable and doesn’t need the preservatives that things that are kept on the shelf need.”

Jane and Andrew use as many locally sourced ingredients in their ready meals as possible, and the same principle applies to the shop.

“Someone came in the other day wanting asparagus and I said I’m certainly not going to sell that in a farm shop when it’s out of season,” says Jane.

“We sell things like lemons, which don’t grow in this country, but I’m not going to sell asparagus from Peru when we have a perfectly good, albeit short, season of our own.”

Everything in the shop is as local as possible – the wine, for instance, is made in Jane’s brother’s vineyard just behind the shop – and where it’s not available locally they will always source British produce where possible.

“I really want to support local producers and have more on the shelves so people know that if they want to get a New Forest product they can come here for it.”

Setley Ridge Farm Shop is on the A337, a mile south of Brockenhurst. For more information, call 01590 622246.

For more information about Mange-To Go ready meals, visit mangetogo.co.uk