FARMING MATTERS: Buy local for Christmas turkey

Not everyone chooses to have turkey of course, plenty of people prefer to have a scrumptious joint of English roast beef, or a small chicken or a vegetarian nut roast infused with cranberries and orange.

But if you do like turkey on Christmas Day - and I admit, I do - then the question arises of where to get your bird from? Do you go to the supermarket or buy direct from a local farmer?

The National Farmers Union is keen to encourage us all to buy local and to buy a whole bird and to that end has created an online Turkey Finder, where you simply tap in your postcode and up pops all the local farmers who supply turkeys.

I have tried it myself and found our neighbours and my husband’s cousin . The Turkey Finder displays farmers for all over the country including Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire and Bedfordshire.

Mike Bailey, chairman of the NFU turkey group, said: “Buying and collecting a turkey from the local producer is a family tradition for some people, who will bring their children along to purchase the centrepiece of their Christmas dinner.”

See where you can buy a local turkey direct from a farm near to you by going online to www.ukturkeys.co.uk