Have a very festive feast
Christmas boxes
Daylesford
The Daylesford Christmas lunch boxes, £100 for 4-6 people or £150 for 8-10, include: a 5kg or 6kg Bronze turkey, chipolatas, stuffing, seasonal veg, cranberry sauce, Daylesford Cheddar and Christmas pudding or organic mince pies. Beef, geese, hams also on offer.
Last order date for Christmas delivery, 14 December: 0800-083 1233, www.daylesfordorganic.com
Riverford Organic Farms
The Devon-based organic box company has a great selection of Christmas boxes including the Riverford Complete Christmas Box: clotted-cream fudge, mince pies, Christmas puddings, cheese selection box and Montezuma’s chocolates among others. Free delivery.
Last order date, 19 December: 01803-762059, www.riverford.co.uk
Suffolk Food Hall
Winners of ‘Best On Farm Butcher In Britain’, ‘Best Local Food (UK and Ireland),’ ‘Retailer Of The Year’ and the ‘UK’s top 50 Best Farm Shops’, the Christmas offerings this year include The Gobble Gobble Turkey Box, £79: 5kg Suffolk Bronze Turkey, 180g goose fat, 500g chipolatas, 250g smoked streaky, dried stuffing mix, 500g Broxtead sausagemeat, meat thermometer and jar of Jules & Sharpie preserve. The Gammon Gathering Box, £65, contains a whole boned and rolled free-range gammon, Jules & Sharpie preserve, Suffolk Clear Honey and a meat thermometer. Suffolk Hall can also sort out Boxing Day for you with Boxing Day Beef, £120, which includes: A whole rolled 5kg rib joint, gravy, and horseradish cream.
Last orders for Christmas hampers is 20 December: 01473-786610, www.suffolkfoodhall.co.uk
The Well-Hung Meat Company
Based at Tordean Farm in Buckfastleigh, it has a good range of Christmas boxes, including a Turkey And Trimmings Box: 5kg organic turkey, trimmings, cranberry sauce, £99.99; and the Merry Christmas Box: 5.5kg Kelly Bronze, gammon joint, duck, 2kg beef joint, plus trimmings, £199.99.
0845-230 3131, www.wellhungmeat.com
Turkeys, geese, gammon, beef
COPAS
Free-range and organic Bronzes and white turkeys raised by Tom Copas and his family, who have farmed turkeys since 1957. Turkeys are slaughtered at full maturity, game-hung and hand-plucked.
Last orders, 18 December: www.copasturkeys.co.uk
GOODMAN’S GEESE
Free-range geese and Bronze turkeys fed on grasses, corn and straw, without additives or growth promoters. Order by beginning of December. Goose, from £11 per lb, turkey from £8.70 per kg.
Mail order available. Goodman’s Brothers, Walsgrove Farm, Great Witley: 01299-896272, www.goodmansgeese.co.uk
GRAIG FARM ORGANICS
A range of organic meats from the farm. Organic turkeys from £64.13 (4.5kg).
Mail order available. Order by 6 December: Tyn Y Fron, Mochdre, Newtown, Powys: 01686-627979, www.graigfarm.co.uk
Kelly Turkey Farms
KellyBronze turkeys, 4kg turkey plus giblets, £77.59 (serves 6-8). A boned and rolled breast joint serving 4-5 is £34.57.
Last orders 19 December, deliveries by 22 December. Mail order available. Springate Farm, Bicknacre Road, Danbury, Essex: 01245-223581, www.kellyturkeys.co.uk
Pipers Farm
Plenty of turkey options, including the simplest turkey, stuffed, boned and rolled, with sausages and stock for gravy, £39 for 6 people. The gammon joint is £16.99 (1kg).
Mail order available (last orders 20 December), also a shop at 57 Magdalen Road, Exeter, Devon: 01392-274504. Pipers Farm, Cullompton, Devon: 01392-881380, www.pipersfarm.com
Seldom Seen Farm
Much feted, Seldom Seen believes in the personal touch, therefore you order your goose or turkey by phone to get the right bird for your needs. Options include the speciality threebird roast, £8.15 per lb (10lb feeds 10-12 people); an organic, slow-matured, freerange goose, £4.65 per lb (a 10lb goose feeds 8); and free-range Bronze turkey, £4.30 per lb (13lb feeds 10). Order by 7 December.
Seldom Seen Farm, Billesdon, Leicestershire: 0116-259 6742, www.seldomseenfarm.co.uk
Waitrose
Essential Waitrose unsmoked British small gammon joint, £6.99 (1kg).
www.waitrose.com
Biscuits
Biscuiteers Biscuiteers Christmas biscuit and cake hampers and tins include the Winter Wonderland hamper (Christmas cake, cheese biscuits tin, baubles tin, medium chocolates tin, Santa gingerbreads and two celebration tea towels, £199 plus p&p), and the Jingle Bells Kids hamper (DIY Christmas Kit tin, sweets, a Bake Love apron and DIY paper chains. £95 plus p&p).www.biscuiteers.com
Fortnum & Mason
Handmade almond biscuits – Amaretti di Gallarate come in a terrific pink, beribboned box, £20. These glam biscuits are the product of a Lombardy family recipe. Good with coffee. Fortnum’s Musical Christmas Biscuit Selection comes in a musical Hark The Herald Angels tin decorated with the store’s façade. £12.95 (300g).
0845-300 1707, www.fortnumandmason.com
Roots & Wings
Great biscuits in goodlooking packaging. Roots & Wings Sicilian Lemon biscuits, £2.99 for 200g, are the business.
0800-169 6673, www.foodrevolution.com
Scandinavian
A great selection of festive Scandinavian treats, including pepparkakor – Swedish ginger biscuits, £2.75 for 300g.
020-7580 7161, www.scandikitchen.co.uk
Hampers
Bettys Christmas Hat Box
Charming gift boxes designed by Yorkshire artist Emily Sutton, includes: Christmas pudding (serves 2-4), Christmas fruitcake portion, whisky and Seville orange marmalade, snowy owls, fruit jellies, chocolatecoated almonds and hazelnuts. £75.
Last order date in the UK, 19 December: 0845-600 1919, www.bettys.co.uk
Black mountains smokery
The Taste For Two hamper offers smoked salmon, sliced or oak-roasted, a breast each of Gressingham duck and chicken, plus a jar of dill sauce, in a personalised hamper. £39 (inc p&p).
01873-811566, www.smoked-foods.co.uk
Boisdale Oyster Hamper
A spectacular collaboration with the Wright Bros, containing oysters, champagne, claret, an oyster knife and a £50 Boisdale dining voucher. £158.75.
020-7403 9559, www.shopwrightbros.com
Chococo hampers
Chocoholics hampers from £37.50 to £125, packaged in Chococo’s trademark zinging colours. Handmade chocolates, fizzy pudding chocolates, chocolate lollies, ginger snowballs, honeycomb clusters.
01929-421777, www.chococo.co.uk
Dobbies
The Best Of British hamper contains Dunkeld Atholl Brose liqueur, Grandma Wild’s Yorkshire parkin, Belvoir elderflower cordial, Green & Black’s chocolate and many other treats. £80.
0131-561 6400, www.dobbies.com
Fortnum & Mason
You can spend £5,000 or £50 on a hamper. Somewhere in the middle is the Family Christmas hamper at £200, filled with a mix of festive essentials, including tea and coffee, chocolate truffles, sweet and savoury preserves, cranberry sauce and Cognac butter, a Christmas pudding and a tin of Explorers’ biscuits. To drink, there’s Fortnum’s own-label Rioja and Muscadet, brut reserve champagne and a bottle of LBV port.
Last orders, 14 December: 0845-300 1707, www.fortnumandmason.com
Honeybuns Christmas Snuggle Pack
Contains four award-winning Honeybuns cakes, a handknitted Mug Snug and two individually wrapped Dorset tea teabags in a retro red and green Honeybuns tin. £19.99 (including delivery).
01963-23597, www.honeybuns.co.uk/shop
Snowflake Tower Hamper
Three stacked, beribboned boxes containing, among much else, Christmas stars, jelly beans, Montezuma’s chocolate, biscuits, fruitcake and cheese crackers, £35.
www.johnlewis.com
Suffolk food hall
Wicker shopping baskets containing Suffolk fudge, honey, pickle, biscuits chocolates and jam, plus balsamic vinegar, coffee and organic cider. A Hamper Basket costs £50. They also do a box of Suffolk produce for £29.
Last orders, 20 December: 01473-786610, www.suffolkfoodhall.co.uk
Chocolates
Amelia Rope
Chocolate cubes in dark, pale or sea salt arranged like coloured mosaics in a handmade box. Gorgeous. £16 (12 cubes) or £29 (24 cubes).
www.ameliarope.com
Chococo
The advent selection box contains 25 beautiful, handdecorated chocolates, £25.95. Stocking fillers include candied orange peel, chocolate lollies, crackle trees and baubles, from £5.
www.chococo.co.uk
Demarquette
Demarquette’s Christmas caramel collection contains luscious boxes of handpainted chocolates with flavours ranging from apple and spice to cranberry and Clementine. Christmas caramels from £20 for 12.
020-7460 3348, www.demarquette.com
La Maison du Chocolat
A spectacular 90cm Christmas tree decorated with 36 chocolate stars adorned with almonds, pistachio nuts and pecans (shown right), and wrapped in red silk ribbon and dotted with 22-carat gold small stars and sugar fairy dust, £750 (3.7kg). The Christmas star of dark chocolate and crystallised nut pieces is £28 (137g) and a Christmas Coffret in three sizes is composed of five different types of chocolate: £45 (size 1), £72 (size 2), £150 (size 3).
www.lamaisonduchocolat.co.uk
M&S Collection
Chocolate pine cones – milk and dark chocolate hollow pine cones in gold and silver lustre. £4 (100g).
www.marksandspencer.com
Prestat
A new range of Christmas baubles to hang on the tree. Decorated with crowns, snowmen or rockets and hearts, and filled with a variety of different truffles. £6.75 each.
Available in Liberty, Selfridges, John Lewis, or at www.prestat.co.uk
Rococo
Christmas chocolate includes the delightful duo of racing Santas: Lambretta, £30; Bugatti, £32.50. The painted chocolate Christmas tree is £32.50.
020-8761 8456, www.rococochocolates.com
Christmas cake
Bettys New Soft Iced Christmas Star Cake
Bettys has leapt into the world of contemporary design with their eyecatching hand-decorated cake topped with a royalicing star (16-cm diameter, £27.50 (1,800g). They’ve also got a neat fondant fancy party cake – 16 fancies made with sponge, buttercream and marzipan, £28.95 (1,120g).
www.bettys.co.uk
Daylesford
The fancy Cotswold deli and bakery is offering three organic Christmas cakes: marzipan-topped cake, £22.99; fruit and nut-topped cake, £22.99, and traditional cake, £16.99.
Last order date for Christmas, 14 December: 0800-083 1233, www.daylesfordorganic.com
Marks & Spencer
Great range of Christmas cakes, including the Pine Forest cake, made with fruit, butter, glacé cherries, almonds and brandy, £17, (1.5kg) and the handdecorated Reindeer fruitcake, covered with marzipan, £14 (1.8kg).
www.marksandspencer.com
Marnie searchwell
Home-made, gluten-free Jamaican Christmas cakes. The fruit is soaked in rum and sherry – the result is terrific. Jamaican Christmas cakes from £19.90 plus p&p for a 4in round.
020-7735 1444, www.marniesearchwell.com
Waitrose
Raymond Briggs Christmas cup cake selection, finished with white fondant, £18 for 15.
www.waitrose.com
Mince pies
Bertinet
The Bertinet mince pies, encased in a smart wooden box, make a great present. Good pastry and a generous filling. £14, plus p&p, for £12.
Last order date, 20 December: 01225-445531, www.thebertinetkitchen.com
Daylesford
Traditionally made mince pies, good mincemeat and a great pastry. Also wheat-free mince pies: £6.99 for six.
www.daylesfordorganic.com
Heston’s puff pastry mince pies
All wrong or a pleasant surprise? Heston has made his mince pies with puff pastry and dusted them with resinous pine sugar: £3.29 for six.
www.waitrose.com
Melrose and Morgan
The company’s mince pies elicited shrieks of approval when thy arrived in the office. A superior, well-balanced combination of light pastry and fragrant, moist mincemeat: £7.50 for six.
020-7485 1600, www.melroseandmorgan.com
Roots & Wings
Impregnated with Cognac and filled with mincemeat, apples and raisins, these mince pies are encased in butter pastry. Pretty good. Roots & Wings mince pies, £4.95 for six; £5.49 for 12 mini mince pies.
0800-169 6673, www.rootsandwingsorganic.com
Christmas puddings
Aldi
12-Month Matured Christmas Pudding, £6.99 (750g). This is made using three varieties of vine fruits, demerara sugar, seven spices, glacé cherries, French brandy and English cider. £6.99 (50g).
www.aldi.co.uk
Bertinet Christmas pudding
Top of the range Christmas pud, made by the wonderful Bertinet bakery in Bath. £16 for 610g.
www.thebertinetkitchen.com
Bettys New Christmas Plum Pudding
It comes in a Bettys ceramic bowl. Made with dried whole plums, cranberries, apricots and sultanas soaked in Yorkshire Oatmeal Stout, £19.95 for 780g (serves 6-8).
www.bettys.co.uk
Heston’s hidden orange
There’s a whole candied orange in the centre of each pudding. Order speedily – last year these puddings sold out within days and were to be seen changing hands on eBay for a vastly inflated price: £13.99 for 1.2kg.
www.waitrose.com
Proof of the pudding
Light, delicious pudding, stuffed with fruit, whole cherries and rum. £9.50 (450g).
01665-602505, www.proofofthepudding.co.uk
Roots & Wings
Puddings packed with plump organic vine fruits soaked in Cognac: 454g size or a 100g mini version.
www.foodrevolution.com
Tesco
Tesco has a great range of Christmas puds this year, every size and price, from the cider matured pud, 98p (454g), to the Tesco Finest 18-Month Matured Pudding soaked in amontillado, port, cider and brandy, £10 (907g) and the new Tesco Finest Hidden Pear and Mulled Wine Pudding, £25 (1.2kg).
www.tesco.com
Smoked food
Black Mountains Smokery
Award-winning smokery in the Brecon Beacons. Christmas offerings include a smoked deli fish platter with oak-roasted salmon, smoked mackerel, laverbread and assorted tracklements (there’s a meat platter alternative with smoked Gressingham duck breast), £85 each (inc p&p). The Salmon Box hamper contains a selection of smoked and oak roasted salmon: £39 (inc p&p).
Crickhowell, Powys: 01873- 811566, www.smoked-foods.co.uk
Chesil Smokery
Cold-smoked salmon, hotsmoked mackerel, gravadlax and kippers, plus hot and cold smoked venison, duck and chicken breast. Available as a gift box .Chesil Smokery is also offering new monthly box schemes containing smoked fish or meat or a mix of both, from £25.
The Old Laundry, Sea Road North, Bridport, Dorset: 01308- 456306, www.chesilsmokery.com
Hebridean smokehouse
The website comes with a weather report and snippets of Hebridean news. The smoked fish is wonderful, especially the smoked scallops, from £7.25 (60g). Peat-smoked roast salmon is a Christmas musthave, from £9.35 (200g).
Last posting day, 19 December: Hebridean Smokehouse, Isle of North Uist, Scotland: 01876-580209, www.hebrideansmokehouse.com
Kinvara
Sliced organic salmon, €45.99 (1kg), gravadlax, €5.99 (100g); smoked salmon platter includes smoked salmon, smoked salmon pâté and gravadlax, €45.
Kinvara, Co Galway: 00353 91 637489, www.kinvarasmokedsalmon.com
The Weald Smokery
Hand-prepared, smoked fish and meat, with no artificial preservatives or colours. Weald Smokery has won numerous Great Taste awards (from the Guild of Fine Food Retailers) for its smoked duck breasts and other produce.
Mail order available. Mount Farm, Flimwell, East Sussex: 01580-879601, www.wealdsmokery.co.uk