This page is about us doing the hard work so you don’t have to… Joy! We’re sent anything from 20 to 100 new products a month, and we really do try them all: tasting, smelling the aromas, testing gadgets. Only if they’re useful, good-looking and good value for money do they make it onto these pages.
Karen Barnes, editor
It’s never been easier to get good meat…
Marks & Spencer has a new range of artisan meats (try the Hampshire pork rib-eye); Sainsbury’s has high-welfare British veal joints to pre-order; and Ocado has introduced a range of quality, naturally lean venison, including quick-cook fillets, mince and meatballs. All good. But there are two VIPS (very important producers) I’d like to draw your attention to. The first is Todenham Manor (praised before in delicious.) – try the leg of pork on the bone, beef sirloin, chorizo sausages and bacon (taster boxes,£45.99; todenhammanorfarm.co.uk). The second is lamb reared to the highest standards by The Naked Farmer, aka Andy Smith, who describes his lamb as being produced with ‘naked honesty’. You can taste the love and attention that go into what he does. Try the 10kg Roast Lover’s Box (half a butchered lamb), £60, nakedfarming.co.uk.