Archers addicts will be aware that one of the main story lines in this popular Radio 4 soap at the moment concerns meat producer Tom Archer who has been attempting to come up with an idea for the Christmas market.

It was his grandmother Peggy who solved the problem by suggesting that he targets the people who are hard-pressed for time during the lead up to Christmas. She suggested ready-meals for one that can be quickly heated when needed, leaving the cook time to concentrate on Christmas day preparations.

Yes, I realise ready-meals can be purchased from the supermarket, but for a really tasty meal containing all the things you like, it’s just as easy to make your own by cooking a little extra every time you prepare a meal this week and packing it away in the freezer. Cooking just a little more calls for hardly any extra work, and the amount of pots to be washed up remains the same. It’s economical too and is often a great way of using up food that might otherwise be wasted.

In normal circumstances, I find reaching for a commercially prepared ready meal is a last resort – I have to be in a very bad way before I will concede that such a meal will ever satisfy my appetite. However I was approached by David Holliday and Oliver Shute of David Oliver Fine Foods which is based in Harwell. Their boast was that they had created a brand that people could trust and eat in the knowledge that they were eating a great product made from quality ingredients made with the same care and attention as you would apply if cooking from home.

They left me a couple of samples to try and to my surprise I found I not only enjoyed them, but that they had that hearty chunky home cooked feel seldom found in ready meals. I was impressed.

David and Oliver are both chefs. David was head chef in Berkshire gastro pub Pot Kiln in Berkshire and Oliver ran his own catering company which was frantically busy during the summer and festive periods, but calmer when the wedding season cooled off. During the calmer months Oliver started to portion up some of his favourite dishes and sell them in local farm shops – and so David Oliver Fine Foods was born.

Their meals come chilled not frozen, but can be easily frozen once you get them home. Because game features large in these meals at the moment, they really do make for a perfect meal during that lead up to Christmas. Venison in a red wine and juniper berry sauce (£3.70, 300g) is a perfect meal for the festive season, so is their guinea fowl and lentils (£5.99, 390g) and classic venison stew (£5.99, 375g) which is both gutsy and filling. All the meals are created to heat in the oven rather than the microwave, a process which takes just 20 minutes.

The boys do a range of soups too, again British game being the main ingredient. Spiced venison, pheasant mulligatawny and partridge broth. Oliver said that one of the main reasons why their meals, particularly the soups, taste so good is that they use fresh rather than frozen vegetables. He accepts that this adds extra cost to the meal, but the fresh seasonal vegetables that go into their products give them that flavour edge which justifies the cost.

Waitrose now stocks David Oliver foods in more than a hundred of their stores, including Abingdon or you can buy direct from davidoliverfood.co.uk