It is easy to be dragged into the routine of the weekly supermarket shop, which very often means the local economy is not being supported. A generation ago, food shopping was often split between different outlets - the greengrocer, butcher, baker, etc - all of whom supplied products from the surrounding area.

Recently, there has been a push to return to supporting local suppliers and growers, not least for environmental reasons, and this has been picked up on by Adrianne Hunt.

Mrs Hunt, 48, from Hook Norton, has set up English County Hampers - baskets of produce all of which come from Oxfordshire, or as near its borders as possible.

Her motivation came from a growing interest in local food and cutting down on the distance it has to travel before it arrives on the table.

"I thought it would be a good idea if I could collate a lot of produce together to show what was available locally. I also wanted to reveal more about the people behind the products who are amazing and passionate about food."

Inside the hampers Mrs Hunt includes a short paragraph about each product and its supplier.

Suppliers include wines from the Brightwell Vineyard near Wallingford; beer from the Hook Norton Brewery; marmalade and jam from East Hanney-based Well Preserved; cereals and nuts from Oxford Wholefoods, Osney Mead, Oxford, and mustard from Shaken Oak, Hailey.

Mrs Hunt said: "I started out wondering whether it was possible and I scoured the county and it was exciting to find out what was available."

The only thing not locally produced is the hamper itself which is Chinese, as she could not locate a manufacturer that could supply her economically.

While she is keen to support local producers, they must be capable of supporting her when she has a rush of orders, particularly around Christmas.

Mrs Hunt was previously a producer's assistant for a film and video production company and then moved into information technology, before putting her career on hold to have a family.

Having come up with her business idea, she was helped by her husband, Peter Barnett-Hunt, who ran David Hunt Lighting in Shipston-on-Stour, which merged with Banbury-based DAR Lighting. He is now a freelance lighting designer.

The main outside help is with the website which, critically, is successfully generating orders. Marketing is now the key.

Mrs Hunt is contacting as many companies as possible to generate orders and has also had some success with selling at farmers' markets. In future, she hopes to roll out the concept to other counties and areas such as the Cotswolds.

Mrs Hunt added: "I want people to take pride in what their local area produces. Many are not aware of it as it does not appear on supermarket shelves.

"It is just a case of getting out there and pushing it in front of people."

n Contact: 01865 699811, or visit www.englishcountyhampers.co.uk