For bread at its freshest and for the widest choice, go early in the day. The following bake their bread and cakes on the premises and have been well tried and tested.

The Bakehouse (240 Banbury Road, tel. 01865 552122) do a variety of breads, as well as fresh cream cakes and pastries, fancy cakes and savoury snacks. Speciality cakes to order. Nash's in the covered market (tel. 01865 242695) is worth a visit - try their malted grain or Scofa loaves; pastries and fresh cream cakes too. Maison Blanc (3 Woodstock Rd, tel. 01865 510974) is a French boulangerie / patisserie and imports all its ingredients from France; baguettes, pain au chocolat, croissants and delicious French cakes and chocolates. Gatineau (formerly Patisseie Pascal) 209 Banbury Road, tel. 01865 311779) produces the same kind of things: the croissants are less rich but the quiches are fabulously creamy.

Also well worth a visit is the Hertford Street Bakery (no. 16; tel. 01865 241136), W T Gibbons, just off Magdalen Rd in east Oxford. Opening hours are Mon-Fri 8.15-1 & 3-4, Sat 8.15-2 or until the bread runs out. This excellent tiny bakery has been run by Roy Gibbons' family for at least four generatons, and is now the last independent bakery in Oxford. They have their own 'Friends of Gibbons Bakery' website too with up-to-date news.

Méli the Greek Deli on the Cowley Road have loaves delivered every Friday, and bake their own rolls every morning. The latter are usually gone by mid-afternoon, but you can always console yourself with baklava.

Thornton's, Cornmarket St ( Tel 01865 793804) & Westgate Centre (Tel 01865 244179)
Speciality sweets and chocolates, e.g. truffles, creams, toffee, chocolate mints etc. Ready packed boxes of Continental chocolates, or make up your own selection. They also sell sugar-free confectionary for diabetics.

Chocology, Covered Market
Tel 01865 247158
Specialising in Leonidas and Neuhaus chocolates - Get a pre-packed box or pick your own.

Coffee and Tea

Cardew & Co., the Covered Market
Tel 01865 242315
Teas including fruit and flower flavoured and decaffeinated. Good range of coffees - beans and ground. Also coffee-making equipment and spares, and teapots.

The Tea House, Golden Cross Walk
Tel 01865 728838
Herbal and fruit teas, as well as traditional ones. Preserves and biscuits. A lovely selection of teapots.

Arujo Organics
Tel. 01295 271218
Deliver organic fairtrade coffee & tea, organic herb tea, fruit juice and chocolate in north Oxfordshire. They offer free home delivery within a 5 mile radius of Banbury.

Delicatessens

Bon Appetit, 2 North Parade Avenue
Tel 01865 513554
Delicatessen, and whole foods. Also homemade ice cream, frozen ready-cooked meals and filled granary rolls, which they will make up with your own choice on request. Vegetarian food. Outside catering undertaken.

Taylor's Deli, 239a Banbury Road, Summertown, Oxford OX2 7HN
Tel 01865 510447
Wide range of deli dry goods – local and continental.  Delicious range of chocolates.  Breads, cakes, cheeses, meats, charcuterie.  Coffee and sandwich bar.  Outside catering service available.  Hampers to order.

Gastros Deli, 31 Walton Street, Jericho, OX2 6AA
Tel 01865 554254
New in autumn 2006, this Sustainable Deli / Grocery sells a wide range of organic, free-range, locally-sourced meat and veg.

Glutton's, 110 Walton Street, Jericho
Tel 01865 553748
Vegetarian pasties and quiches, filled rolls, fresh pasta, Chinese ingredients. Filled croissants and bagels, etc. Serve-yourself dried fruits, coated nuts etc. Many varieties of sausage. A very good selection overall.

The Global Deli, 247 Iffley Road, East Oxford
Tel 01865 420652
New in summer 2006, this deli sells Fair Trade, organic and locally-produced groceries, salads, lunchboxes, drinks and sandwiches. They also do outside catering.

Baltic Foods (formerly Russian Fairytale), 88 Cowley Road
Tel 01865 250819
...cakes, Russian vodkas, pickles, meats, craft goods and much more.

Il Principe, 82 Cowley Road
Tel 01865 202026
Takeaway pizza & hot breads, olives, artichokes, pasta, cakes, meats, cheeses, wine and other goods to stock a genuine Italian kitchen.

LBs, 253 Banbury Road
Tel 01865 311660
Lebanese deli/takeaway offering wraps and lunch boxes as well as many kinds of Lebanese speciality mezze (dolmas, houmous, tabouleh, kibbeh, baklava, etc). They also do outside catering.

Maison Plasse, based in South Oxfordshire.
01491 834 699.
French organic gourmet food from a family business in the Auvergne. Pates, ham and ready-cooked dishes, delivered in recyclable glass jars . www.maisonplasse.com

Méli, 51a Cowley Road
Tel 01865 791906
Traditional Greek food for your kitchen, including: olive oil & olives, fresh Greek bread, honey, stuffed vine leaves, baklava, halvas, spicy houmous, tsatziki & taramasalata... etc! Opens Mon - Fri 9.30am - 6.30pm; Sat 9am - 6pm.

Olives, 42 High Street
Tel 01865 245700
Covered Market-style Italian/French deli opened in autumn 2006. All sorts of continental delicacies including gluten-free pasta and bisuits. Open 8am-7pm Mon-Sat.

Taylor's, 31 St Giles
Tel 01865 558853
Particularly good for pates and salads, but also breads, pies, cakes, sandwiches and filled pitta snacks. Expensive, delicious chocolates, American ice creams and sorbets, Columbo frozen yoghurt. Outside catering service available. Hampers to order.

Palm's, the Covered Market
Tel 01865 247500
Continental, Chinese, Indian and American foods. Fresh ricotta, fresh feta every day. Homemade pates and salads, prepared foods, spices, pastas and sausages. Continental pastries, breads and chocolates. Wines and beers.

Woodstock Road Deli, Woodstock Road, just by Little Clarendon St
Tel 01865 316228
Sister shop to the Alpha Bar and the Oxford Cheese Company of the Covered Market. Cheese (as you might expect), wine and enormous ciabatta sandwiches.

Health Food

Holland and Barrett ( 5-6 Golden Cross, Covered Market, tel 01865 792102; 17 Westgate Centre, tel 01865 249219; 263 Banbury Rd, tel 01865 552523) do herbal remedies, all sorts of vitamin supplements, preserves, honey, grains, yoghurt, whole wheat bread and also takeaway snacks.

Uhuru has the best range of herbs and spices, as well as dried fruits, nuts, muesli, bread and baking ingredients, homemade cakes and organic wholefoods, alongside eco-friendly make-up, cleaning products and vitamin supplements.

Living Food of St Ives is an online company selling sprouting seeds (germinated and for germination) and sprouting equipment. Find out more about the amazing health properties of these little nutrient powerhouses on their website.

Fresh Produce

Markets (see also our Festivals and Markets page)

For fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and fish, visit the Wednesday Market in Gloucester Green, from about 8am to 4pm. There is also a farmer's market there on the first Thursday of the month: www.thamesvalleyfarmersmarket.co.uk.

A small, mainly organic farmers' market also takes place every Sunday at Wolvercote primary school from 10am-1pm, and the East Oxford Farmers' Market (also organic) now takes place every Saturday 12-3pm at the Asian Cultural Centre on Manzil Way. The East Oxford website: www.eastoxfordmarket.org.uk contains details of who will be stall-holding when, to help you plan your shopping. Locally made and/or Fair Trade arts and crafts are on sale alongside the vegetables/cakes/bread/meat/eggs, and there is always a café offering hot and cold snacks/meals.

Another option, available Monday-Saturday, is the picturesque Covered Market, which offers you a wider choice but is often rather expensive (due to its appeal as a tourist honeypot). In addition, you can buy direct from some local farms, listed below. Most places expect to have asparagus from the first week of May.

Buscot Park Soft Fruit Farm (between Lechlade & Faringdon on the A417)
Tel 01367 245705
All sorts of unusual fruit, from tayberries to whitecurrants, plus veg and flowers. Also fishery (tickets from 01367 241044 or 01793 721173). NOT OPEN FOR PICK YOUR OWN IN 2007, though 'some asparagus and fruit may be available from the ticket office in season and when the grounds are open'.

Cross Lanes Fruit Farm, Mapledurham, Reading, RG4 7UW
Tel 0118 972 3167, apples@crosslanesfruitfarm.co.uk
Fantastic orchard of apples, pears and plums. Not a Pick Your Own but you can wander the orchards. Huge variety of apples, including rare varieties, grown by friendly and knowledgeable small-scale producers. The farm shop is open Wed - Sun 10am - 6pm, and they also have stalls at many Farmers' Markets, including Oxford (Gloucester Green). Website also contains thought-provoking and controversial articles about Organic certification and European agricultural policies.

Medley Manor Farm, Binsey Lane, Oxford
Tel 01865 241251
Pick Your Own and some ready-picked produce. Asparagus now in (15/05/2007), and you can come and get some no Tuesdays, Thursdays & Saturdays between 12 and 6.30pm. Strawberries start at the beginning of June, from which point they will be open 7 days, 9.30am - 7pm. Also broad beans, new potatoes, carrots, beetroot, garlic, etc.

Millets Farm Centre, Kingston Road, Frilford, Abingdon
Tel 01865 391266 Crop reports: 01865 391555
Large selection of fruit and vegetables plus dairy products, fish, patisserie, wine, meat, garden centre & restaurants, children's area etc. Farm shop open 7 days a week, 9am-6pm. PYO starts beginning June and will be 9am-5pm daily. Maize maze in July. Free tractor rides may be available on weekends in summer.

Peachcroft Farm, Radley, Abingdon
(Leave A34 at first Abingdon North exit. Left to roundabout; left into 12 Acre Drive - farm is 400 yds on left.)
Tel 01235 520094
PYO: many kinds of berries (strawberries expected end May 2007) and peas, also potatoes, asparagus (available now, April 2007), etc. Farm Shop has soft fruits, vegetables, cream, free-range eggs, free-range poultry, cakes, pies, preserves, fruit juices, and honey. Easy disabled access. Tractor rides, apparently. Open Mon-Sat 9am-5.30pm, Sun 10am-5pm. Farm shop has these hours too, all year round.

Q Gardens, Milton Hill, Steventon, Abingdon (on A4130)
Tel 01235 820988
Farm shop (9am-6pm daily), tea room (9am-4pm daily), butchers (9-6 weekdays, 9-5 weekends), nursery (10-4 daily). PYO & ready picked fruit. Asparagus from end April - mid/end-June. Specialise in cherries (home of the Harwell cherry) and also strawberries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries, plums, damsons, greengages, apples & pears.

Rectory Farm, Stanton St. John (from the A40 Headington roundabout take road to the North signed 'Stanton St. John 2m'. Follow farm signs after 0.75m)
Tel 01865 351677 (crop availability reports), 07966 246388 (orders).
Rectoryfarmpyo@farmline.com
26/11/2007: Pick Your Own of the Year 2008. PYO asparagus (separate site): end April to May: Tues-Thurs, 2-6pm; Fri, 10am-6pm; Sat & Sun, 10am-1pm. Main PYO, Mr Finn and Country Café: end May to mid September: every day, 9.30am-7pm. Farm shop, including Mr Finn: end May to mid September: every day, 9.30am-7pm. Mid September to mid April: Tues-Sat, 9.30am-5pm (closed Sun/Mon). PYO crops: strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants, whitecurrants, blackberries, asparagus, broad beans, carrots, beetroot, runner beans, French beans, squashes and pumpkins, globe artichokes. Many over a long season. Lots of potato varieties. Farm shop has resh fruit and vegetables plus butchery by Mr Finn. Café by Oxforddining. Car parking, children's play area and sandpit, picnic site, tractor and trailer rides at weekends, easy disabled access.

Dews Meadow Farm Shop, Oxford Road, East Hanney, Nr Wantage
Tel 01235 868634
Farm shop selling their own farm reared pork and pork products. Locally sourced beef, lamb & chicken are also available. Open weekdays 8.30am-5pm (Fri till 6pm), Sat 8.30am-5pm; closed Sun.

The Old Farm Shop, Milton Hill, Harwell, Abingdon
Tel 01235 831247
PYO: Many berries, plus broad beans, cabbage, cauliflower, marrow, peas, pumpkins, runner beans, spinach, sweetcorn, asparagus.
Farm Shop: As for PYO plusgreater range of fruit and veg. Own lamb, poultry, turkey, eggs, game, bread, cakes, pies, honey. Organic section. Open Mon-Sat 9am-6pm, Sun 9am-5.30pm. Easy disabled access. Toilets. Free delivery of local orders.

Wykham Park Farm Shop, Banbury
(A361 towards Chipping Norton from Banbury Town Centre. After 1 mile, turn left at cross-roads signed Bodicote. Farm shop is 1/4 mile on the left hand side.)
Tel 01295 262049
Specialize in asparagus (the season ends mid June and they are open 7 days during it) and their own lamb, beef, sausages, potatoes and paeonies, plus other seasonal veg. Shop open generally 8.30am-5.30pm Tue-Fri, 8.30am-3pm Sat.

Organic Vegetable Delivery
('Box schemes')

If you want to bypass the conventional supermarket approach to organics (unripe produce from faraway lands at exorbitant prices), and can't make it to the Gloucester Green Farmers' Market (see above - limited organic produce available) or fabulous, tiny Wolvercote Farmers' Market (every Sunday, 10.30-1, Wolvercote First School - breakfasts available!) or Sandy Lane Farm Market in Tiddington (Thursdays 2-6pm), or East Oxford Farmers' Market (also see above) you may wish to try one of the following delivery options.
Most of these can be ordered on an ad hoc basis (you don't have to have veg every week, and you can change your order at will), and most produce is at prices akin to the cost of standard non-organic supermarket veg.

Only Organic
Tel 01844 238064
Box scheme based in Long Crendon, Buckinghamshire. Locally sourced organic fruit, veg and eggs with home delivery around Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Hertfordshire. Boxes from £12.89. Certified with the Soil Association. Visit onlyorganic.org or phone 01844 238064.

Tolhurst Organic, West Lodge, Hardwick, Whitchurch-on-Thames, Oxon
For Oxford city delivery, call Jane Ivemey: 01865 556151 / organicoxbox@yahoo.co.uk
Part of the Vegan Organic Trust. Delivery of vegetables and fruit to collection points throughout Oxford on Weds & Thurs. Veg bag sizes vary in cost from £7-£13, and contain seasonal produce, the bulk of which is from the farm, near Reading. Fruit comes from further afield (but not by aeroplane) and bags are from £4.50-£11.75. (Reading and Wallingford are also served - visit the website for details.)

North Aston Organics, The Bakery Office, 3 Somerton Rd, North Aston OX25 6HP.
Tel 01869 347702. 24 hr answerphone and someone in the office most Mondays.
Soil Association Certified growers with a "no air freight" policy. Deliver organic boxes to drops in parts of Oxford and Banbury, also Cropredy and villages surrounding North Aston. North Aston do most UK grown vegetables and culinary herbs in season. Bought in organic fruit and eggs also available, and at some drops organic milk from North Aston Dairy as well.

Veg in Clover, run from Sandy Lane Farm, Tiddington, OX9 2LA.
Tel 01865 427359 for Veg in Clover or 01844 279269 for Sandy Lane Farm.
We deliver organic veg boxes in the Oxford, Wheatley and Thame area. You can order a £12 or £15 pound box delivered to your door, once a week on Fridays. The vegetables are grown at Sandy Lane Farm, nr Thame, in season, and supplemented by vegetables grown by other local growers or grown within Europe. All the vegetables are certified organic. We are registered with the Organic Food Federation. We recycle the boxes, so we expect to be able to pick up the empty box from your doorstep on delivery day. Payment can be made by cheque or cash, and is usually paid weekly or monthly.

Coleshill Organics have been recommended to us by a Daily Info reader. They deliver boxes to collection points in Oxford every Thursday, and are based near Swindon. Their £10 weekly box of veg is sufficient for four and a half people. They also offer eggs and fruit. You can call them on 01793 861070 or email orders@coleshillorganics.co.uk

Riverford Organic Vegetables Ltd, Wash Barn, Buckfastleigh, Devon TQ11 0LD
Oxford distributor: Graham 01285 750777 General No: 0845 600 2311
Boxes range from £7-£12 (includes delivery), vary according to the season, and can contain bread, eggs, juice and jam as well as the standard veg and fruit. 80% of the veg and fruit is from South Devon.

Abel & Cole Organic Home Delivery, London
Tel. 0845 262 6262 / Fax 020 7737 7785 organics@abel-cole.co.uk
70% UK-grown produce delivered direct to your office or home. London-based superboxscheme A&C deliver the usual seasonal fruit & veg plus extras including dairy (Yeo Valley, Rachel's), meat, fish, beer, wine, soft drinks, tinned & dried goods and cleaning products (Ecover), all of which can be ordered on a 'pick-your-own' basis. Prices start at £6 and include delivery. You can start an account on their website.

Find some more shop outlets of organic produce in Oxfordshire at www.organicfood.co.uk

Organic & Free-Range Meats

Though the rise of the supermarket and a number of recent food scares have hastened the demise of the small independent butcher, Oxford has retained an unusually high number, some of whom are organic and/or free-range specialists. We list only these below, as you will find other, non-organic butchers locally after brief research. Halal meat is available from several outlets on the Cowley Road (of which we can recommend the fabulous Continental Stores on the corner of Crown Street, mainly for its friendly service, reasonable prices and proximity to all of our houses).

Gastros Deli (see above)
31 Walton Street, Jericho, Tel. 01865 554254, info@gastrosdeli.co.uk
Selling a wide range of organic, free-range and locally-sourced meat.

M Feller, Son & Daughter
54-55, Covered Market, High Street OX1 3DY
Tel. 01865 251164 mfeller@mfeller.co.uk
Family-run business selling organic British meats, including game. The shop is Soil Association certified, friendly and in the tourist honeypot of the Covered Market (so expect to pay proper prices - eg. £15-£20 for an organic, free-range chicken for 5/6 people).

Alcock Family Butchers
273a Banbury Road, OX2 7JF
Tel. 01865 515658
Mostly organic and additive-free meat. Very friendly and helpful and look after their stock properly: their opening hours are slightly restrictive if you have a full-time job elsewhere in Oxford, however: Tue - Fri 8am - 5pm; Mon closed, Sat 7am - 1pm. Definitely morning people.

W Alder
224 Cowley Road, OX4 1UH
Tel. 01865 248524
The only Oxford butcher we know of with a small, cheery model butcher outside advertising its trade, Alder's has a range of fresh meats including game and some organic, along with local eggs and preserves. Delivery service available.

Park Farm Food
Park Farm Estate, Witney OX29 5SS
Tel. 01865 883336 / Fax. 01865 300725 enquiries@parkfarmfood.com
Well-established family business 'taking pride in the rearing, butchering and delivery of only the best, hormone free, additive free and organic meats at wholesale prices'. Telephone them to order (delivery is free within Oxon. and Gloucs., and payment for goods is usually on delivery).

K G Freeman
10 High Street, Woodstock OX20 1TF
Tel: 01993 811434
Excellent traditional British family butcher stocking only free-range meat. Cooked foods available, and a variety of game in season. Hot sandwiches, baguettes etc. too.

Mr Finn, Family Butcher
Rectory Farm Shop (see above)
Tel. 01865 358993
Mostly free-range meat and lots of it is local, particularly the lamb.

Fishmongers

The same applies to fishmongers as to butchers in recent years (see above). Not only are there are less fishmongers about, and the bell-ringing fish man driving his van around residential areas of a weekday morning is a distant memory, but supermarket fish counters are also almost a thing of the past. Sainsbury at Heyford Hill does have a good counter with an interesting range, but you need to be quick off the mark in order not to be left with just the standard salmon and tuna steaks, mackerel and trout. You will find a fish van along with a butcher's van at the Wednesday market on Gloucester Green, but apart from that, these are the only static fishmongers we know of (so if you know of more, please let us know):

STOP PRESS!
A roving fishmonger can be found every other Friday at the Rugby Club Car Park on Marston Ferry Road at around 7.30pm. Find him from Dec 7th 2007, then again on Dec 21st, and so on.

A E & M Alcock
273a Banbury Road, Summertown, OX2 7JF
Tel 01865 515658
Tue-Fri 8am-5pm, Sat 8am-1pm
This butcher is also a fishmonger with a full fish selection (cod, haddock, plaice, pollock, tuna, trout, etc, etc.).

Hayman's Fisheries
22-23 The Covered Market, OX1 3DU
Tel 01865 242516, fax 01865 202084
Mon 8am-4pm; Tue-Sat 8am-5pm; Sundays - in the run up to Christmas only - 10am-4pm
Vendor of 'fish, crustaceans & molluscs', from shark and octopus to cockles and whelks. Its fabulous display & position in the Covered Market means it can feel like a slightly morbid aquarium exhibit - prepare for tourist elbow-jostling.

Supermarkets

In the ten years since this guide was last produced, there has been an explosion in the number, size and quality of supermarkets around Oxford. The two main chains, Tesco and Sainsbury's, both have mega-branches on the Oxford ring road (at Cowley and Heyford Hill respectively) and normal size stores across the region, including within the city itself (Cowley Road, and in the Westgate Centre/on Magdalen Street, respectively). The lines these new supermarkets stock reflect the marked increase in awareness of speciality foods in England over the last twenty years, and most tastes and needs are catered for. Most have an in-store bakery, a deli counter and cash machine.

The Co-op also has branches throughout Oxford (at Headington, Botley, Summertown, Walton Street, Cowley Road, Iffley Road & Cowley Centre), and whilst few are of the enormous proportions of the other stores, they tend to give good value for money and are a bit less monstrously corporate than the others. The Headington branch is newly renovated and is now "pretty big and reasonably well stocked with local/fair trade/organic produce," according to one of our roving reporters. The Cowley Road branch is newest, similarly stocked and diminutive, with a tiny internal café.

Other stores in the Oxford area include:

Marks and Spencer, Queen Street (city centre) and Summertown
Tel 01865 248075
An excellent range of ready-prepared meals, plus luxury foods as well as essentials.

Somerfield
9 Old High Street, Headington: Tel 01865 768210
263 Banbury Road: Tel 01865 552610

Waitrose, 25 Woolgate Square, Witney
Tel (01993) 778411
A large selection of high-quality foods.

A special mention should be made of the Continental Stores on the Cowley Road, more or less opposite Tesco. They have shelves piled high with all possible things in packets and tins, plus very nice fresh herbs, and fruit and veg, and a corner with their own butcher. And they're very friendly.