25 ways to put your pound into the rural economy

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Rural escapes

When times are hard on the farm, it's often the B&B or self-catering business that saves the day, so by booking one of 1,200 retreats through Farm Stay UK, you are directly supporting British farmers (www.farmstay.co.uk). Alastair Sawday's special places to stay (www.special-escapes.co.uk) includes quirky accommodation such as a converted corn loft at Middle Mill, Pembrokeshire, and an eco cabin in Shropshire - its creator Kate Grubb won a CL Enterprising Rural Women Award (www.ecocabin.co.uk). For a vast array of accommodation, browse the VisitBritain website (www.visitbritain.co.uk) and narrow your search by checking out its green accreditation scheme.

A rare treat

Tamworth, Whitefaced Dartmoor, Irish Moiled, Scots Grey, Cotswold: these are just a few of the once common British native breeds of pig, sheep, cattle and poultry now on the ‘at risk' list. That they survive at all is largely due to the charity, the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, which promotes the message that we must eat the meat of traditional breeds to ensure their survival. It accredits independent butchers to stock and market rare and traditional breeds: the benefits to us as consumers include guaranteed traceability, high standards of animal husbandry practised on small farms and the superior quality and taste of the meat. For more details, visit www.rbst.org.uk.

A world of willow

Willow is the ultimate sustainable crop - as fast as the stems are cut they regenerate, growing several feet in a season. Planted in the low-lying, wetland areas of Britain, willow has been farmed and harvested for centuries to make basketware, fencing, furniture and, of course, cricket bats. Imported basketware will always be cheaper compared with British but rarely will it be as robust or long-lasting. For more information, Google ‘Willow growers in Great Britain'.

Leather report

Leather is made from an animal skin or hide that has been tanned, but quality varies hugely and much is drenched in acids, arsenic, oils and dyes. Look for leather that is a by-product of farming and produced by one of our country tanneries. Bradley's (www.bradleysthetannery.co.uk) in Shropshire, for example, uses traditional techniques to make home and garden accessories - see its products at the CL Fairs. Or try Organic Sheepskins (www.organicsheepskins.com) from Herefordshire, where the products are prepared using an organically certified method. You can also visit Torrisdale Castle Organic Tannery in Argyll (www.torrisdalecastle.com), which treats its handmade sheepskin rugs with a natural, odour-free mixture of tree bark, salt and water.

A piece of cake

What better teatime treat than a traditional farmhouse cake? The award-winning Lincolnshire-based Church Farmhouse Cakes (www.churchfarmhousecakes.co.uk) counts Fortnum & Mason and the Royal Family among its customers and uses only organic stoneground flour from the local windmill with no essences, additives or preservatives. Manor Organic Farm in Leicestershire (www.manororganicfarm.co.uk) bakes organic breads, cakes and scones on site to sell through their farm shop, and for gluten- or wheatfree cakes go to www.honeybuns.co.uk. Let's face it, buying more cake has got to be the easiest and most pleasurable way of putting money back into the rural economy!

Get cracking

We love snacking on nuts although to most of us this means dried, imported brazils, almonds and walnuts. And yet the most delicious of nuts are grown right on our doorstep in the home counties, especially Kent. The cobnut, a form of wild hazel, has been cultivated in Britain for centuries with production peaking in the early 1900s when more than 7,000 acres of orchards, or plats, covered the county. By the 1980s just 250 acres remained. Cobnuts are marketed fresh from around the middle of August, when crunching into one reveals a distinctive taste that is sweet, milky and moist. Nuts harvested later in October have brown shells and kernels and a nuttier flavour. For stockists, visit www.kentishcobnutsassociation.co.uk.

Beautiful blooms

The UK cut-flower market is worth an estimated £2 billion a year but 90 per cent of all blooms sold are imported. This year make a bid to buy only home-grown. The natural posies and bouquets from Wiggly Wigglers in Herefordshire (www.wigglywigglers.co.uk) are arranged with flowers cut from their own garden or sourced from other English growers, while Churchtown Farm (www.scillyflowers.co.uk) on St Martin's in the Isles of Scilly supplies heavenly scented pinks and narcissi. For beautiful roses fresh from the fields, try The Real Flower Company (www.realflowers.co.uk), Country Roses (www.countryroses.co.uk) or David Austin Roses (www.davidaustinroses.co.uk).

Woven treasures

The days of Britain's large cotton mills are long gone but there is a select band of enterprising cottage industries creating textiles in the heart of the countryside. Rapture & Wright (www.raptureandwright.co.uk), a small family-run business based in rural Gloucestershire, uses traditional techniques to hand-print its distinctive designs onto cloth woven in Kirkcaldy near Edinburgh. On the remote Isle of Mull, Ardalanish (www.ardalanish.com) weaves a beautiful range of organic, Soil Association-certified tweed from the wool of native Hebridean sheep raised on the farm, while Whitchurch Silk Mill (www.whitchurchsilkmill.org.uk), on the River Test in Hampshire, has been creating sumptuous silks since the 1820s, which can be dyed to match your own colour samples.

Cheese please

We are in the middle of a cheesemaking renaissance so there's surely no excuse not to try one of the 450 unique British cheeses now being made the length and breadth of the country. Many are from home-grown businesses such as our 2009 Made in Britain Awards winner Julia Cammiss, who invented her soft, mellow cheese in a ripening room built by her husband in the garage of their Co Durham home (www.durham-cow-cheese-company.com). Be tempted by more at www.thecheeseweb.com.

A Cornish cuppa

Although tea is known as Britain's national drink, the aromatic dried leaves have been imported to our shores for centuries. But now it is possible to enjoy the perfect cup, free from guilt about air miles and content in the knowledge you are supporting a rural business. On the Tregothnan estate in Cornwall, a planting of tea (Camellia sinensis) has been flourishing for seven years. The handpicked leaves are processed on the estate before being packaged and dispatched to selected UK outlets. For stockists, call 01872 520000 or visit www.tregothnan.co.uk.

A taste of honey

Choose British honey and show your support for the nation's beekeepers, whose numbers have fallen from 76,000 in 1948 in England and Wales to 44,000 in the whole of the UK today. Each brand of honey is unique, the flavour depending on the season and the local flora. Sweet-smelling fruit blossoms and purple heathers give a distinctive aroma to Scarletts Scottish Heather Honey (www.scarlettshoney.co.uk); Yorkshire Honey (www.nyorkshoney.co.uk) carries the flavour of a variety of moorland blossom and flowers, and Welsh Wildflower Honey is an elixir created from the nectar of sycamore, hawthorn, willow and clover among others (www.thehoneyfarm.co.uk).

Forging ahead

The British blacksmith today blurs the boundaries between artist and craftsman, creating an amazing array of gates, railings, bowers and arches, furniture, door knockers, light fittings and sculpture in copper, steel and bronze. Shaping the hot metal on a traditional anvil gives every piece individual, handmade character, a far cry from the uniformity of machine-made ironmongery. Search for your nearest artist-blacksmith at www.baba.org.uk.

Bearing fruit

Given that 2,000 varieties of apple can be grown in Britain it is a travesty that we import more than 70 per cent of the apples we consume. The same can be said of pears and cherries: in the past 50 years 90 per cent of Britain's cherry orchards have vanished and we import 95 per cent of those we eat. The solution? Start buying British. To find out about the CherryAid campaign, including how to rent a tree, visit www.foodloversbritain.com. Buy a crop share or sponsor an apple or other fruit tree at www.dragonorchard.co.uk. And when food shopping, if you don't see British fruit, juices or jams on the shelves, then always ask why.