LOCAL and sustainable food in Oxfordshire is getting a major boost, according to its advocates.

Social enterprise Cultivate has just raised £20,000 in a crowd sourcing campaign to enlarge its online shop.

And now Marston delicatessen Deli-Licious, in Cherwell Drive, has appealed for more local producers to get in touch to sell their goods.

Owner Kate Vaughan-Fowler said she wanted to stock more local vegetables, preserves and artworks to support other small businesses in the county.

The mother of four, who took on the shop in 2012, said: “It is about helping people such as those at home making chutneys and jams, and to get the community working together.

“Some people are put off vegetables covered in mud and looking wonky, but you can taste the difference.

“A perfect, straight, orange carrot from Tesco doesn’t taste as good. People could go to the Co-op and spend less but they don’t, they come here.”

The Merton resident, who took on the shop after being a stay-at-home-mum for 25 years, said she also wanted to differentiate her shop from nearby Tesco and Starbucks.

The shop sells honey from The Oxford Honey Company in Long Hanborough and acts as a pick-up point for veg boxes from North Aston Organics, for which it earns a 10 per cent commission. Mrs Vaughan-Fowler said she now wanted more local producers to get in touch.

Cultivate raised £20,000 in just four weeks from customers to entirely revamp its new, online shop.

The social enterprise, which grows vegetables on 10 acres of land owned by the Earth Trust in Little Wittenham, said it wanted to make it easier for people to buy local food, without having to catch the Cultivate Veg Van as it tours the county or make it to a weekly farmers’ market.

Farm manager Joe Hasell, 28, of Warborough, said: “Eating local is one very practical thing people can do if they have concerns about the environment.

“The other attraction is that it’s fun – people think of supermarkets as having everything in one place, which is true in one sense, but the flip side is that those thing are exactly the same at each store. I would bet £100 that we are not growing any of the same types of lettuce as any other local producer.”

Mr Hasell said following the UK’s horse meat scandal, consumers also had a problem trusting large producers while more people felt they could trust their local farmer.

Cultivate claimed in Oxford less than one per cent of food consumed is locally-produced. The group aims to get that to more than 10 per cent by using the new online store and a marketing campaign.

Last month, Oxford’s first food surplus cafe had a trial event at East Oxford Community Centre, where diners ate food that would have been thrown away.

To offer your produce for consideration, drop into the shop on Cherwell Drive or call 01865 742799