THE idea of shopping for your weekly food and household supplies at your local independent shops could possibly seem rather nostalgic and a little unrealistic at first glance – but a closer look at what's on offer in Maldon district shows that there are many very good reasons to give it a try.

Maldon High Street is a good place to start when exploring the idea. There are two independent and long-established butchers – Ansell & Co and Albert Bunting. Both have excellent reputations and offer a huge variety of meat and products. In fact, at Albert Bunting you can find a bigger selection of specialist sausages than you will ever find on supermarket shelves, as well as home-made pies, quiches, lots of different cheeses and much more. At Ansell & Co, as well as an amazing selection of local produce and high-quality meat, there's a special newsletter you can sign up to see all the bargains and look at what's in season, too – what a great idea before you head off for the High Street.

During the pandemic, Daniel's fruit and veg stall has been established in the rear yard of The Emporium, selling a great selection of produce, much of it both seasonal and local. A large amount of this is sourced from local farms and producers and there's that element of real personal customer service, too. A quick visit to the stall will show you some of the benefits of being able to ask Daniel what he'd recommend that day – and be sure of walking away with first-class fresh produce and a free friendly smile thrown in!

Then there are bakers, with The Crusty Loaf having shops in both the High Street and Spital Road – as well as a huge variety of tea shops and cafes selling all manner of savouries, bakes and cakes to take away and enjoy at home.

So what about other household staples? Dried foods, flour, pasta, rice, toiletries and household cleaners – if you want to shop at the independents, where would you find those in Maldon High Street? Well, the town's eco refill shop, Silo, is one of the places where you will find an amazing variety of products with one thing in common – they are environmentally conscious, waste-minimizing versions of the everyday items so many of us have on our shopping lists.

Walk into Silo, which recently moved from Bright's Path to the larger High Street store it now occupies, to find an astonishing selection of jars containing products you can take away in your own containers or paper bags. The colourful array of goods means you're unlikely to have ever found shopping for dried foods quite so interesting in any supermarket aisle – and it won't take long before you're amazed at just how much less plastic you're using, either.

Of course, shopping with local independent traders for your weekly shop doesn't have to begin and end with our High Streets and town or village centres, either. Maldon district has a fabulous selection of farm shops, from those offering fruit, vegetables and produce from their own farms to some sourcing a huge variety of top-quality goods, showcasing local foods, through to others who offer fruit, veg, meat, fish and even some pre-prepared dishes for you to take home and cook.

From Burnham-on-Crouch to Maldon and especially in many of our district's villages, as well as in the country lanes connecting them, discovering some of these outlets is a pleasure in itself.

So if you would like to enrich your diet with new choice and variety, shop in a more environmentally sustainable way, liven up your weekly shopping – and, of course, help our local economy to thrive by supporting our independent shops and traders – it may well be that the answers to how are right here in our own beautiful Maldon district.

The Keep it Local campaign is being launched through Maldon District Council's Sense of Place initiative, with funding from the Magnox Decommissioning Fund.