I’ve been using the Southbourne Food Assembly on and off for a couple of months now and have been enjoying the food that has been on sale.

It’s a pretty straightforward concept but I wanted to acknowledge the effort of the organiser, Lyndsey Fisher-Cooke, who set it up, gets local suppliers involved and rounds up the goods in many cases - no mean task in terms of time and energy. You order online during the week and then go along to a local venue to collect your goods on the appointed day, and also have the opportunity to meet with the suppliers that may be there.

Like with anything, it takes effort to gather the momentum of getting both consumers and suppliers on board and then for them to regularly take part so it can live on.

It works for me as I can order a few niche products that I can't readily get on the local high street and at a time that I can make it, as Saturdays I can be away or busy to shop. Needless to say that I do shop local and spend enough money on the high street to negate calls that I am not supporting the local businesses by using this venture.

One of my favourite purchases is the fresh pasta. So different to the cheap dried stuff (the more expensive dried egg pasta I do like), and what they call fresh pasta in the supermarkets I just don't like. This pasta has a good bite an can withstand a bit of cooking so it doesn't end up like baby food pasta. You don't need a huge amount of it to feel satisfied but the first time I had it just plain with olive oil and parmesan cheese grated on top, I cooked the other pasta nest and had it straight away.

They also have a local supplier Bournemouth Biltong that makes a great afternoon snack of biltong, and makes a change from taking to chocolate as I may do in the office. Very flavoursome. Their spicy version, well is very spicy. Made my head sweat but in a good way.

Golden and white beetroot, heritage tomatoes, the list goes on...

Website: Southbourne Food Assembly