Good taste: Consumer-friendly farms: where best to buy your organic produce

While there is an increasing demand for organic food, it is not always so easy to get hold of it. So where do you begin to find the produce? Look no further than The Organic Directory, published by Green Earth Books.

Compiled by Clive Litchfield, with a foreword by Jonathan Dimbleby, who is president of the Soil Association, it's an indispensable guide for consumers who are concerned about how our food gets from field to plate. The Soil Association is the largest of Britain's five certification bodies whose organic regulations farmers must comply with to be deemed 100 per cent organic.

According to Phil Prideaux, their certification manager, 100,000 acres of land are currently in conversion to organic use, a figure which is rising by about 40 per cent per year.

The Organic Directory is clearly laid out, divided into counties covering England, Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands. There are easy to read symbols indicating the services of each listing from box delivery schemes and farm gate sales to restaurants and B&Bs.

In case your knowledge of organic farming is a bit hazy, the introduction gives a succinct argument for organic produce and the methods involved, as well as addressing the alleged dangers of genetically modified food.

Consumers are increasingly switching to organic produce and once armed with this book there will be no holding them back, except, perhaps, the additional cost. It seems that healthy living comes at a price. Aoife O' Riordain

`The Organic Directory', pounds 8.95, Green Earth Books (01803 863260)