Brown and Green in the paper

Writing this week's Food You Can Trust feature gave me particular pleasure because it was about my lovely friends Susie and Euan Keenan, who run Brown and Green.

Brown and Green is an amazing shop situated at the back of Derby Garden Centre, in Little Eaton, and its ethos is food and drink that is local, ethical and artisan.

The entrepreneuring couple are passionate foodies and their dedication to sourcing and selling county produce really shows.

They work with 29 Derbyshire suppliers, including The Derby Brewing Company, Duffield Dairy, Bluebells Ice Cream, vegetables from South Derbyshire Growers, Renishaw Hall Vineyard and The Loaf, in Crich.

They also work with around 30 other suppliers from the surrounding counties, such as The Staffordshire Cheese Company.

In fact, one of my favourite things about the shop is that many of the items on sale are actually labelled up to show exactly how many miles away they were produced.

"Local food is like a web," Susie explained when I went out to meet her. "Once producers realise that we are serious and genuine in our commitment to the cause they then introduce us to others.

"Food should not come from a factory – food should come from a farm."

And farmer’s daughter Susie knows a fair bit about the transition from field to fork, having studied at agricultural college before meeting her strawberry grower husband Euan and setting up Brown and Green.

They now have the backing of Blue Diamond, the company behind Derby Garden Centre, meaning they also run food stores in garden centres at Trentham, in Stoke on Trent, and Newent, in Gloucestershire.

Susie explained the concept behind the stores as being about three things – sourcing food as locally as possible, finding artisan producers that really put love into what they are making, and doing ethical business by supporting those people.

"We want to connect people to what they’re eating by telling the stories behind the food," she said. "For example, The Loaf is a fantastic bakery in Crich so we supply their bread. But we have just started stocking Middle Mountain Muesli, which is made by a couple from Matlock using bakery’s cooling ovens. It’s a wonderful example of two local artisan businesses supporting each other to make really great food."

"We get to know all the wonderful characters who make up our local food network so we can then pass as much of their story and personalities onto our customers as we can.

"I think that, as a society, we’ve become quite disconnected with our food and many of us have lost those basic skills of growing, cooking and baking, so we want to try to bring some of that back."

Brown and Green is open seven days a week, from 9am to 6pm Monday-Saturday, and from 10.30am to 4.30pm on Sundays – and with parking and access to the garden centre and restaurant, this makes the shop almost and convenient as going to the supermarket.

And as well as doing regular display changes in a bid to introduce customers to new products they might not otherwise have spotted, Susie and Euan have a few other little tricks up their sleeves.

They run regular "meet the maker" tasting days with the producers, meaning customers can actually meet the people behind the chutneys, pies and pastries in store.

And they also offer a food hamper service that can be tailor-made to customers’ specific requirements – whether that be for an all-Derbyshire medley or a beer and cheese basket for Father’s Day.

The store itself is open, airy and welcoming. As Susie puts it, it’s "somewhere people can come and browse, have fun and discover new things".

There are always plenty of foods laid out for customers to sample and they also run a wonderful initiative whereby they offer bottle refills on the olive oils and vinegars at a much cheaper price.

"We have a ‘yes we can’ attitude," said Susie. "We can deal with special orders and requests, we pride ourselves in having the best looking store and giving the best customer service.

"We want shopping to be a pleasure rather than a chore."

One of the final reasons I love Brown and Green so much is that the shop is very practical.

Some farm or local food shops can be a bit gimmicky, specialising in gifts and curiosities, but at Brown and Green you can pick up everything you need to make a meal – including basics like pasta, tinned tomatoes and rice.

It’s become one of my regular stops in my quest to spend this year shopping local – whether I’m after a pint of milk or enough to make a weekend’s meals, I know I can find it here.