Market stalls overflowing with seasonal produce, specialist shops stacked floor to ceiling with delicacies unique to that part of the world, vineyard tours and wine tastings, farmhouse cheesemakers, bakers making bread to a traditional recipe. There are thousands of good food reasons for having a holiday in Britain.

According to a recent Populus poll, a third of us are switching plans from a holiday abroad to one in Britain. So when once we would set off for the gîte with French Provincial Cooking (Penguin Classics), by Elizabeth David, it's comparatively cheaper to spend the summer making gooseberry fool in Southwold. Eco and economic arguments are winning out - and if guilt about carbon footprints can't stop us straying overseas, the euro will.

What's more, with the revival of artisan producers, butchers and vegetable box schemes challenging the supermarkets' stranglehold, it's easier than ever to find all the edible goodies that we used to go abroad for.

In Go Slow England, the author and guidebook publisher Alastair Sawday celebrates eco-friendly places to stay and the enterprising markets, mills, tea shops and cider-makers that are making England somewhere to savour.

Britain's 10 coolest seaside restaurants

Stylish design, seasonal menus using local produce, and a sea view... no wonder we want to eat beside the seaside

• Good food on the camping trail

• 50 places to eat in the great outdoors

• Holiday food at a click

Seasonal food recipe finder: July

July brings unusual flavours, a whole host of berries and golden fruits such as peaches and apricots

• Is kitchen 'sat-nav' the new cookbook?

10 British hotels with great chefs

Rufus Purdy, editor of the Mr & Mrs Smith guides, picks ten hotels in Britain that offer fabulous cuisine

• Real Food Pioneer: Carlo Petrini

• Top 10 ways to forage for free food

• How to cook the perfect steak

Related Internet Links

• Real Food Directory

• Organic Box Finder

“Not long ago, given the choice between a pub lunch in Penzance and pasta and a glass of wine in Palma, most of us would be tempted to fly abroad for a holiday,” he says. “But no more.” However, he adds that rural economies remain fragile “and every one of us who holidays in Britain will be reinforcing the gains made over the past few years”.

So eat well on holiday and help British food to get better still.

NORFOLK

Norfolk is full of fantastic food, from Cromer crab, samphire, free-range pork and lamb, to every sort of fruit and veg. Check out events, markets, producers, shops and places to eat on www.tastesofanglia.com.

Best pork pies

Bray's Cottage Pork Pies, made from the best cuts of saddleback pork, are sensationally meaty. Buy them cooked or bake them yourself for £2.40 each or £15.50 for a monster pie. Call first to collect from the converted barn at Bayfield Brecks, between Holt and Cley, 01263 860944, www.perfectpie.co.uk

Best ice-cream

Glimpse Lakenham's award-winning ice-cream being made when you buy from the factory shop, open Monday to Saturday. Lakenham Creamery, 2 Trafalgar St, Norwich, 01603 620970, www.lakenhamcreamery.co.uk

Best crab

Cley Smokehouse catches and dresses Cromer crabs. Buy kippers, bloaters (a Great Yarmouth speciality), eel and other smoked-treated delicacies. Open daily. High Street, Cley, 01263 740282, www.cleysmokehouse.com

Best pick your own

One of a dwindling number of pick-your-own farms, Wiveton Hall Fruit Farm grows strawberries and raspberries, red and blackcurrants, even artichokes. Tasty fruit tarts in the café. Open daily. Wiveton, Holt, 01263 740525, www.wivetonhall.co.uk

Best farm shop

In a glorious 18th-century barn, Back to the Garden sells organic meat, fruit and veg from its 1,000-acre farm. It also sells charcuterie, baked goods, organic pasta and every British cheese imaginable. Open Tuesday to Saturday. Leatheringsett, 01263 715996, www.back-to-the-garden.co.uk

Best organic veg box

Give Salle Moor Hall Farm 48 hours' notice and, if you're living locally, they'll drop off a box of their organic fruit, veg and eggs. From £10 for a small veg box. Reepham, 01603 879046, www.salleorganics.co.uk

DEVON

From the South Devon Chilli Farm's capsicums to oil pressed from hemp seeds near Barnstaple, Devon's extraordinary produce is showcased in A Taste of Devon, by Andrea Leeman (Redcliffe, £10).

Best farm shop

Occombe Farm Shop in Torbay is the best newcomer. But the vast Darts Farm Shop takes the biscuit with its butcher and fish shed, salads and veg from its 500 acres, and the county's top names such as Suzanne's gourmet fruit vinegars, and Georgie Porgie's puddings. Open daily. Topsham, Exeter, 01392 878200

Best market

Pannier markets, such as Barnstaple's glorious Victorian cast-iron hall, are a feature of Devon. Traditionally anyone could turn up with a basket - or pannier - of goods. Amateur gardeners with a glut of veg, chicken keepers with too many eggs, and jam and cake-makers still do. Tues, Fri and Sat. Butcher's Row, Barnstaple, 01271 379084 www.northdevon.gov.uk/panniermarket

Best farm

Riverford farm delivers boxes of organic veg from its own land and neighbouring farms; meat, eggs and dairy are available too. There's a shop on the farm, plus three others throughout the county and a fantastic field kitchen that serves food. Open every day for lunch, Fri and Sat for dinner. Buckfastleigh, 01803 762074, www.riverford.co.uk

Best cheese and wine tasting

Vines thrive on the slopes of the Dart valley for Sharpham's award-winning wines. Try a tasting to see how well they go with the company's unpasteurised cheeses. From £5, including vineyard tour. Open every day in summer. Sharpham Vineyard, Ashprington, Totnes, 01803 732203, www.sharpham.com

Best cider press

Countryman farmhouse cider is made from apples grown on the banks of the Tamar. Sample and buy. Open Mon to Sat.Milton Abbot, 01822 870226, www.crying-fox.com

YORKSHIRE

Cheeses from Dovedale, Swaledale and Wensleydale, meat from the moors and more cakes than you can shake a stick at. See an online directory and guide to the county's food and drink at www.deliciouslyorkshire.co.uk

Best cheese-making

Wensleydale Creamery keeps the 12th-century monks' habit going making Wallace and Gromit's favourite cheese. Museum, visitor centre and viewing gallery to watch the curds being stirred. Open daily. Hawes, 01969 667664, www.wensleydale.co.uk

Best farm shop

Farmer's Cart is a spacious shop that sells more than 50 fruit and veg, depending on what is in season. Home-reared meat is available from its “zero food miles” butchery, and bread, cakes, pastries and take-home meals are made on site. Children can pet farm animals, and a café serves breakfast, lunch and teas. Open Mon to Sat. Towthorpe Grange, near York, 01904 499183, www.farmerscart.co.uk

Best butcher

London carnivores genuflect at The Ginger Pig butcher shops. All the meat is raised on Yorkshire farms and is now sold at the new Ginger Pig shop outside Pickering. Open Mon to Sat. Thornton-le-Dale, near Pickering, 01751 474 223, www.thegingerpig.co.uk

Best Yorkshire tea

The legendary Bettys Café Tea Rooms always lives up to expectations. Eat fat rascals, curd tarts and tea loaf at Northallerton's gracious Georgian townhouse branch. Open every day. Other branches in Harrogate, York and Ilkley. High Street, Northallerton, 01609 775154, www.bettys.co.uk

Best chic city shop

Weeton's calls itself an urban farm shop. Artisan bread, cheeses, beef from herds of rare-breed cattle and veg - all from Yorkshire - come marked with food miles. Open daily. 23/24 West Park, Harrogate, 01423 507100, www.weetons.com

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