By all accounts farm shops have had a fantastically good Christmas – and so, for that matter, have farmers' markets. And we must take that as a huge vote of confidence in British producers and the goods they are offering.

Despite the fact that money has been tight, that people have been cutting back on purchases such as Christmas cards and the so-called luxury foods that supermarkets offer at this time of the year (why else would there have been such unprecedented discounting in the last couple of weeks?) they have not been prepared to compromise when it has come to buying local, traceable food and drink.

I find this highly encouraging. I don't just see it as the public taking pity on farmers and deciding to spend more with them at Christmas. I look on it as evidence that direct selling to the public and the promotion of locally-produced goods through local outlets is good for everyone. Shoppers have been turning to the markets and the farm shops because they not only offer outstanding value for money – and that's a particularly important consideration when money is rationed – but because they offer a real alternative to the depressingly uniform fare you now find in supermarkets.

After all, apart from the store and staff livery there's little to distinguish one from the other. They stock more or less the same items. Their own-brand labels are pretty much identical under the packaging. The promotions all shout about how each chain is cheaper than its rivals – as though you have the time or calculator to work it all out. And for that matter the staff are generally uniformly morose and uncommunicative.

What a contrast to go to a farm shop or a farmers' market where it's possible to talk about the provenance of the food and drink on sale, even to talk to the people who have grown, raised or made whatever is being sold.

My hunch is that the British consumer is now tiring rapidly of shopping in places the size of aircraft hangars precisely because it has become such a depressing experience. Although we may not realise it, we are all growing weary of being repeatedly exposed to the subliminal advertising, the subtle marketing tricks that are employed to steer us to whatever it is the retailer wants us to buy.

Twenty-four-hour, seven-day-a-week availability might be great for some but after a time it becomes depressing to go shopping every week and find things exactly the same as they were last week, except for the fact that some of the displays may have been changed around or the offers have been altered.

Farm shops and farmers' markets, on the other hand, faithfully represent the passing seasons in what they offer to the shopper. Buyers feel far more connected with the land, they are happier buying natural products and they are also content to know that all the profits are going to the supplier, rather than first being creamed off by some multinational processor.

I really believe this was the Christmas when farm shops and farmers' markets began to make a real difference to our buying habits, when more people realised that for variety, interest and value they are unbeatable. And on that basis we now have a really solid foundation to create an even larger network of local food outlets – one for which there is clearly a public appetite.