Recently, one of our West Dorset farm shops was a finalist in the ‘Rural Oscars’ which celebrate outstanding achievement in the rural areas across Britain.

Of course, I am always delighted when one of our local businesses is recognised in this sort of way. But I think that this particular case also illustrates a wider point.

A couple of decades ago, there were hardly any farm shops in West Dorset and everybody was talking about the way that local greengrocers, butchers and fish merchants were being driven out of business by large out-of-town supermarkets.

Over that twenty year period, much has changed in this respect.

There have of course been huge changes for the supermarkets themselves – with an increasing trend for them to come back into our town centres and also increasing competition from internet shopping.

But in many ways the most remarkable phenomenon locally has been the unexpected resilience of little shops – the butchers, the greengrocers and the bakeries amongst them – and the appearance on the scene of a wide range of farm shops as well as the very welcome resuscitation of many village shops, including those that have become community shops.

This may well be due in part to the pleasure that customers take in doing their shopping in a smaller establishment which somehow feels more personal than even the best of the supermarkets. But I suspect there is more to it than this. The rise of the farm shops, in particular, (but also, I suspect, to some degree the resilience of the smaller food retailers as a whole) may well be due to a growing preference for local food.

This, in turn, may partly be caused by the trust that people have in local food. But I think it is also partly down to the fact that people are looking to eat things that are good to eat and interesting.

This is undoubtedly associated with the renaissance of local food production – with a range of splendid cheeses and wines, biscuits and jams and a welter of other real, delicious and highly characteristic local food and drink. So we have cause for celebration.

Some years ago, when I first began to notice this phenomenon and began writing about it in this column, I wondered whether it would prove a temporary, passing phase. But there is no sign of this happening at all. Indeed, if anything, I would say that the trend is accelerating. Our local food and drink, and our local small shops are becoming more fashionable all the time. I have increasing confidence that we are seeing a long term change rather than a brief fashion. And that is very welcome.