This quiet corner of Belgravia is the place to go for fresh, local produce direct from the producers

The local food movement has been gaining traction in recent years, but sometimes finding truly local food is easier said than done. In a world dominated by fast food, big supermarkets and giant factory farms, where in London can you go to buy direct from small producers?

The answer could be just round the corner. The weekly Pimlico Road Farmers’ Market, one of 21 run by the London Farmers’ Markets organisation, has been going since 2002. Located in the quiet, leafy Orange Square, it is something of a local secret. While gourmands will find plenty to whet their appetites here, it exists primarily to provide the local community with quality British produce.

Mark Handley of London Farmers’ Markets says that all the producers at Pimlico Road – there are an average of 30 on any given Saturday – have been certified by FARMA, an independent local-foods organisation. This means that they all produce their own goods. "We’ve been to their farms and to their bakeries; all our fish sellers have their own boats and the dairy producers make their cheese from their own dairy herds," he says.

On the Saturday we visited, we found handmade coriander and lime fishcakes, rustic plum tarts and artisan bread. But if you want to do the cooking yourself, there’s plenty of choice: free-range eggs, fish straight from the boat, organic rare-breed meat and pungent cheeses. It would have been easy to come away with bags-full of delicious produce, but we limited ourselves to organic garlic chives and rainbow Swiss chard (both cut that morning) and a couple of savoury pies for lunch.

So shoppers benefit from the market’s diverse, fresh and healthier food, but what about the producers? "This is a platform where they can sell their product direct to the consumer and get the full retail price," says Mark. "They control their prices, not the wholesalers or supermarkets. Most of the farmers at Pimlico Road are small and medium sized, and these sorts of farms are disappearing across the UK and Europe, so farmers’ markets provide a different way of doing business."

Damsons, fennel, wild mushrooms, apples, blackcurrants and redcurrants, blackberries, samphire, kohlrabi, chard, squash, tomatoes.

Pimlico Road Farmers’ Market, Saturdays from 9am–1pm. Orange Square, corner of Pimlico Road and Ebury Street, SW1W 8UT. http://www.lfm.org.uk/markets/pimlico-road After visiting the market, why not browse Pimlico Road’s shops and restaurants? To learn more about what’s on offer, visit http://www.grosvenorlondon.com/Locations/Explore/PimlicoRoad/Pages/PimlicoRoadold.aspx