In my job, I travel around the country a fair bit, but, thanks to the motorways, it’s just so easy to get to most parts these days. You can also time your journey pretty accurately. If I leave Dublin on Thursday evening, barring a rare hold-up, I’ll be landed in the yard at home within two and a half hours. Before the motorway, I was lucky to do that journey in anything less than three and a half hours.

Over the past couple of years, the arrival of well spaced out service stations has also been a great help to motorists. Any time I stop at one, they are buzzing and the restaurants and takeaways are even busier than the pumps. Generally, there’s a coffee and cake bar, a fast food restaurant and a deli/dinner counter – so, to be fair, most people’s appetites are well catered for. However, the other night I was watching Countryfile on BBC One and there was a very interesting report on a service station with a difference on the M5 in Gloucestershire.

This service station works with 200 local suppliers to showcase everything that is good about local food. 130 of its suppliers are located within 30 miles of the station. We are talking about small-scale bakers, preserve and jam makers, fruit and vegetable growers, and savoury and sweet pie producers, to name but a few. The business is a huge boost to these artisan producers and introduces their food to a much wider audience than if it was just being sold in the local village shop.

The service station is doing great business and is becoming a destination in itself, with customers knowing they will get something different there. A second service station offering similar fare is due to open early in the summer.

Now, wouldn’t it be a great idea if something similar were to happen here? It’s not as if we are lacking local food suppliers – we’ve plenty of taste trails and I’ve lost track of the number of well-organised and popular food festivals that are held all around the country.

I think it would be a particularly good move for one of the Midlands service stations as it might encourage tourists, who have sampled the local fare, to spend more time in the area. There’s nothing wrong with the same coffee and fast food chain being the staple fare in these stations, but wouldn’t it be nice to also offer what’s local and best from the surrounding area? And that applies not just to the eat-on-the-go food, but to the grocery section as well. I haven’t had reason to visit all the motorway services stations, so maybe one of them is already doing this. If so, let me know and I will pass on the good news.

Meanwhile, the Irish Country Living team has been toying around with the idea of relaunching our Getting in Touch service. We’ve had a great reaction to the idea and want to get it started again for next week. So, instead of having to deal with phone lines, you can send us your details by email, phone or post. We will set up a box number for you and direct any replies to you by post. It will cost €30 to place the ad and it will be entirely confidential. The plan is to have the first set of entries next week. So, if you are interested in meeting someone with shared interests, please call us on 01-4199555 or email adverts@farmersjournal.ie for more information.

Finally, if you have a child in college and he/she is looking for a student loan, be sure to read Peter Young in the magazine this week.