As we settle down into a lockdown that shows every sign of continuing longer than three weeks, food producers and growers have once again swung into action to supply local food delivered to your door.

It’s good news for the nearly 3,000 people who are currently in isolation.

You can find a full list of all the food and drink companies doing deliveries on the DEFA Food Matters website at http://www.iomfoodanddrink.com/deliveries/, along with links to each company’s website and contact details.

Many of these businesses set up delivery services during the first lockdown a year ago and have simply carried on because what started as a service to help out during the pandemic has proved so popular.

And there is another reason for delivering to customers, at what is one of the farming calendar’s busiest times - lambing.

Farmers who test positive for Covid-19 face a strict isolation which means they cannot leave their immediate property (house and garden) to visit lambing sheds, milk cows or check stock in the fields.

At Ballakelly Farm in Andreas the Teares are delivering all online orders and are no longer offering collection from the farm.

They are asking people not to visit until further notice, in order to minimise the risk of anyone on the farm catching Covid.

They are also working in teams, as Rachel Teare explained.

She said: ’We couldn’t possibly risk not being able to lamb.

’Last year we were just finishing lambing when lockdown started but this year we’re right in the thick of it, with 800 ewes to lamb, so we’ve split into three teams.’

There are two lambing teams and a home team, which looks after the deliveries but are also capable of lambing if necessary.

Alan Teare and Glyn Hoosen-Owen do the butchery and Chris Owens, Harry Gillings and Rachel Moore, along with Alan and Rachel’s children, Alice and Harvey, make up the teams.

Rachel said: ’The teams are all separate when we are working and if we do have to work together we wear masks. Luckily our work is socially distanced and it’s outdoors. Each team also has its own spaces for teas and coffees.’

She added that delivering customer orders, rather than being on hand for collections, also gives them more flexibility at this busy farming time.

She said: ’The sheep come first and when we’ve finished that work we can go out and do deliveries afterwards.’

Ballakelly Farm delivers island wide.

Its website offers 10 ’core products’, which include back bacon, flavoured sausages and dry aged steak, along with special offers each week.

Close Leece Farm Shop and Cafe, in St John’s, sells sausages, bacon and charcuterie from their rare breed pigs and free range eggs from their own hens.

It also stocks mixed fruit and veg boxes, Noa bread and ground coffee, Ross Bakery bread and patisserie, craft beers, Fynoderee gins and wines from around the world and currently, a range of Mothering Sunday hampers.

Close Leece Farm delivers island-wide with scheduled collections from the farm shop available on Tuesdays and Fridays.

It also has the ’little shed’ which is open 24/7 with an honesty box, where you can purchase items.

For those of you made of sterner stuff who might think that lockdown presents the ideal opportunity for a health reset, how about a three-day juice diet?

Creative Juices in Laxey offers delicious, 100% freshly cold-pressed vegetable and fruit juices, delivered to your door.

Its juice programmes, for three, five or seven days give you planned regime of juices that replace one or all of your normal meals. It’s a good way to detox and lose a few pounds.

You can also order separate juices and wellness shots.

Replacing breakfast with its signature green juice, which is made from apple, pineapple, spinach, cucumber, celery, lime, avocado, fennel and ginger, is a great way to start the day.

Juices can be stored in the fridge for up to three days and you can also freeze them.

Juice orders must be placed by 5pm on Sundays for delivery on a Tuesday. Delivery is free to Douglas, Onchan and Laxey on orders over £30 and £5 for everywhere else.

Isle of Man Seafood Products, based in Peel, is a family run fish processing business, preparing and exporting locally caught fresh and frozen seafood and specialising in king and scallops and queenies.

For a treat, try its flavoured smoked salmon - flavours include champagne and orange and lemon and pepper - and their seafood platters.

Deliveries to south/east on a Friday and north/west on a Saturday.

And, not forgetting our canine friends, Hound and Howl supplies raw dog nutrition products, made from Manx beef, lamb and pork, plus natural dog treats and grooming products.

It offers island-wide deliveries and contact-free click and collect from their unit on South Quay, Douglas.

l Details of all these suppliers on the Food Matters list at http://www.iomfoodanddrink.com/deliveries/