LARA LAMBERT reports on the young professionals giving up the 9-to-5 for life on the farm.

A NEW style of ‘farmer’ is evolving in the countryside, producing all manner of new foods from ice-creams to hedgerow liqueurs. And the person serving you home-grown jams and freshly corked champagne at farmers markets across Yorkshire nowadays could well be a biochemist or a stockbroker embarking on a second career.

The trend for farm diversification – where farmers turn to other forms of income outside the sphere of traditional farming practises – has spurned a new boom in cottage industries that is attracting young professionals with a thirst for life in the country.

A former travel agent, a fashion designer and a biochemist are among 20 producers due to show their wares at a farmer’s market on the Yorkshire Wolds on July 13th.

Offering a diverse range of produce from fresh-cut flowers to Yorkshire-grown wines, these countryside entrepreneurs bring with them a whole new skill set that embraces up-to-the-minute marketing practise.

The new ‘marketing savvy’ approach involves a thorough grasp of social media and networking tactics, with producers working together to enhance sales.

It is also offering a future for farming families who want to stay together on their land, when at one time only one child in a generation could inherit the enterprise.

Jacqueline Broadhead is just such an example. With two older brothers, a future working the family farm was never going to be an option for her.

Instead she turned to science. But after gaining a Phd in plant biochemistry and molecular biology, the pull of the farm and an outdoor life was too strong to resist.

“A further career in science was going to lead to a lot of desk work which I did not want. I missed working with animals,” she explained.

It wasn’t long before she found a way to combine her thirst for farming with her scientific knowledge base and forged a new career for herself making cheese.

She began by experimenting in her kitchen and then, after acquiring some land in Wold Newton in 2005, she bought her first cow and calf.

Now her business, Epicures Larder, has an enviable rare breed herd producing award-winning cheeses which she supplies to five-star restaurants across Yorkshire.

She also sells pork, from pigs fed on the whey from the cheese, and has plans to produce air-dried and cured pork to compete with Spanish and Italian imports.

Justin Staal, of Staal Smokehouse at Long Riston in East Yorkshire, is another professional entrepreneur who is making a successful living in the countryside.

A former travel agent, Justin gave up selling tailor-made fishing holidays to set up a cottage industry smoking locally-sourced meats, fish and poultry on his wife Georgina’s family farm in Long Riston near Beverley.

Staal Smokehouse was intended to add diversity to the existing, more traditional, family farm. Using Justin’s experience of how people all over the world smoked and cured various meat, game and fish, the business has grown since its launch in 2001 winning numerous food awards.

Former catering manager Melanie Moss, whose cottage industry, Wold Cottage Kitchen in Wetwang, produces jams and chutneys, is a newcomer to food production.

But her previous experience in hospitality has given her a head start in modern business concepts of collaboration. Her newest product, Real Ale Jelly, is made from beer produced by another Yorkshire producer, Wold Top Brewery, based near Hunmanby.

Jennie Palmer, a fashion designer by trade, is the key motivator in developing links between the new producers and fostering a “Yorkshire Wolds” brand of quality produce.

Jennie and her husband Adam have added value to their traditional farm in Thixendale by branching into Yorkshire Rapeseed Oil, producing cooking oils made from oil seed rape grown on the farm.

Jennie’s drive to promote the oils was instrumental in organising the Taste the Wolds event, which will take place at the Robert Fuller Gallery, in Thixendale next Saturday, July 13.

Others due to show their produce at the event include Ryedale Vineyards, which produces award-winning wines from the most northerly vineyard in England at Westow, and Mr Moos Ice Cream from Skipsea.

There will also be beers from Wold Top Brewery, near Hunmanby, sloe gin and chocolates from Raisthorpe Manor in Thixendale, porridge from J Stringers near Bishop Wilton, choice beef cuts from Manor Farm Beef, near Driffield, and locally grown bouquets from Fieldhouse Flowers in Everingham.

The Taste the Wolds farmer’s market will take place from 10am to 4.30pm next Saturday at The Robert Fuller Gallery, Fotherdale Farm, Thixendale, North Yorkshire YO17 9LS