Driven by the growing demand for local produce Chris Hoggard, of Newby Farm, Huggate, decided the time was ripe to set up his very own pick your own enterprise on Scarborough Road, Driffield.

Mr Hoggard said: "This is the first time we have done pick your own and with everybody wanting local food, wanting to know where their food has come from and that it is fresh I thought we would try to get that to the people of Driffield."

Mr Hoggard has been operating a commercial strawberry farm at Huggate since 1991, supplying large supermarket chains and smaller local farm shops with fresh Wolds grown strawberries and decided to branch out into the pick your own market amid the growing trend for local produce.

The Scarborough Road site, which has taken just over a year to prepare, offers four acres of strawberries, two acres of rasberries, half an acre of blackberries and a quarter acre of rhubarb, but it is not just fresh fruit that people are looking for.

"We have three acres of new potatoes which will start next week. Everybody has been asking about the new potatoes so this is obviously something that the customer wants," Mr Hoggard said.

While the early season strawberries, such as the Christine variety, planted last March are now in full swing, Mr Hoggard said some of the mid to late season varieties, including Marshmallow, Sonata, Elsanta and Florence, are well on their way.

Mr Hoggard also hopes other fruit such as the rasberries and rhubarb will be in full swing by next year, standing him in good stead for the future.

Mr Hoggard said: "We plan to be here for 10 years, that's what we are planning at the moment so we are here for the long term.

"It's taken us a year to get to this stage. We aren't quite there yet and we are open to suggestions as to what people want from a pick your own," he added.

The site will be open seven days a week, from 8.15am to 7pm, until mid-August.

• For further information contact Chris Hoggard, tel (01377) 288573.

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