Makeshift wooden signs outside the gate, daubed with hand-painted deals on lamb, beef, pork and potatoes – these were the height of farm marketing two decades ago.

Much has changed during that time and although some of these are still around, many farms have now invested in a more professional approach
to selling their wares.

Recent times have seen farmers returning to first principles to earn a better profit, by selling at stalls in the centre of town at a farmers' market. Others have embraced today's technological age and
have set up online businesses to sell their produce.

Farm shops have made their own mark, too, and it is this greater contact with the public that farmers have been nurturing. All of these elements have served to emphasise the quality of the food that is produced by UK farmers and, combined with a pervading attitude that supermarkets have a quantitative rather than quality-based approach and less knowledge of the products on their shelves, there certainly seems scope for even greater interaction between those producing
our food and those wishing to buy it.

Credit crunch or not, it appears that many are prepared to pay farmers a respectable price for what they grow, and by cutting out part of the distribution chain, there is an opportunity for everyone to benefit.

In Kirkby Malham, eight miles from Skipton, there are two people who
are now combining the best of the current trends in produce marketing.

Chris Wildman is managing director of the fledgling Paganum Produce, an on-line farmers' market, and has taken the leap of faith in leaving his well-paid job in the garment industry.

"There is a massive momentum in buying local food, understanding where
it comes from and how good it is," he says.

"A lot of local farmers have gone from putting a little sign at the end of their lanes to supplying local pubs and restaurants and taking stalls at farmers' markets. Some have launched their own websites, but many don't really have either the time or the inclination to do
it properly as web-based e-commerce systems and marketing themselves
well online.

"What we're doing is showing how Yorkshire Dales' farmers can actually market produce more effectively and push it all further afield."

But just how can Paganum provide the same kind of experience that consumers get when they visit a farmers' market?

"Online, it is very difficult to replicate the feeling of actually going to a farmers' market because it is an experience where you are quite clearly supporting local producers and local agriculture.

"We're trying to replicate that to a degree, by saying
on the site exactly how the beef, lamb or pork has been farmed. We show where it has come from and highlight individual farmers, talking about their farm, the land, the animals they have and how they look after them in slightly different ways to others. We have also put together our own recipes and will soon be showing the farmers talking about their stock and how it is produced."

While the online farmers' market site has the potential to be huge, Chris is keeping his feet on the ground.

"We are growing all the time. We have a small key-base of farms involved at
the moment, covering Wharfedale, Malhamdale, Craven and Ribblesdale.

"The Yorkshire Dales is one of our biggest selling points and we've taken orders from places such as Windsor, Southampton, Brighton and Scotland.

"Our biggest seller at the moment is lamb and we even took an order last week for half a lamb as a wedding present. We've taken orders through Facebook as well.

"When orders come in we usually ask just two questions. Firstly, how did you hear of us, and secondly, what's your reason for purchase? Some of the comments we have received so far have been 'I just love quality meat', 'I've been to the Yorkshire Dales', and 'I originate from Yorkshire but I now live in London'."

Chris's background is in branding, so he's well used to new marketing concepts and how to implement them.

But he's also one of a long line of local butchers. His father ran Wildmans, with three shops in High and Low Bentham and Kirkby Lonsdale.

"We had our own abattoir at Bentham. We would buy stock from the auction mart, kill it, butcher, sell and deliver it. Five generations of Wildmans were involved and we were the first to have a motorised van.

"Competition in the '80s and '90s saw us and many other local butchers closing down as people didn't appear to be as bothered about where their food came from, especially when there were buy-one-get-one-free deals around.

"It's coming full circle and now that people know that things they buy, such as sausages, may have only a 20 per cent meat content, they are prepared to pay a little better for a 100 per cent meat content and the knowledge of exactly where it comes from.

"All of the farms we use have the Farm Assured standard and we audit each one."

Not only does Chris have butchery and marketing experience, he also married a farmer's daughter, Jennifer, and they live at Church End Farm, in Kirkby Malham, where they have 600 breeding ewes.

The inspiration for Paganum, which in Latin means "rural tradition", came from the house next door in the form of young mother Heather Mitchell. Brought up on home-cooked food as a child in Scotland, Heather's drive comes from providing everyone with the same quality of food that she enjoyed.

"Now, more than ever before, parents are interested in what their children eat, and I also think it's fair to say that women worry about this more than men," she says.

"As a child, I benefited from good, traditional home cooking with fresh produce, and I'm anxious that my family do the same, which is why I care deeply about buying meat and produce which is traceable."

Some people still worry about buying fresh meat over the internet but Chris feels this is no longer an issue.

"All of our produce is fresh and chilled. It comes out to a customer in special packaging – in a chiller box which has a sheep's wool lining and ice-packs. When we receive an order, it generally goes out within two days, and because we're dealing with e-commerce, we get paid straight away, which means we can pay the farmers much faster than the traditional avenues."

A farmers' market online might not give you that pleasing glow of satisfaction from having talked to the producer directly, but it could well become your easiest way of sourcing quality meat from the Yorkshire Dales.

Neil Heseltine farms at Hill Top Farm, Malham, and has 400 Swaledale ewes, as well as a breeding herd of 20 Belted Galloways. He is supplying Paganum Produce with Limestone Country Beef, and hopes to supply lamb in the future.

He says: " We always try to address our markets as best we can, but Chris's knowledge of marketing is ideal and by working together we can get on with what we are best at – and that's providing the right product.

"We all know that Yorkshire Dales produce is well thought of but having a dedicated service such as Paganum to increase our marketing possibilities can only be good for us.'

www.paganum.co.uk