WINGING their way across the Atlantic soon will be eight special cheeses from North Yorkshire.

A first-ever export order of Mrs Bell' s blue, the prize-winning ewes' milk cheese made by Shepherd's Purse, near Thirsk, is on its way to Boston, Massachusetts.

The cheese was featured at a recent international food exhibition in London, tasted by an American distributor from Boston, and export agents Coombe Castle International organised the order.

Mrs Judy Bell, managing director of Shepherd's Purse, who developed the original recipe in her farmhouse kitchen, says: "We are delighted that our cheese will be an ambassador for Yorkshire farm food in America."

Over the 11 years of the firm's growth, she has built up her markets in the UK and plans to target markets in Belgium and Luxembourg shortly.

Shepherd's Purse, still based at the family farm, now employs eight people and also makes other ewes' milk cheeses.