FARMING brothers James and Andrew Voakes have cut out the middleman and started a pie-making business.

They keep 400 breeding sows on their mixed farm at Whixley, near Boroughbridge, and Andrew used to run a butcher's shop in Harrogate.

With the help of a grant from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, they have combined the two skills, using pork from their pigs to make pies.

The grant has helped to pay for a bakehouse and baking equipment, an office and a preparation room next to the farmhouse.

James said: "We were looking into farm diversification and the idea of making pork pies from our own home-reared and quality-assured pork was a logical combination of our skills."

Andrew said: "My pies are made to a traditional family recipe passed to me by my grandmother and it must be something special as the pies have been voted supreme champion against stiff competition in regional contests several years in succession."

The brothers plan to sell the pies to shops across the region and at food events and agricultural shows around the country.