A farmer's wife from Skipton is squaring up to the likes of supermarket giant Sir Ken Morrison in what is turning out to be a one-woman agricultural revolution.

Mother of three Joanna Winterburn's aim is simple: to revive healthy food produced and sold in Yorkshire.

For Mrs Winterburn, of Red Lion Farm, Beamsley, this is turning out to be a David and Goliath-like struggle. Yet within days of embarking on her new venture it became crystal clear there was widespread consumer interest in naturally-produced meat, fruit, eggs, flowers and vegetables.

Mrs Winterburn, whose family have been in the Skipton area since the 17th century, farms 130 acres at Bolton Abbey with her husband Colin.

Late last month Mrs Winterburn's two-pronged mission to revive local farming and get it to consumers took a new turn when she opened her new shop called, appropriately, A Good Idea close to the Red Lion pub in Bolton Abbey.

It opens Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays selling food, flowers, garden furniture and even architectural salvage. Everything edible is produced in Yorkshire. Except for the bananas.

Mrs Winterburn said she had been astounded by the interest from shoppers anxious to get away from bland supermarket fare.

"There's no reason why traditional food should be more expensive than getting it from abroad - it doesn't make sense," she said. "We have to get good British food to the public.

"What I'm trying to get across to people is the effect that farming has had on the countryside for generations. This is why England is a green and pleasant land because it's been farmed. If there's no farming it's going to obliterate the landscape as we know it."

Mrs Winterburn said with so many farmers hanging up their hoes the countryside was changing at a time when consumers demanded more natural food than offered by many of the giant retailers.

She said she was urging local people to start producing vegetables again in a revival of the market gardens of the past.

"I'm trying to get my produce locally but because people haven't cottoned on to the idea of growing it themselves it isn't that easy. I grow beans, flowers and potatoes myself.

"I want to expand and I want to change how people shop. People have forgotten what vegetables should taste like. We had some organic tomatoes from Clapham and people were taken back by the taste. Supermarket produce is raised to look good and for its keeping qualities, not for the taste."

All the shop's meat and game originates in the Yorkshire Dales region.

Clearly Mrs Winterburn has been doing something right. With virtually no publicity word has spread about her venture and shoppers actively sought out the new shop.

And with more weighty corporate matters on his shoulders, Sir Ken and his kin aren't getting worried about the threat from Mrs Winterburn. At least not yet.