Former Lake District hotelier Neil Connor now farms at Pant End Farm, at Lupton, where he rears various rare breeds including Gloucester Old Spot pigs and Galloway beef. He told Food & Drink: "The main reason we are doing what we do now is to help rare breeds. In all our time in hotels we found it difficult to get good natural food. The reason we sell to Lakes Speciality Foods is because they are selling to top hotels and restaurants who appreciate the quality of the food."....

Paul Hevey isn't the only person doing what he does he's a butcher, has been for 20 years. But I do believe Paul is one of the most passionate about what he does.

The turning point was not only foot-and-mouth, as it was for so many, but also working on a special project for the Fells and Dales LEADER+ programme which set out to create a direct link between farmers and the catering industry.

What Paul learned was how much we rely on the farming industry and that "good food doesn't come by chance".

"Why rush a good thing?" he asked me. Why indeed!

Having completed his work for LEADER+, and received its financial blessing as well as grant support from Distinctly Cumbria, Paul is now able to practice what he so desperately wants to preach via a new venture, Lakes Speciality Foods, based at Bankside Barn, in Staveley.

Running the company alongside Paul is his co-director and sister-in-law Karen Shankley.

LSF is very much a team effort but, for me, the company ethos only really comes alive when I listen to Paul enthuse about his chosen subject. Any chef who attended one of his recent Learning Skills Council-funded training courses will know what I mean.

"I've come to realise the passion that farmers put into their product," explained Paul.

"And I want to supply people who enjoy that product."

He's obviously "in it" to make a living as well but having principles can be costly; in the hope of "lifting ourselves above the rest" he would turn people away rather than give in to a demand for meat on tap no matter where it comes from.

Even so, Paul admits that when the business started it was "all over the place". Now he says the focus has become much clearer.

"I want to put an end to two things; chefs being creative with their menu-writing, especially saying they source locally where possible'. It is possible! And, I want chefs coming to us demanding not this, that and the other, but saying what have you got'."

What Lakes Speciality Foods has got is pure-bred Galloway beef from James Kyle, at Brampton, a member of the Cumbria Galloway Group; Gloucester Old Spot pigs from Neil Connor, at Lupton; Saddleback pigs from Alistair Irvine, at Hawkshead; and Hampshires (Old English') from D.K. Sanderson, at Northallerton.

At the moment, lamb is being sourced locally with the help of Dales Quality Meat, at Hawes. In future, however, LSF hopes to duplicate its beef partnerships with sheep breeders.

Creating partnerships was at the heart of Paul's work for LEADER+ which aimed to encourage a direct link between farmers and the catering industry by providing new markets for hill lambs.

Two hundred hotels and restaurants were visited to find out whether there was interest and what the chefs felt about it.

The results showed that, at the time, only six of the 200 bought direct from farmers but 62 per cent thought they could charge a premium for local produce; and 97 per cent indicated they were prepared to purchase seasonal products.

What they really wanted was year-round seasonality' a contradiction in terms but the findings suggested that this demand could be met by supplying different types of lamb at different times of year. At the moment, for example, Kendal Rough Fell is in season.

It is this unique selling point' which helps concentrate the link between the animal, the landscape and culture of the area, traceability to individual farms and breed, the concept of seasonality and scarcity, and the difference in taste between something which has had time to grow with grace and flavourless mass-produced meat.

"I am looking to educate both parts of the food chain at the same time," said Paul. "By giving the farmer the true value for his product, by paying more for the animal, it is therefore worth his while to look after that animal to its best.

"Now chefs are picking up on this flavour. They come and ask what we have and they work their menus to what we can supply."

It's a hard lesson, but one we can all learn. I'm as guilty as the next man setting off with a pre-determined shopping list rather than going with the flow and buying what's in season, what's at its peak, and then deciding what to do with it when I get home. It takes some practice but it tastes far better.

Paul's no fool and he knows he's not going to change the world well, not just yet. And he knows he can't supply the whole of Cumbria.

"I don't want to," he said. But seasonality' is key and so is breed.

"Locality is important but we are going back to talking with the chefs about breeds. You don't need to brand the product, the breed is the brand."

And each breed has a special story to tell. As far as Paul is concerned if it hasn't got a story then he can't sell it with the passion it deserves.