AN AWARD-WINNING TV chef has helped launch a bespoke new farm shop in Saline.

Mark Keirs has partnered with the Seath family to open Saline Shaw Farm Shop and Cafe, helping set up its kitchen, and will be in charge of the menu going forward.

The eatery is situated on the B913 between Saline and Dollar and is the brainchild of local lass Lauren Seath, whose family have owned the Saline Shaw estate for the last seven years and are sheep farmers.

Mark has made a name for himself as a personal chef in recent years after competing on Masterchef the Professionals but decided he wanted to try something closer to home for his next project.

He told the Press: "I live 500 yards from the farm so I know Lauren and the family well.

"I normally go all over the world jet-setting but when I was sent the project it was nice just to do something here and also run a professional kitchen again after eight years away from that.

"It's been an unusual year so I thought I'd give it a go and I'm looking forward to having a long-term relationship with the farm."

The farm shop is starting off by serving breakfasts, lunches and cakes.

There's plenty of room for development though and Mark hopes to host some supper evenings in the near future.

"We want to turn it into the foodie place to go in Fife," he said.

"All the produce will be as local as possible and our lamb is reared at the farm so you cannot get better provenance than that – our customers can actually see the sheep from the window!

"Everything will be seasonal too so we'll be changing the menus each time."

Along with several family businesses, Lauren, 28, also works as a florist.

Her family are trying to revolutionise agriculture and have been supported in building the farm shop with rural diversification funding from the EU – helping the agricultural industry in Scotland. The Seaths have 600 breeding sheep on their farm.

To find out more about Saline Shaw, visit https://salineshawfarmshop.co.uk/