AFTER launching a community allotment site in the town last year, a Beverley farmer is looking overseas for inspiration for future projects.
Tamara Hall opened up four acres of land at Molescroft Grange Farm for 65 low-rent allotments a year ago today, sparking a race for plots from people eager to grow their own.
Now, Tamara has won a scholarship to look at community agriculture projects around the world.
She has been picked as Yorkshire Agricultural Society's Nuffield Scholar for 2013 and will visit other countries to research alternative community farming practices.
Tamara, 37, says an article about Greek farmers working closely with families on food production gave her the idea for her research project.
She says: "My interest began after reading a newspaper article about how farmers were renting small areas of land to families in Athens.
"The families paid rent, chose what the farmers would grow and in doing so agreed to buy the fruit and vegetables grown.
"There were benefits on both sides. The farmers were guaranteed a stable income and the families had cheaper, better-quality and more - sustainable food.
"In addition, it fostered a direct connection with how their food was produced."
Tamara is planning to visit the project in Athens as well as other community farming initiatives in America, Japan and Scandinavia.
She will travel for at least eight weeks during the coming 18 months, undertaking research and reviewing different farming practices.
She says: "Allotments are very popular and often oversubscribed and not everyone has the time or desire for one, so, as with the Athens project, community supported agriculture might work well in the UK as an alternative."
The community allotments, run by a not-for-profit association on Tamara's family farmland, have been hugely popular.
She says: "My main drive is to enable the consumer to be informed and give them a more ethical, tasteful and nutritious product choice."
Tamara is committed to encouraging greater understanding of food production and hosts about 30 school visits to her family's farm each year. She is also the local co-ordinator for Open Farm Sunday.
She was congratulated on her scholarship by NFU president Peter Kendall.
He says: "We need to be challenged if we are to grow successful and exciting businesses of the future.
"Exciting, innovative and competitive businesses are central to the big global challenges we face today."
Tamara will present her findings on community supported agriculture to the Nuffield farming conference next year.
