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Last Easter, former television producer Kim Collins was on holiday in Torcross, Devon, when she needed a pint of milk. According to her maps, however, the nearest supermarket was seven miles away. A barista at a local café urged her to head up the road where, signposted by a sandwich board, Stokeley Farm Shop turned out to be revelatory. ‘Inside were cafés, a garden shop and a boutique,’ Ms Collins enthuses. ‘It gave me the idea to build a travel app to coax tourists away from service stations and find the work of farmers wherever they may go.’
Thus was born Farm Shop Drive (www.farmshopdrive.com), on which users input the start- and end-point of their journeys to see what’s on offer. Farmers pay £50 a year for a profile. An app will be launched next week and will most probably offer a three-month free trial, before charging £4.50 a year. ‘I love the idea of putting somewhere on the map that might be little more than a shed,’ says Ms Collins.