A NEW ice cream parlour has opened in Kirkby Lonsdale offering a taste of artisan Italian-style flavours made with ingredients fresh from the farm.

Husband and wife team Edward and Sarah Beattie opened The Milking Parlour as a way to use milk from Edward's parents' farm.

They bring milk fresh from Mill Farm at Burrow and make Gelato ice cream at the shop, devising the flavours themselves.

Edward said: "Our method uses raw milk, which we then pasteurise and batch freeze into ice cream. Because we get our milk straight from the farm none of the cream is taken out of it in the process either.

"Other ice cream makers who buy their milk in will buy it after it has been pasteurised, and will then cook it again to make the ice cream. Our method means it only gets pasteurised once.

"The opening weekend went really well. The weather was on our side. We made our maximum batch and there was only a little bit left at the end."

Popular flavours on the opening weekend included Jaffa Cake, raspberry ripple and salted caramel. Edward expressed a desire to keep on creating new ones to vary up the menu.

He said: ""We are coming up with new flavours all the time. We first opened on the bank holiday weekend, and within four days we had added two more to the menu. The possibilities are endless."

Explaining the pair's desire to set up an ice cream parlour, Edward said: "We wanted to diversify the produce from the farm, so we sat down and had a meeting, and ice cream was one of a number of ideas.

"It was necessary because a few years ago when we first had the idea the milk price was very low, and it is still very up and down, which is hard for farmers.

"So we started looking for a place, and we struggled to find a suitable shop at first. But eventually we found ourselves here.

"We are very pleased with how it has gone so far."

The Milking Parlour can be found on 26 Main Street in Kirkby Lonsdale.