By Stewart Lambert of Kitridding Farm near Kirkby Lonsdale:

YOU could never have predicted such a scenario: from a virus initiated in the far corner of china to a worldwide pandemic in three months - it could have been taken from a plot in an Ian Fleming novel.

However, farming carries on, from a miserable wet winter to a week of sunshine.

Home food production is probably more needed now than ever.

And so long as the animal feed mills keeps working and the transport is able to move produce there will be food to buy.

The problem is delivering to those in the high-risk category.

Members of our local parishes have set up a help and delivery service and, although we have our parish register, not all families are registered and those who are at greatest risk are the very people who are too worried or too shy to make the phone call.

The supermarkets and food markets are still open and, although supermarkets have little on their shelves, most smaller outlets, such as butchers, delis and bakers, have the ability to produce the food and are taking orders.

This is their lifeline to staying in business as there will be many like us who had an attached café which has had to close.

Kendal Farmers’ market on Friday will be on but on reduced hours.

And to speed up delivery to customers we are asking them to place orders prior to the day, firstly to make sure the orders can be fulfilled and more importantly so high-risk customers can collect and go.

For those who do not feel safe coming out we will do a local delivery service and take payments by card.

We all hope there is a vaccine developed quickly and life can return to normal. Stay safe and remember if you find yourself in need of help there is always someone on the end of the phone.