The owners of a Putley orchard have received national recognition in Rick Stein's new book, Guide to the Food Heroes of Britain.

The book, which accompanies the Food Heroes television programme, aims to increase public awareness of small-scale producers in the UK, but only a handful have been selected for a listing.

Included are the Stanier family of the Dragon Orchard, because of the unique cropsharer scheme they run, offering people the chance to buy into the life, fruit and produce of a traditional Herefordshire fruit farm.

Ann Stanier said: "It's absolutely excellent and so wonderful. They contacted us on the internet, saying 'we've heard of you, could you send us some information?'"

It was during the Ludlow show in September that the Staniers heard that Rick Stein, who has never visited Dragon Orchard, had been impressed enough by the orchard's aims to grant it the cherished "Super Hero" title.

This week, the Staniers will have a stand at the NEC in Birmingham for the Good Food Show.

Rick Stein will be there and Mrs Stanier hopes she will be able to thank him for the national coverage in person.

She said: "I assume he'll come to visit us. If not, I'll seek him out."

There are currently 100 people involved with the cropsharer scheme at Dragon Orchard.

For an annual subscription, they receive a share of the annual crop, including boxes of apples and pears, bottled juice, cider, chutney and jams.

Cropsharers are also invited to a series of four open weekends at the orchard, often tied into seasonal celebrations such as wassailing, cider tasting and the harvest festival. They also get a newsletter, recipes and tips on growing fruit.

A poetry trail among the Egremont Russets and Bramleys was launched during the autumn's Big Apple celebrations.

Dr Charles Bennett, director of the Ledbury Poetry Festival, has written one poem for each month, to celebrate the life of the orchard.

He read them on site for the first time in public during the Big Apple.

Now the plan is to put posts at various stages around the orchard, so that visitors can follow the trail themselves, reading from a sheet of poems on the way.