MICHAEL Shardlow is a farmer, regularly up at 4.30am - sometimes earlier - to see to his 150 cows and 300 acres. But after breakfast he changes hats, literally, and is the man who makes Hannibal's Haystack, Muddy Puddle and other wonderful ice creams.

Beacon Farm ice cream really is made on a working farm, in a unit next to the barn that was the fattening shed in the days when they had beef cattle. Now it's part of an enterprise that includes an ice cream parlour and tea rooms, caravan site, small adventure playground - and a tremendous amount of real dairy ice cream, courtesy of those cows.

The farm is in Sneaton, near Ruswarp, with stunning views directly across to Whitby Abbey. For many, Beacon Farm ice cream is part of a day out in Whitby. The Shardlows run their own ice cream vans in and around the town and supply a number of other shops and businesses, all within a 30 mile radius.

They first started making ice cream ten years ago, simply as a way of using up the milk produced on the farm.

"We were producing all this milk here so when the Milk Marketing board offered courses in ice cream and yoghurt making, we thought we'd have a go," he says.

Michael's wife Zoe was already doing teas and coffees in the garden for customers of their Pick Your Own fruit operation. The yoghurt making didn't last long but the ice cream really took off and soon they had an ice cream parlour too.

Their first ice cream maker took ten minutes to produce nine litres. Now they make 700 litres an hour, working flat out in summer. Most of the natural fruit flavourings come from Italy "because they're really the best. And if you're paying 90p a cone, you expect something decent don't you?" Michael says.

The ice creams are all made with full cream milk and double cream.

When Michael's making whisky and ginger ice cream, that's real whisky he's pouring into the mixture, plus bits of proper chopped up ginger. Real brandy in the brandy ice cream too. They now make more than 30 different varieties of ice creams and sorbets - and the business is very much a family concern, with the four Shardlow children, aged from 11 to 17, seriously involved.

Even on a grey day in the middle of last week's horrendous weather, there was a steady stream of customers in the ice cream parlour wanting Beacon Belly Buster, Rocky Road or Piggy in the Middle. On hot and sunny days, business booms. The Shardlows had a mobile van at the Yorkshire cricket ground in Scarborough.

"On that really hot Saturday we had four people on two sites and sold over 2,000 ice creams. I went down at 1.30 and didn't stop for breath till five o'clock," says Michael.

Other days, of course...

But people like to come to Whitby in spring and autumn as well as high summer and will buy an ice cream on their day out. Beacon Farm does children's parties and from late November there's a Santa's Grotto too.

Even in winter in Whitby, there's always a chance of an ice cream.

Beacon Farm Ice Cream Parlour and Tearooms, Sneaton, near Whitby. Tel: 01947 605212. Open May half term to October half term, seven days a week, 10am - 5pm (5.30 in August). Winter: weekends only. Vintage Working Day, including threshing, on October 6.