QUIRKY pink fir apple potatoes, Yorkshire grown asparagus and tasty organic chicken feature in a new regional booklet for food lovers.

Tastes Great features nine producers and their products from County Durham, Yorkshire and Northumberland.

Each of the featured products is accompanied by a recipe from nine of the region's leading chefs, noted for their love of local, seasonal produce.

The booklet has been produced by the North-East regional office of the National Farmers' Union, in York.

Featured producers include Chris Hodgson, of Piercebridge Organic Farm, near Darlington, whose organic chickens graze and search for insects in lush paddocks rich in clover and wild flowers.

John Dalby, chef at the Blue Lion, in East Witton, near Leyburn, North Yorkshire, offers a recipe for tarragon butter chicken with lentils.

Richard and Ronda Morritt, who grow asparagus at Low Moor Farm, Sand Hutton, near York, also feature.

Originally a salt-loving marine plant found on beaches, asparagus grows well on York's light, sandy soils. However, it only has a short growing season and each spear has to be cut by hand.

Andrew Pern, of The Starr Inn at Harome, near Helsmley, offers a recipe for roast asparagus and York ham with veloute.

Anthony and Lucy Carroll, of Carroll's Heritage Potatoes, at Tiptoe, Cornhill-on-Tweed, specialise in ancient potato varieties

They grow 12 gourmet varieties including salad blue, British queen, red Duke of York and the strangely named pink fir apple.

Chef Richard Sim, of The Treehouse, Alnwick Gardens, supplies a recipe for "best mash ever and pommes Dauphinoise".

Celebrity chef James Martin has written the forward to the book, which also tells people how to find out more about local farmers' markets, farm shops and producers.

Tastes Great will be available at a range of summer agricultural and food events in the region and can be downloaded at www.nfuonline.com

Other products featured are hill lamb, from Kielder Organic Meats, of Bellingham, Hexham, Northumberland; handmade cheese from Doddington Dairy, Doddington, Northumberland; rare breed pork, from The Ginger Pig, Levisham near Pickering, North Yorkshire; Yorkshire beef, from Mallard Grange Finest Quality Dales Beef, in Aldfield, near Ripon; salad from Home Harvest Salads, of Wyton, near Hull; and rhubarb from E Oldroyd and Sons, of Carlton, near Wakefield.

Other chefs featured are Terence Laybourne, of Jesmond Dene House, Newcastle; Chris Bartley, of The Pump House Restaurant, Houghall, near Durham; Michael Hjort, of Melton's Restaurant, York; Bruce Elsworth, of the Angel Inn, Hetton, near Skipton, North Yorkshire; John MacDonald, of Tickton Grange Hotel, Beverley, and Simon Wild, of Artisan, Crosspool, Sheffield, both South Yorkshire.