A former pub manageress who switched to making home-made soup in a County Durham cottage only two years ago, has been so successful she is to feature in the next series of the ITV Tyne Tees award-winning programme, The Dales Diary.

Christine Peart, who set up the Weardale Soup Company at Elm Cottage, West- gate-in-Weardale, near Bishop Auckland, will receive a visit on Monday, February 26, from the TV production team, who will film every aspect of the cottage industry which uses traditional artisan methods to produce its rich, gluten-free organic soups.

Christine makes around a dozen varieties which are sold at farmers' markets, retail outlets and through wholesalers to customers in Birmingham and Manchester.

The film crew will cover the whole operation from the preparation of fresh vegetables, which are harvested in Yorkshire, through blending, labelling, cartoning, boxing and finally the loading of the soup on to a van.

Christine, who used to make soup as a hobby for family and friends, did relief pub management for Vaux before going on to manage the White Lion at Houghton-le-Spring for two years. She then left to have a family.

Weardale Soup Company is registered with the Organic Food Federation and licensed with Coeliac UK. It offers many unusual flavours, such as Pumpkin and Coconut and its award-winning Tomato and Red Pepper with Melted Wensleydale Cheese.

Christine said: "What has made a great difference to the taste of our soup is the water supplied by County Durham's Seaton Spring Water which brings a lovely clarity to the soup."