A FARMER has been heralded for distributing thousands of free potatoes from her farm to her community following people stripping the shelves of the local supermarket.

Susan Herdman and her family hand-picked the vegetables from their 27-acre farm over the weekend and gave them to self-isolating families a and a home for disabled children in Boroughbridge, in North Yorkshire, after being appalled by people stockpiling.

The 51-year-old, who moved to live the farm after winning £1.2m win on the National Lottery in 2010, said she had been inundated with messages after she offered the potatoes on Facebook.

“I just put a post on the local Boroughbridge Facebook page and it spiralled out of control.

“I delivered all day Saturday and all day Sunday, from 8am to 8pm. I have back ache, leg ache, had to pick them all by hand.” She added: “I was inundated with hundreds of messages from people saying, in a world so dark and selfish, you have made us smile.”

In addition to delivering the potatoes, Ms Herdman placed a large bag of the vegetables in the town for people to help themselves and offered individual time slots for families to come to the farm and pick their own.

North Yorkshire County Council member for Boroughbridge, Councillor Robert Windass said: “It is a fantastic and generous thing to do in these very uncertain times. This helps show there is plenty of food to go around. I am trying to self-isolate, but the last time I went to the supermarket in Boroughbridge there were many empty shelves and I saw a woman with four 16-packs of toilet rolls on the back of her trolley. It’s absolutely ridiculous.”