Adrienne King, licensee of the Red Lion in Gilmorton, has been running the scheme for about a year and it has proved immensely popular with customers.

The landlady, who has been running the pub for about three years, admits that she borrowed the idea after hearing about it working at pubs elsewhere in the country, but said she has not heard of anywhere else in the Lutterworth area offering such a scheme.

She said: “We’re not very strict with the rules or anything like that, it’s run on a very ad hoc basis.

“We encourage people to bring in excess produce they may be growing in their garden or on their allotment and for that we give them money off food or some free drinks.

“All the food they bring in goes into the kitchen and can be used for meals for other customers.

“You can’t get more fresh, or more local, than food produced by your own customers.”

Mrs King said in one example, a customer brought in seven cucumbers he had grown on his allotment, and would be given a few free drinks in return.

She added: “Although we’ve been doing the swaps for some time, we’ve only just started advertising it outside the pub.

“Up until now its been restricted to about four or five regulars and we’ve managed to use all the vegetables they bring in – even though we sometimes get inundated with courgettes or whatever is seasonal – but that might change in future.

“The feedback has been really good, people think it’s a great idea.”