Anyone who loves to cook will have that one well-thumbed, food splattered and dog-eared recipe book that they keep coming back to.

And now, Barnsley’s best loved farming family, the Nicholsons from Cannon Hall Farm hope the recipes that have long brought their own family together will find a place at tables far beyond their own thanks to the release of their first-ever cookbook.

Viewers know the Nicholson family from life on the farm and Channel 5’s ‘On the Farm’ programmes. Now, eldest brother Richard is inviting fans into another part of Cannon Hall life with the Cannon Hall Cookbook, bringing together recipes rooted in the family kitchen.

The book features family favourites from across the generations, from Farmer Roger’s roasted partridge with bread sauce to his wife Cynthia’s famous scones that saved the farm and grandson Marshall’s sirloin steak with blue cheese and mushroom sauce.

Woven throughout the recipes are personal memories, stories and photographs of growing up on the farm and the food that came with it.

Of Sunday evenings spent making homemade pizzas, playing Mousetrap and watching All Creatures Great and Small – although Richard says his childhood concoction, pizza topped with tinned sardines but no tomato sauce, has thankfully not made it into the book.

Or the time he once got ‘gored by a bull’ on the farm – well, almost! His dad Roger had brought a 300lb dwarf zebu cow from Twycross Zoo and Richard was in the pen taking photos of it when it suddenly turned on him.

“Before I knew what was going on, I was on my back in the corner of the pen, wrestling with the horns of a very angry dilemma. Those horns left my legs black and blue, and I suffered a fair degree of bruised pride, too. That cow hated me until the day it died.”

These days, he is perhaps happiest in the kitchen, surrounded by ingredients rather than livestock, where his creativity really comes to life. As the family’s designated cook, Richard can usually be found doing his live demos on social media to fans across the world.

His own culinary journey started as a schoolboy when he tasked with making a good old spag bol for home economics. He asked mum Cynthia if she could show him the ropes.

“It was the height of sophistication back then over 45 years ago,” Richard laughs. “Mum rustled up some dried pasta, a garlic clove, an ancient bay leaf and some tinned tomatoes and showed me how to put them together.”

Throughout his teens, Richard’s interest in cooking kept simmering, inspired by TV chefs like Keith Floyd and Marco Pierre White.

Then, when he left home for college, his mum sent him off with a Ken Hom wok set and the beginnings of a lifelong love of cooking. Instead of Pot Noodles, Richard spent his student days stirring things up with pork bought from the butchers and marinaded in soy, ginger and garlic.

“I’d serve up far too large a portion to some unfortunate young lady that I was trying to impress, and they’d have to apologise for leaving three quarters of it.

That first wok may have been a modest start, but Richard’s cooking has come a long way since his college days. Believing that food is the reward for curiosity, his inspiration comes from both close to home and much further afield.

At his home on Mill Farm near Penistone, he makes the most of what is around him, picking wild garlic and mushrooms or catching brown trout from the stream to provide an ever-changing larder.

He loves the simplicity of Italian cooking and has a particular fondness for seafood, but he is equally happy bringing home an unfamiliar ingredient or flavour and finding a place for it in his own kitchen.

One recipe in the Cannon Hall Cookbook, the Ascension Bay Chilli, was inspired by a trip to Mexico in search of tarpon. Richard returned with Mexican chillies and chocolate, which he has worked into his own interpretation of a chilli, swapping red kidney beans for butterbeans.

For Richard, travel doesn’t simply mean discovering new food — it means bringing a little of those places home. That spirit runs throughout the Cannon Hall Cookbook, which is packed with recipes to inspire year-round cooking, including plenty of warming winter dishes and ideas for Christmas.

As winter arrives, there are plenty of comforting dishes like Richard’s shin beef stew for relaxed winter suppers, as well as recipes with a festive feel like mum Cynthia’s leftover turkey and ham pie for easy Christmas entertaining. And it also makes a lovely gift for anyone who knows and loves Cannon Hall Farm and the Nicholson family.

You can purchase your autographed copy for £25 from the Cannon Hall Farm website, or the cookbook is also available on Amazon or from The Book Vault in Barnsley.