It is unsual to arrive at a Dorset farm with the smell of sweet, freshly baked cakes lingering around the yard. This is what hits you at Naish Farm in Holwell, where the thriving successful bakery, Honeybuns, is based.

It is also home to founder, Emma Goss-Custard, 35, her husband Matt and their large brood of four-legged friends. I am greeted by Honey, a friendly Ridgeback and Ollie, a German Shepherd and the newest member of the Goss-Custard clan.

Emma cheerily pokes her head around the stable door of the coverted pigsty, which is where the Honeybuns team busily work. She looks relaxed and as far from company director as you could imagine, in her jeans and muddy Wellington boots. She takes me into her farmhouse kitchen, flicks the kettle on and places an assortment of her delicious gluten free cakes beside me.

Honey kindly presents me with an old boot in her mouth and as I take my seat at the rustic farmhouse table, the other dogs take theirs on the old Chesterfield in the corner.

Emma is one of four children and grew up in a large vicarage outside Grimsby. Her father left school at 14 and became a galley boy for the merchant navy. It was there that the smart officers wet his appetite for social and academic success and he set about re-educating himself winning a place at Cambridge and later becomming a lecturer. While there, he met Emma's mother, a middle class scientist who was equally driven.

Emma enjoyed a happy childhood and judging by the photos she is keen to show me, her life at home was idyllic. However, at school she endured relentless bullying by other children who considered her to be posh.

Emma read English at King's College London and went on to Hertford College, Oxford, to study a PGCE. She soon realised that teaching was not for her, but she filled her time rowing and got a job in a local patisserie.

Her relationship with food was already intense as she battled with chronic
bulimia and attended Over Eaters Anonymous. "I was very cross that this was a self-inflicted situation," she says. However, her determination and entrepreneurial drive led her to baking cakes in her student digs, and selling them round Oxford from her bicycle. This was to be the start of Honeybuns.

"All I wanted to do was to start something, make something for enough money to pay  my rent and leave me with a little leftover," she says. At Oxford, Emma met Matt and they moved to Guildford. Together with a friend, she began sending samples wrapped in cling film to the big
London buyers.

"We suffered sleep deprivation and stress eczema and our hands were red raw." Their hard work paid off when they landed their first large contract with Virgin and their business became profitable.

Honeybuns was then based on what Emma describes as a soul-less Guildford industrial estate so when the opportunity to buy Naish Farm cam up, Matt and Emma jumped at it. "The end game was to have our own farm and rescue centre so we decided to combine them with the bakery." Their objective was, "to build a sustainable long-term business that was integrated into the local community. We didn't want to be making money for money's sake. We had a broad vision."

Emma is emphatic in her desire to never lose sight of what Honeybuns is all about. "We don't want to cut corners to meet volume demands or to lose our own label", she says. As a result she was prepared to turn away an order from Marks & Spencer. Her passion for good quality food is evident but she is aware of the pitfalls that businesses face.

"It is incredibly hard for small food producers to make a living. Having one to ten employees is hardest as you have the red tape of health and safety to contend with."

Honeybuns now employs 26 staff, who live locally with most of them able to walk to work. The business continues to grow between 20 and 30 per cent per year and enjoys an above average industry profit. She refers to good adivce from a local retired company director who said, "Watch the pennies in order for the pounds to look after themselves." However, whereas most food companies untimately aim to sell out, Emma and Matt have no plan to do so.

It is clear that Emma is fiercely loyal to her staff and enjoys a reaxed friendly relationship with them. They enjoy tea breaks in the Bee Shack and will soon be able to watch a live webcam of the various bird nesting boxes around the farm. Whereas most staff embark on business training courses, Honebybuns' go on hedge-laying courses, as part of the Farm's Eco Watch project. Her aim is to create a nature reserve around the bakery and all profits from the Bee Shack are spent on the farm's environmental projects.

Emma has many plans for Honeybuns such as publisheing a recipe book and developing a mail order business. She is inspriational in her approach to business and extremely driven. However, she is warm-hearted down to earth and is compleately unaffected by her commercial success. When I ask her how she sees herself in 10 years time, she replies without hestiation: "We will hopefully be here on the farm with a young family, running our business and building on what we have already achieved."

As I leave this wonderfully rustic company, having been licked farewell by the dogs, I have no doubt that if I return in 10 years, Emma will have achieved all her goals and more.

Emma's Fact File:

Newspaper - None as there is too much bad news
Current Book - Janet Street Porter's autobiography
Favourite Places to Eat - The Fox at Anstly, Baan Thai in Shaftesbury
Favourite Music - Razorlight, David Jordan, Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Favourite Food - Curry, Thai food, Fish and lots of veggies
Sunday morning routine - Several cups of tea in bed
Ways to de-stress - A few glasses of red wine
Favourite TV - Lewis or Midsomer Murders
Last Film Watched - The Bucket List
Last Holiday - A tour in a camper van around the UK
Hobbies - Running, horse riding, dog walking, watching the stars and swimming at Durdle Door.