THE Caledonia Best Seed Fund has announced the list of projects it is backing, and they include a goat meat business and a range of beers brewed through foraging.

The £58,000 fund was raised through Tennent Caledonian Breweries donating five pence from every pint of Caledonia Best sold in the first six months the ale was on the market. Now seven projects from the brewing and farming industries have been selected to receive support.

These include Scottish Agricultural College graduate Victoria Gardiner, who is buying livestock to set up the Scottish Goat Meat Company in Aberdeen with partner Adam Wright.

She said: "It was during my degree that my understanding and passion for goats began, and after graduating we knew we wanted to work in goat farming, but didn't know where to take it from there.

"The backing Caledonia Best has offered gves us the means to begin our business even more seriously, and we hope this will also help our endeavours to secure a farm to run our company on."

Other winners include Anna Thomson, who plans to launch a range of Scottish flour; aspiring farmer Peter Will; the Eden Brewery in St Andrews; and a collaboration between Scottish Borders Brewery and The Big Tree Society to produce beers sourced through foraging.

Alongside these, the National Farmers Union Scotland's New Generation Group is receiving backing to help young farmers develop communication skills, while Abbot House in Dunfermline is transforming its outhouse, a successful brewery, into a tourist attraction.

Paul Condron, marketing director of Tennent Caledonian Breweries, said: "Everyone needs a helping hand when they start in business, and as one of Scotland's oldest businesses and most experienced brewers, it's hugely rewarding to be giving back at a grassroots level."