Yorkshire food straight from the farm (From York Press)

Yorkshire food straight from the farm

8:08am Saturday 25th July 2009 in Features By Stephen Lewis

THERE is nothing like good, honest vegetables dug fresh from the soil. Allotment holders have always understood that. Yet too many of us seem to have forgotten that vegetables have to be grown at all. We only ever see them wrapped in plastic at the supermarket.

For those too busy or harassed to handle the real thing, a visit to The Balloon Tree farm shop and café at Gate Helmsley, near York, can be a real eye-opener.

Baskets at the front of the shop are heaped with local produce, picked or dug fresh from the soil that morning: plump, nobbly carrots, earth-covered potatoes, muddy beetroot, fresh broad beans.

Will Machin snaps a carrot in half and waves it under my nose.

“Smell that,” he says.

“You don’t get that smell from a supermarket carrot.”

He’s right: the air is filled with the delicious, pungent aroma of fresh raw carrot.

If it smells like that, just imagine what it tastes like, Will says. People who have never eaten proper fresh fruit or veg are amazed by the taste, he says.

Supermarket veg is often selected for a long shelf life.

“But the thing about fruit and vegetables is that as soon as you pick them, they start losing their nutrients,” Will says. So fresh is so much better.

The Machins have been growing soft fruit and vegetables at Gate Helmsley for more than 20 years. Customers were always able to come along and pick their own. In 2004, Digby and Jill Machin had the bright idea of building on that ‘pick-your-own’ tradition by opening a farm shop and café.

Five years on the business, now run by their sons, Will and Matthew, is thriving. Even on a dank, overcast Tuesday, the car park is full, the farm-shop busy, the café packed.

Out in the 25-plus acres of the farm, customers are walking along the neat rows of gooseberries, raspberries and brambles, picking fresh fruit.

Customers can pick anything which does require using a knife, Will says, taking me on a tour of the farm. There are rows of strawberries, gooseberries, raspberries and blackberries. In one field, the fernlike tops of asparagus have been left to stand. The asparagus season is over, but the tops absorb sun and photosynthesise to ensure next year’s crop will be good. There are carrots, parsnips and leeks: and plastic covered ‘spanish tunnels’ and which more blackberries and raspberries are growing.

The Balloon Tree doesn’t believe in growing things out of season, but by using tunnels, and by preparing fruit early or late, the growing season can be extended.

In the middle of the farm is a messy plot containing maize, beetroot and other veg. This is a schools project being run with Stamford Bridge School. The children look after the plot, and grow their own veg, learning about the relationship of food to the land in the process. Then the farm buys the children’s produce and sells it for them. The children love it, he admits – and, in their own way, become experts.

“I heard them saying ‘these beetroots are too small to sell. Let’s pickle them instead’,” he says.

Back at the farm shop, Will introduces me to Phyllis Thompson, the resident baker, winner of many awards for her cakes, scones and lemon meringue pies. Chef Adam Richardson is responsible for all the café meals, and for many of the delicious-looking pies, pastries and sausage rolls in the shop. The Balloon Tree also sells its own ready meals, prepared in-house: lasagnes, cottage pies, chilli con carne and the like.

There is no doubting the quality, but what about the price? Well that’s the thing, says Will. Because much of the food on sale is grown on the farm, there are no transport costs, no middlemen to pay. On fruit and veg, he can compete with and even undercut the supermarkets.

Other products are bought in: cuts of beef and lamb, jams and preserves, flour from J Stringer and Son, milled not far away at Acklam. Wherever possible, it is local Yorkshire produce.

The Balloon Tree has won awards and accolades in the past few years, including Farm Shop Retailer of the Year two years running in the deliciouslyyorkshire awards.

It is one of only 500 producers, restaurants, hotels, cafés and other outlets featured in the latest deliciouslyyorkshire guide, Yorkshire’s Own Kitchen.

The guide aims to be the “definitive bible for all foodies, detailing where to buy the best food produce from the Yorkshire and Humber region”.

It includes sections on great local food, and where to buy and eat it, as well as places to stay, places to visit and great places to eat out.

There is also a handy diary page detailing dates of local farmers’ markets, and a selection of mouth-watering recipes using local Yorkshire ingredients from celebrity chefs such as James Martin and Brian Turner.

Everything you need, in fact, to help you enjoy the very best of Yorkshire food. And you can’t get better than that.

• Yorkshire’s Own Kitchen is produced by deliciouslyyorkshire, the Regional Food Group for Yorkshire and the Humber, and published by Great Northern Books priced £9.99. It is available from bookshops and farmshops, or online at greatnorthernbooks.co.uk or deliciouslyyorkshire.co.uk

Other great places featured in Yorkshire’s Own Kitchen

J Stringer & Sons: The Stringer family have been farming in the Yorkshire wolds for more than half a century, and went organic ten years ago. The family produce organic beef, lamb, cereals and potatoes at High Callis farm in the wolds, and have their own small mill at Prospect Farm in the tiny Ryedale village of Acklam, where Chris Stringer produces fresh, stoneground flour from the family’s own wheat every week. It is mainly organic Maris Widgeon wheat which has, Chris says, a distinctly nutty flavour. The family also produces bread mixes and porridge oats from its own cereal. There is no farm shop, but you can buy at the farm gate, Chris says, either at High Callis or Acklam. Phone 01759 368221.

Holme Farmed Venison: A herd of 2,000 native red deer is reared by Nigel Sampson on his farm, near York, while prime venison is produced at his production site in Sherburn-in-Elmet. He puts his success down to the quality and full flavour it his products, including the award-winning Rack of Venison, joints, steaks, medallions, burgers, sausages and grills. Phonoe 01977 686441 or go to www.hfv.co.uk

Sloe Motion: Making sloe gin began as a hobby for environmentalist Jonathan Curtoys, but has turned into an award-winning business in Barton-le-Willows, creating liquors, chocolates and chutneys from berries on the hedgerows of North Yorkshire. Phone 0844 8001911 or go to www.slowmotion.com

Ripley Store: Offering the best of Yorkshire produce under one roof, this local shop, in the picturesque village of Ripley, sources the finest local foods and condiments from across Yorkshire, including cakes, pies, cheeses, freshly baked bread, preserves, vegetables, fine wines and beer. Its famous ice cream – made for decades to a secret recipe – has customers returning time again. Phone: 01423 770044.