We are a family run, high quality food retailer. The Machin family has seen the site grow, from the original wooden hut with a table on the side of the road, to the fully fledged farm shop that opened in April 2004. The Balloon Tree takes its name from an ancient horse chestnut tree that stood at the Buttercrambe turning, down the road. We have enjoyed a successful run of awards to date, thanks to a great team and amazing customers!
The parcel of land at the Balloon Tree has successfully grown soft fruit and vegetables in summer for the last 20 years. We have 40 years of agricultural experience across our team and we set ourselves apart from other retailers. We are very lucky to have light sandy soil which gives a unique flavour to our homegrown produce.
Our aim is to provide seasonal changes to our cafe menu, making the most of our homegrown produce. Our kitchen uses ingredients from the farm to produce the meals for the cafe as well as products for the shop; homemade ready meals, soups and lots more on the deli. Our in-house bakery produces all the goodies on the sweet trolley in the cafe as well as for the shop.
Hello from all the team at the Balloon Tree. We’re an interesting bunch of people, all of whom enjoy good food and the great outdoors. We love working at the Balloon Tree, but we are all real people with real lives outside of work. Just click on the mug shot and you can see a few more details about each person.
Yorkshire Evening Press Business Awards:
‘New Business of the Year 2004/5’
‘Growth Business of the Year 2005/6’
‘Overall Business of the Year 2005/6’
Gazette and Herald Business Awards include:
‘Best Retailer of Regional Products 2010/11’
‘Family business Awards 2005/6’
Our staff have extensive product knowledge
We sell the highest quality products – locally produced or sourced wherever possible
We are fulfilling the needs of the niche market – demand led by you the customer
The Balloon Tree has been voted Yorkshire's finest farm shop. We have competitive prices, excellent quality products, produced ourselves or sourced locally. Our staff receive training in a variety of departments together with product knowledge and customer service training. We are a market leader by doing everything we can for our customers and team members. It is our people that make the difference every day. They help create a unique shopping experience and earn our customer's loyalty. The Balloon Tree is a high-performing, professional business where everyone has a role to play, ensuring we try our best for each and every customer. We promote from within, where the opportunity arises.
July is a month where us farmers are watching our hard work come to fruition, we have cared and nurtured our crops over the last 10 months and have had some learning’s this year but then we have had great successes as well. We are finding it very satisfying seeing our produce being enjoyed so much and seeing wonderful food being created out of it.
. This is also the same with the ready picked strawberries, although we are very lucky to have farmer friends who can help us out with supply when ours occasionally run out.
Raspberries – These are in full flow and should see us through until late July, after that we are waiting for the late August crop to ripen which we will keep on for
We are also very excited this year to have a great crop of blackcurrants and red currants which are ready now and should see us right the way through until the end of August, they are looking absolutely wonderful.
We are a high quality food retailer situated in the Vale of York on the A166 between Gate Helmsley and Stamford Bridge. Our motto
We are located 6 miles outside of York on the A166 to Bridlington at Gate Helmsley. We are on bus route number 10; hop off at Gate Helmsley before reaching Stamford Bridge.
