10/04/2009

Issued by: The Balloon Tree Farmshop 

The Balloon Tree Farmshop in Gate Helmsley near York has started harvesting asparagus, a key indicator that spring has finally arrived.

The first spears actually came on the 24^th March - the earliest ever recorded in the region. The crop of Asparagus is ready to sell in the shop from now, but please phone to check availability.

Asparagus is extremely heat sensitive, and thrives in warm conditions. The Balloon Tree have continued to refine their strategic growing methods to enhance its growth. One way they do this is by not ‘ridgeing up', resulting in less top soil, enabling the land to heat up more. They also ‘fleece' and ‘tunnel' some of the crop to warm up the soil to bring it on earlier.

The Balloon Tree very sandy soil type, which the asparagus crop thrives on, being a mediterranean crop, is ideal. The quality and taste of the yield benefit tremendously from this. Asparagus is renowned for losing its flavour and nutrients the older it is. Therefore they make sure that the asparagus is picked fresh every morning to ensure a fuller flavour. The asparagus crop should last through to mid July.

The Balloon Tree are also harvesting their purple sprouting broccoli which has been a fantastic crop this year. As it is grown on-site, and sold in the shop within minutes or hours of being picked, the vitamins and nutrients levels are still very high and is full of flavour. The freshly picked leeks, cabbages, and cauliflowers are also superfresh with a taste hard to beat. 

Rob Sturrock, Field Manager, says, "It's satisfying to know we are the market leaders in farm shopping, meaning all our hard work is paying off, it's one thing selling or trading products, but another thing to grow and produce them. Apart from knowing we are our own supplier, helping the environment and providing fresh, healthy, local food, the best part is still sampling the vegetables as their taste is unbeatable as they are truly superfresh."

The Balloon Tree Farmshop is a great day out for the whole family, with the shop selling a great choice of superfresh homegrown fruit and vegetables, rare breed meat, free range eggs, award-winning home made cakes, award-winning chutneys, local honey, preserves and lots more. It also has a children's play area, animal corner, landscaped cafe garden and a wide range of ‘Pick Your Own' fruit and vegetables in the summer months. You can visit the website at www.theballoontree.co.uk or email info@theballoontree.co.uk .

The Balloon Tree Farmshop and Cafe

Stamford Bridge Road, Gate Helmsley, York, YO41 1NB

Tel: 01759 373023, Fax: 01759 373644, www.theballoontree.co.uk

To find out any further information please contact: Will Machin 01759 373023