North Yorkshire is a big county, so this guide compares five farm shops in quite different corners of it: The Balloon Tree at Gate Helmsley, east of York; Fewston Farm Shop in the Washburn Valley west of Harrogate; Beadlam Grange near Helmsley on the edge of the North York Moors; The Whole Hogg at Low Marishes near Malton; and Town End Farm Shop at Airton in Malhamdale. Each is run by a family, and the useful question is which one has the food you need, and where it was grown.
As a Londoner, I know it is not realistic for everyone to live on a farm. A farm shop, farmers' market or community garden can be part of a more direct food routine. Start with a reachable stop and a short list, rather than expecting to change everything at once.
Which farm shop or picking farm should you choose?
Where you start from matters more than usual in a county this size. The Balloon Tree is the easy choice from York, on the Stamford Bridge Road east of the city, and is best for fruit and vegetables in season and pick-your-own. Fewston Farm Shop is about 15 minutes from Harrogate off the A59 and suits anyone after home-reared beef. Beadlam Grange, just outside Helmsley, and The Whole Hogg, between Malton and Pickering, both rear their own cattle and are both in Ryedale, so they are easy to combine. Town End Farm Shop at Airton is the one to aim for in the Dales, especially for Yorkshire charcuterie and cheese.
If you want a full weekly shop with a butcher, deli and greengrocer under one roof, Beadlam Grange and The Balloon Tree list the widest range of departments. Fewston is smaller and closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, and Town End is closed on Mondays, so check the day before you set off. All five have a café or tearoom, which makes them easy to fit into a day out.
Check the farm’s current crops, opening times and prices before travelling. Picking seasons vary, and a farm shop may sell produce without offering pick-your-own visits.
- The Balloon Tree Farmshop & Café , Soft fruit grown near York for 40 years
- Fewston Farm Shop , Home-reared beef near Harrogate
- Beadlam Grange , Limousin beef farm near Helmsley since 2007
- The Whole Hogg Farm Shop & Tea Room , A Malton farming family since 1927
- Town End Farm Shop , Charcuterie and cheese in Malhamdale
The Balloon Tree Farmshop & Café
Map and location
Stamford Bridge Road, Gate Helmsley, York, YO41 1NB. View The Balloon Tree Farmshop & Café on the map.
Contact: 01759 373023.
Soft fruit and vegetables grown on sandy York soil
The Machin family have grown soft fruit and vegetables at Gate Helmsley for more than 40 years. The business began as a seasonal pick-your-own fruit farm run from a small wooden hut by the roadside, and the family opened the farm shop and café in 2004. The light, sandy soil suits strawberries, which built the farm’s early reputation; they are now grown on table tops, which makes them easier to tend and pick. The shop sits on 28 acres, and the name comes from an old horse chestnut, shaped like a bunch of balloons, that stood at the Buttercrambe turning.
The farm shop has fruit and vegetables, meat, a delicatessen, a bakery, fresh farm milk, and gifts and hampers. Named suppliers include Laveracks for pies, Haxby Bakehouse for bread, Chestnut Dairies for milk and cream, Brymor for ice cream, Bracken Hill preserves, Yockenthwaite Farm oats and granola, and Wold Top beer. The café cooks with home-grown produce in season, such as pumpkins in October and kale in January.
Visiting and buying
According to the farm’s own website, the farm shop is open daily from 9am to 5pm and the café from 9am to 4.30pm, closing on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Day and the day of the Yorkshire Marathon. The café does not take bookings. Pick-your-own runs in summer, mainly strawberries, and the pumpkin patch opens in October; use the Stamford Bridge end of the car park for picking. Ask which fruit and vegetables on the shelves came from the farm that week.
The Balloon Tree Farmshop & Café: website and opening hours.
Fewston Farm Shop
Map and location
Upper Cobby Syke Farm, Fewston nr Harrogate, HG3 1SR. View Fewston Farm Shop on the map.
Contact: 07855 941863.
Shorthorn and Hereford beef in the Washburn Valley
Fewston Farm Shop is on Upper Cobby Syke Farm in Fewston, in the Nidderdale National Landscape, just off the A59 past Menwith Hill on the way towards Skipton. It is a working farm shop with its own butchery rather than a large food hall. The farm rears Shorthorn and Hereford cattle, and the shop says its beef is hand reared and butchered on site. The website lists the beef cuts with prices per kilo, from mince and braising steak to sirloin, rib eye and fillet, so you can see what to expect before you go.
The lamb is sourced from local farmers in North Yorkshire, and the shop also sells pork and chicken. Alongside the meat there are locally grown vegetables such as onions, mushrooms, potatoes and carrots, organic butter and milk, free-range eggs, fresh bread, and Yorkshire-made pickles, marmalades, sauces and jams. Vegetable boxes are available, and you can order online or by phone. A coffee shop on site serves food made daily.
Visiting and buying
The shop’s Find Us page gives farm shop hours of Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 4pm, and café hours of Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 3pm (last orders 2.30pm), closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. The home page gives slightly earlier closing times, so ring the shop on 07855 941863 (café 07931 527788) if you plan to arrive late. It is about 15 minutes from Harrogate and close to Otley and Ilkley. Ask which cuts are from the farm’s own cattle.
Fewston Farm Shop: website and opening hours.
Beadlam Grange
Map and location
Beadlam Grange, Nr Helmsley, North Yorks, YO62 7TB. View Beadlam Grange on the map.
Contact: 01439 770303.
A 300-acre farm rearing its own Limousin beef
Beadlam Grange is run by the Rooke family. Mark Rooke and his late wife Jenny opened the farm shop and tearoom on 6 June 2007 in converted Grade II listed farm buildings, to secure the farm’s future and get more value from its home-bred beef. Mark and Peter now run the 300-acre mixed farm, which is home to 100 Limousin suckler cows and produces all the beef for the shop. Grass is grown for silage, fodder beet for winter feed and 120 acres of grain, with barley fed to the finishing cattle.
The butchery is the centre of the shop. The beef is taken to Thompson’s abattoir at Spennymoor, returned to hang on site for at least 21 days and cut by the shop’s own butchers, who also make sausages and burgers. Pork, lamb and poultry come from other Yorkshire farms. The deli has cheeses from Shepherds Purse, Cryer and Stott and Wensleydale Creamery, and fresh Grimsby fish is sold on Fridays. The two-floor bistro cooks with the butchery’s meat.
Visiting and buying
The website gives opening times for the farm shop and butchery of 9.30am to 5pm Monday to Saturday and 9.30am to 4pm on Sunday, with the bistro open the same hours. There is free parking, disabled access, a dog-friendly seating area and a toddler play area in the covered fold yard. Beadlam is just outside Helmsley, so it fits easily into a day on the North York Moors. The beef is the farm’s own; ask the butchers about the rest.
Beadlam Grange: website and opening hours.
The Whole Hogg Farm Shop & Tea Room
Map and location
Howe Bridge Farm, Low Marishes, Malton, YO17 6RQ. View The Whole Hogg Farm Shop & Tea Room on the map.
Home-bred Lincoln Red beef, potatoes and pumpkins
The family’s farming goes back to 1927, when Chris’s grandfather took his first small farm in Old Malton and delivered milk around the village from a horse-drawn rulley. Chris’s father Gordon ran the farm with his wife Anne, and Chris took on Howe Bridge and Manor Farm in 1990. The family opened the farm shop on the working farm on 25 August 2010, in a converted cart shed. The farm breeds its own grass-fed Lincoln Red beef and grows the potatoes used in the tearoom, as well as a field of pumpkins for picking each autumn.
The in-house butchery sells the farm’s own beef and locally sourced free-range chicken, with pies, sausage rolls and quiches made on the premises every day. Stockists named on the website include Yorkshire Rapeseed Oil, Yorkshire Crisps, Stonehouse Bakery, Dales Fruit & Veg and The Yorkshire Pasta Company. The licensed tearoom serves breakfast from 9am until noon and lunch until 3.45pm on weekdays and 3pm at weekends, and the shop makes up hampers and food boxes to order.
Visiting and buying
The farm’s website gives opening hours of Monday to Saturday, 9am to 5pm, and Sunday, 9am to 4pm. No phone number is published on the site, so use the contact form if you want to order ahead. Twilight pumpkin picking runs on set evenings in October and is booked online. Low Marishes is in the Vale of Pickering, between Malton and Pickering. Ask which meat and vegetables are from the farm itself on the day you visit.
The Whole Hogg Farm Shop & Tea Room: website and opening hours.
Town End Farm Shop
Map and location
Airton, Skipton, North Yorkshire, BD23 4BE. View Town End Farm Shop on the map.
Contact: 01729 830902.
Yorkshire charcuterie made on site in Malhamdale
Town End Farm Shop is a family-run farm shop at Airton, in Malhamdale in the Yorkshire Dales, with a tearoom that looks out towards Malham Cove and an onsite post office for the village. Its best-known products are made on the premises: Yorkshire charcuterie, including chorizo made with high-welfare local pork, plus dry-cured bacon, sausages and guanciale. The shop’s own butchers also run butchery, sausage-making and curing courses. The website does not say what the farm itself rears, so ask in the shop which meat is from the farm and which comes from neighbouring farms.
Beyond the charcuterie, the shop stocks local and seasonal produce, Wensleydale cheeses such as Old Roan, Fellstone and Stonebeck, Yorkshire honey, chutneys, preserves, Yorkshire gin, and hampers and gift boxes, many of which can be ordered online for delivery. The dog-friendly tearoom serves homemade breakfasts, soups, toasties, cakes and scones with Yorkshire Tea and Rounton Coffee. The shop was featured on BBC Two’s Top of the Shop with Tom Kerridge, filmed on site in 2022.
Visiting and buying
According to the shop’s website, the farm shop is open Tuesday to Saturday, 9.30am to 5pm, and Sunday, 10am to 5pm, and is closed on Mondays. The tearoom is open Tuesday to Sunday, serving breakfast until 11.45am, lunch until 3pm and teas and cakes until 4pm; book a table by phone on busy days. Airton is in Malhamdale near Skipton, so it fits well around a walking day near Malham. Ask which meat is reared nearby.
Town End Farm Shop: website and opening hours.
Knowing a farm shop you can return to is also one of the most practical ways to be ready for disruption. Read The Be Ready Campaign: A UK Guide to Stocking Your Home With Healthy, Local Food, and use the Be Ready Map to find more local food across the UK.
Plan your farm visit, produce, quantities and picking dates
Choose one or two farms or farm shops that fit your route. Write down what you want, how much you need and what you will do with it when you get home. If one crop is unavailable, decide whether to choose a different farm, change the meal or return another day.
- Confirm the crop, public opening and any booking requirement.
- Ask whether you can pick yourself or buy already picked.
- Check the price unit, payment method and containers.
- Ask about access, parking and the correct visitor entrance.
Farm shop and fruit-picking questions
Where can I buy local food in North Yorkshire?
Good farm shops in North Yorkshire include The Balloon Tree near York, Fewston Farm Shop near Harrogate, Beadlam Grange near Helmsley, The Whole Hogg near Malton and Town End Farm Shop at Airton in the Yorkshire Dales. Beadlam Grange, The Whole Hogg and Fewston all sell beef from their own cattle.
Are all these farms in the same town?
No. North Yorkshire covers a wide area, and this guide spreads its choices across the county. Each farm section gives its location so you can compare the journey before you set off.
Can I pick at every farm or market?
No. Farm shops and markets may sell ready-picked food without opening fields to visitors. Ask the individual business about picking access, the crop and any booking requirement.
Plan your farm shopping with My Shopping List and Harvest Checker
Open My Shopping List to record produce, quantities and estimated costs. Mark items as bought when you collect them and keep the plan for your next trip.
Use Harvest Checker after a grower gives you a picking window. Enter those dates and compare them with your visit date. The tool uses your entries; it does not fetch live availability from farms.
My Shopping List
Keep the produce you actually need in one place before you set off.
Use My Shopping ListHarvest Checker
Compare your visit with dates confirmed by the grower. This does not check live stock.
Use Harvest CheckerUse the tools with your My Ideal World account. Guest and free-account limits apply; paid members have unlimited tool access.
Explore more farm shops and picking farms in My Ideal World. Browse the Farm Shops app below or beside this article, then check the grower’s current crop and opening before visiting.
Sources
- The Balloon Tree , Our story
- The Balloon Tree , Your visit and opening times
- The Balloon Tree , Meet the suppliers
- Fewston Farm Shop , Find us and opening times
- Fewston Farm Shop , Butchers
- Beadlam Grange , About us
- Beadlam Grange , The farm and opening times
- Beadlam Grange , Butchery
- The Whole Hogg , About us
- The Whole Hogg , Farm shop and stockists
- Town End Farm Shop , Official website and opening times
Research reviewed 25 October 2026. Farm and visitor sources support the descriptions above. Historical information is identified where relevant; no firsthand visit, current stock check or certification is claimed.